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Jokonya brands scribes as 'weapons of mass destruction'
The Financial Gazette (Zimbabwe)
December 15, 2005

http://www.fingaz.co.zw/story.aspx?stid=391

INFORMATION and Publicity Minister Tichaona Jokonya has branded journalists working in the country’s private media weapons of mass destruction and willing tools of Western interests, effectively killing off whatever hopes the independent press had of a reprieve following the ouster of Jonathan Moyo earlier in the year.

In a speech delivered at the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe’s inaugural Consumer Journalists Awards ceremony on Tuesday night, Jokonya claimed scribes in the privately-owned media were being paid by Western countries to rubbish President Robert Mugabe’s government and needed to be monitored.

Journalists had become "tools or shall I say victims of the country’s detractors . . . Some journalists have indeed become not public opinion formers but character assassins, malinformants to the point of having become embedded warmongers or. to use much-abused terminology, they have become weapons of mass destruction.

"In their service to the foreign interests they (journalists) apply strategies of blending half-truths and outright lies. These deliberate acts of disinformation create perceptions, which are neither helpful to the customers and indeed the generality of our people. These journalists masquerade as independent journalists despite the fact that we all know that they are paid by the enemies of the people through such payments as monthly incomes, medical aid assistance, indeed pensions funds, housing, car allowances, business trips. They become impeded house boys and girls," Jokonya said.

Jokonya’s attack comes a week after the government began confiscating passports belonging to journalists and opposition politicians. Prominent journalist Trevor Ncube, who publishes the Zimbabwe Independent and Standard as well as South Africa’s Mail & Guardian, had his passport seized last week.

Opposition politician Paul Themba Nyathi also suffered the same fate over the weekend, amid indications that more confiscations would follow.
The government has, through the draconian Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), tried to cow Zimbabwe’s small but vibrant private press. Several journalists have been arrested under AIPPA and only one scribe has been successfully prosecuted so far.

A career diplomat who has represented Zimbabwe at the United Nations, among various other postings, Jokonya took over from Moyo — who waged a war of attrition against journalists over a five year period — in April.

Jokonya’s appointment was greeted with optimism but he seems keen to continue with Moyo’s systematic bullying and intimidation of journalists.
Independent observers are adamant the situation will remain the same as long as the government retains its siege mentality that has seen it clamp down on democratic space and act ruthlessly against all forms of dissent.

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