The Voice of America has denounced the arrest in Zimbabwe of one of its freelance reporters on charges of endangering public safety. 

VOA Director Robert Reilly says there is no basis for the charges of spreading false information and inciting violence against Peta Thornycroft. He called her arrest a "cynical attack" against freedom of the press in Zimbabwe. 

Ms. Thornycrot was jailed Wednesday in eastern Zimbabwe as she investigated reports of violence against opposition activists for several news organizations, including VOA and London's Daily Telegraph, which has also denounced the allegations. 

Several journalists' associations, including Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, have also spoken out against her arrest. 

Daily Telegraph Foreign Editor Alec Russell says police were moving the 57-year-old reporter from Chimanimani north to the regional capital of Mutare, Thursday. Ms. Thornycroft's lawyer visited her briefly before the move to Mutare and says he found her in good spirits. 

The Zimbabwean government has not commented on the matter. Ms. Thornycroft is a British-born Zimbabwean citizen who resides in South Africa. She is the first journalist arrested under Zimbabwe's restrictive new security law. 

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