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Abuse
of publicly funded media
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2005-34
Monday September 5th – Sunday September 11th
2005
THIS week The
Financial Gazette (8/9) exposed the extent to which the authorities
have abused the publicly funded media to fight personal wars when
it unravelled the reasons behind the surprise vicious attack on
Lovemore Mataire, editor of ZANU PF’s party paper, The Voice,
by The Herald’s vituperative columnist, Nathaniel Manheru.
According to
the weekly, the attack by Manheru (The Herald 3/9), whose
puerile weekly instalments are notable for their vilification of
government critics, was part of the behind-the-scenes struggle between
Secretary for Information George Charamba and ZANU PF’s head of
information, Nathan Shamuyarira, over control of the public media
that had "spilt" into the public domain.
The fight between
the two, the Gazette revealed, stems from "irreconcilable
differences" over the "impending overhaul
at state media institutions", especially
ZBH. While Shamuyarira was allegedly advocating the reinstatement
of experienced broadcasters kicked out by former Information Minister
Jonathan Moyo, Charamba was "pushing for reorganisation
with minimal upheaval".
Reportedly,
Charamba, whom Moyo has claimed is the author of the Manheru column,
was using The Herald to hit back at Mataire, who falls directly
under Shamuyarira’s supervision, for allegedly reporting that his
department "abused public funds".
The Zimbabwe
Independent (9/9) carried a similar report and revealed that
ruling party leaders had expressed concern over Charamba’s abuse
of The Herald to attack those he disagreed with, including
foreign heads of state. Said a source quoted by the paper: "Officials
are wondering how a presidential spokesman, permanent secretary
and senior civil servant could do such unprofessional things like
writing an abusive column with no information value whatsoever".
In another media
development, the Independent reported that the fight for
control of the Zimbabwe Mirror Newspapers Group, which it claims
has been taken over by the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO)
together with the Gazette, had resulted in the sacking of
the Mirror deputy editor-in-chief, Alexander Kanengoni, who
is allegedly linked to the CIO. However, the story, like the paper’s
initial reports on the issue, relied more on narrative accounts
of unnamed sources without providing definitive evidence to back
allegations of a CIO buy-out of both the Gazette and the
Mirror group.
Notably, none
of the media houses accused of having been taken over by the CIO
has convincingly refuted these grave allegations. If true, it would
mean that the Independent and its sister Sunday paper, The
Standard, are the last two mainstream newspapers in Zimbabwe
free of government influence – a desperate situation indeed for
any country claiming to be a democracy.
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fact sheet
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