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Lawyer in anti-Govt crusade
By Stephen Ndlovu, The Chronicle
June 10, 2004

http://www.chronicle.co.zw/2004/june/10/local_news/local3.htm

FORMER Daily News lawyer, Ms Gugulethu Moyo, who abandoned the sinking ship at a time when she was needed most, has called on the international community "to put more pressure'' on Zimbabwe "even if it means taking the Saddam route'' as it emerged that the antiZimbabwe radio station in Botswana was part of a westernfunded regional campaign to demonise Zimbabwe.

Addressing editors at the SAEF discussion forum in Windhoek at the weekend, Ms Moyo said there was "an urgent need'' for "practical action'' against Zimbabwe for what she alleged was "increased repression and unmitigated attacks'' on the private media.

Describing the ZANU (PF) Government as being "worse than the colonial (Ian Smith) regime)'', it helped dislodge in a war of liberation, Ms Moyo called for what she termed "a complete restart'' that "is more or less another war''.

"I know it's unthinkable to talk of war as buildings will be destroyed while thousands of people will die but nothing else will work for Zimbabwe right now. There is need for a complete restart,'' Ms Moyo said.

Asked by an editor from Mozambique, if the Daily News owners were not entirely to blame for the publishing group's fate by not registering in terms of the laws of the land, Ms Moyo admitted there were "many considerations'' not entirely legal ones "which I'm not at liberty to disclose'' that caused them not to comply with the country's registration laws.

Ms Moyo said private media had agreed at a meeting held in Harare that they would not register. The defiance, she said, would have helped their case outside court especially in the eyes of the international community.

"We wanted to make a (political) statement by not registering. We wanted to challenge AIPPA. But we were actually disappointed when other private media refused to join us in this crusade as agreed''.

"We had agreed as private media that we will not register but challenge the law in court. However, our peers later changed their mind due to commercial considerations. Since we were fighting alone the legal costs were just too much and it led to a host of other problems like cash flow ones and so on in ANZ,'' Ms Moyo who now works for the George Sorosfunded Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) said.

To buttress her allegations, Ms Moyo claimed Daily News journalists were assaulted, tortured "and some had their fingers broken''. She, however, could not name names.

An editor from Zambia Ms Pat Mwase charged that Zimbabweans like Ms Moyo were to blame for the problems for they ran away from their country "to be cry babies''.

"You should go back and solve your own problems instead of being just cry babies,'' she said.

But this did not go down well with Mr Richard Calland, of IDASA and a Zimbabwean, Mr Lovemore Chikanga who is a director of MISA, who both said Zimbabwe's "crisis'' needs the intervention of the international community.

"The first step should be to record the human rights violations, the abuse and hand them to the United Nations African Commission on Human Rights then countries like the United States can intervene,'' Mr Calland said in direct reference to the invasion of Iraq and ouster of Saddam Hussein by the US in a war that has discredited US President George W Bush and British Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

It has since emerged that lies by westernfunded organisations like IDASA and western media helped in creating a "case for war'' against Saddam Hussein leading to unnecessary bloodshed and death.

"For some Zimbabweans to really want that kind of thing is a sign of selling out the liberation struggle in Africa. It means we will go back to the days of colonialism. If we are not careful and if we let American dollars dictate to us, Africa will become a colony again,'' commented an editor form Namibia.

The MISA director, Mr Chikanga said despite the fact that President Mugabe was elected in democratic elections there was need for countries like South Africa "to follow Botswana's route'' by allowing pirate radio stations to beam antiZimbabwe propaganda. That way, Mr Chikanga, Cde Mugabe could be ousted.

"South Africa should play a more active role by allowing pirate radio stations to broadcast from the south…that can bring results,'' Mr Chikanga said, adding that MISA had "lots of money'' to fund such radio stations "but our problem has been getting countries that are willing to allow such broadcasts''.

He disclosed publicly that Botswana was the only SADC country that allowed a pirate radio station to beam antiZimbabwe propaganda "although officially it (Botswana) denies it's existence''.

"South Africa can do the same,'' he said.

Parliament unanimously passed the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) which compels all mass media services and journalists to register. In passing the law no Member of Parliament from the 52 opposition MDC members voted against the bill, now a source vitroil against the Government.

All newspapers except the Daily News and Daily News on Sunday complied with AIPPA by registering leading to a Supreme Court decision that adjudged them illegal. The Supreme Court ruled that the Daily News cannot be allowed to contest a law while breaking it.

The former Daily News lawyer hit the headlines when she ran away to join IDASA leaving the embattled Associated Newspapers Zimbabwe and hundreds of Daily News workers with no legal representative only to reappear as a messiah.

Ms Moyo accused the Government and in particular the Minister of Information and Publicity in the Office of the President and Cabinet, Professor Jonathan Moyo of going on what she called a campaign to rid the country of the private media, an allegation that did not go down well with other editors who queried why other private newspapers like the Zimbabwe Independent, Standard and Financial Gazette were registered and are still operating. "It appears there is lot that you are not telling us,'' charged an editor from Mozambique.

Investigations by Chronicle have revealed that Ms Moyo and a couple of Zimbabweans at the SAEF meeting were part of a team of handpicked Zimbabweans to spearhead a campaign to demonise Zimbabwe "from all fronts''.

Among them was the former ZBC director general, Mr Edward Moyo now a media "consultant'' based in Swaziland, who in his paper went on an attack of the broadcasting laws and the Government.

Mr Moyo disclosed that while he was at ZBC in 1994 he would get a call from Ministers "every day''.

"There was too much interference and it was so disgusting,'' he claimed.

Asked whether he resigned, Mr Moyo smiled before boastfully saying "I had a three year contract and I served my full term''.

"Why then did you not resign if the situation was so disgusting as you put it?'' asked an editor from South Africa, to which he could not answer.

Sources say the three were part of a team which is said to be working flat out to provide information and cooked up videos of human rights violations and alleged attacks on press freedom "to influential politicians'' in South Africa, London and Washington for condemnation of Zimbabwe "as we approach the 2005 parliamentary elections''.

Some of the information and videos, said the sources, were used in the BBC Panorama programme on the alleged goings on in Border Gezi National Youth Training Centres that proved to be entirely false and in which the producer Ms Pamela Anderson later condemned saying the sources were confused and most of their allegations could not be independently confirmed.

"There are more of such productions,'' said a source privy to the campaign which pits MISA as the centre point as most of the activities were being coordinated by them.

Ms Moyo confirmed to editors that as the country moves towards the 2005 elections there was need for "speedy action'' from "all quarters'' as "it's not just the Daily News that is in trouble''.

"More legislation to curtail the operations of non governmental organisations is on the cards. Already some NGO'

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