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Zim govt: Newspaper bullet story a 'cheap sideshow'
Mail & Guardian (SA)
February 02, 2007

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=297847&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's spokesperson on Friday accused the editor of an independent newspaper of staging a "cheap sideshow" by claiming he was sent an envelope containing a bullet.

George Charamba, who is also the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information and Publicity, accused, Bill Saidi -- acting editor of the Standard -- of trying to distract the public from his paper's "monumental editorial failure".

A large envelope containing the bullet, a clipping of a cartoon published in the previous edition and press clippings from the paper critical of Mugabe's government, was delivered anonymously to Saidi's office on Wednesday.

The note said: "What is this? Watch your step," according to Friday's edition of the Zimbabwe Independent, the Standard's sister paper.

The cartoon depicted baboons laughing at a Zimbabwean soldier's pay-slip.

In a statement issued Friday, Charamba accused the Standard of staging a media drama, according to a report on state radio.

"The media drama is meant to divert attention from his [Saidi's] monumental editorial failure on January 7, which falsely claimed that the Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono had wastefully bought a top-class Mercedes Benz," the statement said.

The Standard had claimed in a front-page report that Gono had imported a Mercedes Benz Brabus V 12 bi-turbo vehicle worth $365 000 in 2006.

It later emerged that the central bank had approved the purchase of a Mercedes Benz S500 worth $138 000 by the governor in 2005. The Standard published an apology last week.

Zimbabwe is suffering acute shortages of foreign currency needed to import food, fuel and medicines. Many companies are working at a fraction of their capacity due to shortages of hard cash needed to purchase inputs.

The Group Projects Editor of the Standard and the Independent said on Friday the company was taking the threats against its staff very seriously.

"We want to see those responsible brought to book and threats against the private media dealt with," Iden Wetherell said in comments carried by the Zimbabwe Independent.

The incident at the Standard came less than a week after a high court judge ordered the country's registrar general to renew the passport of Trevor Ncube, the publisher of the Standard and the Independent in Zimbabwe and the Mail & Guardian in South Africa.

The authorities had threatened to strip Ncube, a Zimbabwean by birth, of his citizenship because his father was born in Zambia.

There were fears the government wanted to deny Ncube citizenship in order to close down his two newspapers, as foreigners are not entitled to a majority share in local publications.

In the past four years four independent newspapers have been closed down by a state-appointed media commission. Zimbabwe is considered one of the most hostile environments to work in as a journalist. -- Sapa-dpa

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