Zim journo says cleared of whistleblower charges

Harare - A top Zimbabwean journalist accused of running a wildly-popular Facebook page that leaked secrets about President Robert Mugabe's party said on Friday that charges against him had been withdrawn.

Edmund Kudzayi, the editor of the state-controlled The Sunday Mail, was sensationally accused of being Baba Jukwa, an anonymous ruling party deep-throat whose Facebook page garnered hundreds of thousands of likes in the run-up to the 2013 elections.

Kudzayi tweeted: "Back from court. Great news. Baba Jukwa charges withdrawn before plea."

The journalist maintained he had been working with the authorities to try to identify Baba Jukwa when he was arrested in June last year. Baba Jukwa is often referred to as Zimbabwe's equivalent of Wikileaks co-founderJulian Assange.

Said well-known media entrepreneur @SirNige on Twitter: "@EdmundKudzayi's off the hook. Question still remains: who is Baba Jukwa?"