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Government announces intention to establish information kiosks in the rural areas
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
Extract from Weekly Media Update No. 2003-01
January 6th - January 12th 2003

Government recently announced its intention to establish information kiosks in the rural areas to expand the available sources of information at the disposal of the rural populace. Although this is laudable, the media should expose and analyze the underlying intentions of the move.

In fact the Ministry of Information and Publicity Secretary George Charamba (ZTV, 4/01, 8pm) hinted at the kind of information the kiosks would peddle. He was quoted: "There is no way we are going to use money from national coffers to promote material that undermines national interest. That we will not entertain at all. There is no way that we are going to use money from national coffers to promote material that offends.community cultural values. People who are providing content must realize that they are providing it to Zimbabwean people who wish to remain Zimbabwean. In terms of their politics, in terms of their culture and in terms of their social being".

In the past, government has narrowly defined issues of 'national interest' and 'Zimbabwean cultural values' from a ZANU PF point of view, while dismissing other interpretations as pro-opposition and anti-Zimbabwe. Sadly, its viewpoint has found currency in the media it controls.

It is therefore imperative that the private media should be tenacious in investigating such seemingly harmless government policies, which could severely curtail the citizens' right to access information of their choice. The free flow of information is the cornerstone upon which democratic societies are built.

Meanwhile, MMPZ notes with great concern the conflicting figures that the media records in their reports on certain issues.

For example, readers of both the public and the private Press were confused as to how many people were arrested following the demonstration by ZANU PF supporters and war veterans against the distribution of relief food by the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) in Bulawayo recently.

Initially, The Daily News, The Herald, and Chronicle (7/1) reported that 37 people had been arrested. However, the following day The Daily News (8/1) and The Financial Gazette (9/1) reported that 34 people had been arrested.

In another case, both The Sunday Mail and The Standard (12/1) carried conflicting statistics on the number of people arrested together with Harare Mayor Elias Mudzuri in Mabvuku on January 11th. While The Sunday Mail reported that Mudzuri was arrested together with 20 other people, The Standard recorded 21.

MMPZ urges the media to pay more attention to such detail, as such tendencies further confuse readers who are already subjected to partisan media reports in this heavily polarized media environment.

Previous reports can be accessed at http://www.mmpz.org.zw

Visit the MMPZ fact sheet

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