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Urgent need for more alternative daily sources of information
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2006-2
Monday January 9^th – Sunday January 16^th 2005

THE failure by the government media and The Daily Mirror to report on an urgent High Court application by Chitungwiza mayor Misheck Shoko challenging his suspension from office once again underscores the urgent need for more alternative daily sources of information that would adequately inform the public on pertinent news.

Only the niche market radio stations, SW Radio Africa and Studio 7 (17/1), and the Financial Gazette (19/1) reported the matter.

However, SW Radio Africa falsely reported that the High Court had "lifted the suspension" on the basis that "it was unconstitutional" when in actual fact Shoko had only filed his papers, which the court has yet to make a ruling on.

Accurate versions of the story appeared in the Gazette and Studio 7.

Citing the mayor’s affidavit, the Gazette, for example, reported that Shoko was seeking the nullification of government’s action on grounds that it was "grossly unreasonable" and driven by "political malice and capriciousness" as there were no "reasonable grounds" warranting "invocation of Section 54 (2) of the Urban Councils Act" the authorities used to suspend him.

But while the government-controlled media ignores such important news, it continues to give acres of space to columnists and government officials to malign individuals they disagree with.

Nothing more clearly illustrates such abuse of the public media than a 90-column centimetre article in The Sunday Mail (15/1) by Information Secretary George Charamba, gratuitously attacking lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa.

Instead of discussing the substance of Mtetwa’s comments on the country’s repressive media laws that she made in an interview with The Mail and Guardian (21/12) (reprinted in the Zimbabwe Independent 6/1), Charamba simply clouded the issue with a long-winded, vindictive personal attack on the human rights activist attempting to discredit her as a competent lawyer.

He dismissed Mtetwa’s observations, saying she wanted to make a "name for herself in the field of journalism…(which) lies well outside her training and competence". He stated that "dubious awards and gratuitous publicity" she might receive from "expectedly grateful governmental and media systems of the West" will not "take away…the fact that AIPPA is a law of the land".

Such wantonly malevolent tirades, which have also become the hallmark of The Herald’s faceless columnist Nathaniel Manheru, demonstrate the extent to which the government-controlled Press in particular, are being used to propagate hatred and disaffection against groups and individuals perceived to be critics of government. Such unprofessional outbursts severely undermine ethical journalistic standards and practice, to which the government-appointed Media and Information Commission has seemingly remained blind.

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