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Government's paranoid perception of the media
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2006-37
Monday September 11^th 2006 - Sunday September 17^th 2006

THIS week Acting Information Minister Paul Mangwana reinforced the authorities’ paranoid perception of the media, particularly the private ones.

The Herald (11/9) passively quoted him replaying his predecessors’ defence of the country’s tyrannical media laws and accusing "some journalists" of "working" under "the cover of darkness" with "the country’s enemies" by "continuously attacking the establishment" in "an effort to effect regime change".

This, he claimed – without providing a shred of evidence – was part of the "scheme of things" Britain and America were employing to "destabilise the country" and bring about a change of government.

No attempt was made to challenge these tired claims, which government has used to justify its dictatorial tendencies.

Instead, the paper allowed him to defend the obnoxious Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act on the flimsy grounds that it was meant to regulate the media after the "industry could not organise itself for self-regulation", a situation he claimed would have "inspired rewarding recklessness".

The next day the minister dampened any hopes that government would heed calls for the democratisation of the broadcasting sector. The Herald reported him announcing that the authorities would not repeal sections of the repressive Broadcasting Services Act barring foreign ownership of private broadcasters; one of the main constraints independent observers have noted hindered the establishment of the private stations.

More worrying however, is that while the minister ruled out any "policy shift on broadcasting", he announced (11&12/9) that government would "before the end of the year" set up another radio station under ZBH to be called Studio 24/7.

He claimed the station, which would broadcast on "shortwave", was "meant to counter propaganda by hostile media organisations…by telling the true Zimbabwean story".

The paper allowed such announcements to pass without unravelling the underlying intentions of the move.

For instance, it avoided discussing the authorities’ attempts to cause confusion among the public by giving the station a name similar to that of the Voice of America’s Studio 7. Neither did it ask why government wanted to establish another radio station when it already controls all the four that are available in the country.

The paper avoided interpreting the development as part of government plans to further swamp Zimbabweans with official propaganda, and all the more so considering it has taken to jamming the Short Wave and Medium Wave frequencies of private stations whose news broadcasts have become popular sources of alternative information.

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