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Minister and Perm Sec threaten to take further action against "errant" journalist
MISA-Zimbabwe Chapter
October 25, 2002

The Minister of Information and Publicity Professor Jonathan Moyo and his Permanent Secretary Gorge Charamba have launched a scathing attack against the Financial Gazette and private media journalists for what the two called "treasonous" and "anti government" reporting. The two have warned that the government will not brook any criticism and appropriate measures will be taken against "errant" journalists.

In a statement Moyo castigated as "unlawful" and "treasonous" a front-page article that appeared in the Financial Gazette on 24 October 2002. The story headlined "Mbeki plots Mugabe's Exit", was dismissed as false and a fabrication by Moyo.

"The false front page story in today's Financial Gazette claiming that South African President Mbeki is plotting an unconstitutional exit of President Mugabe is a sickening example of the kind of diplomatic rubbish that can only originate from incompetent and now very desperate British intelligence operatives run by the likes of Brian Donnelly, the British High Commissioner in Harare whose futile efforts to meddle in Zimbabwean national politics are now a matter of public record," said Moyo.

The Financial Gazette wrote that South Africa's President Mbeki was planning to hold consultations with Mugabe and the opposition over the crisis in Zimbabwe. The story further stated that Mbeki wants the parties to reach a compromise that would see Mugabe leave office in 2005 and the opposition withdrawing court cases it has filed against Mugabe's "victory" in the March presidential elections.

Moyo alleges that the story was planted in the paper by British intelligence operatives and was also meant to mislead voters in a by election set for 26-27 October in a rural constituency. Moyo named the author of the story, Financial Gazette, News Editor, Abel Mutsakani as a "sell out", "whose association with opposition politics and anti-Zimbabwean conduct was self evident".

"Legal questions must necessarily be raised as to whether Mutsakani, his editor and publisher, had any factual and lawful reasons to believe the manifestly British sponsored propaganda or, alternatively why they knowingly or recklessly published a patently false article whose contents lacked even the most rudimentary elements of a factual story," said Moyo.

In another statement Moyo's permanent Secretary George Charamba took a swipe at the Political Editor of The Financial Gazette, Sydney Masamvu for his opinion piece in which he likened the Zimbabwe regime to the Al Qaeda.

Charamba said that the article compromised a democratically elected government and is a breach of the country's laws and a "criminalisation" of the country's "democracy". The headline of the opinion article read: "Life under Mugabe's "Al Qaeda" regime".

Charamba said that the government would take appropriate measures once it is through with "consultations". He further threatened that "any players within the journalism fraternity who choose to interpret their roles outside the binding requirements, and who wish even to goad, provoke and demonise government for whatever reasons would quite naturally draw a deserved response in fitting amounts". Charamba said that in his article Masamvu sought to incite the people to rise against the "legitimate" government of Mugabe.

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