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Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly
Media Update 2007-3
Monday January 22nd 2007 – Sunday January 28th 2007
AS this report
was being compiled, the country witnessed another crude attempt
to silence the few remaining private papers through the use of death
threats against The Standard Editor, Bill Saidi, by unidentified
people.
Iden Wetherell,
the Projects Editor of the Independent Media Group, publishers of
the Zimbabwe Independent and The Standard, told a Press briefing
that Saidi received an envelope containing an unused bullet, cuttings
of a cartoon and an editorial the group have published, accompanied
by a threatening note: "What is this editor? Watch
your step."
The cartoon,
recently published in The Standard (28/1), depicted baboons
laughing at a soldier’s pay slip, while the editorial – which appeared
in the Independent almost a year ago (17/3/06) – deplored the state
security agents’ culpability in the erosion of civil liberties.
Wetherell’s
revelations (1/2) came as SW Radio Africa (31/1) and New Zimbabwe.com
(1/2) had already reported on the incident.
Notably, as
Wetherell pointed out, the case is not an isolated one.
In 1999, the
group’s journalists, Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto, were abducted
and tortured over a report alleging mutiny in the army. Despite
a court order compelling the police to investigate the matter, progress
of that inquiry still remains shrouded in secrecy.
Similarly, those
responsible for bomb attacks on The Daily News premises (2000
and 2001) and the Voice of the People offices (August 2002), including
the sending of a bullet to former Independent and The
Financial Gazette reporter Basildon Peta, have not been apprehended.
Neither has there been any update on the course of investigations
into these cases.
Besides being
subjected to such crude attacks, the private media have also been
victims of repressive media laws that have resulted in the arrest
and harassment of scores of journalists and the closure of four
independent newspapers.
The authorities’
failure to bring those responsible for such terrorist activities
to justice and their selective application of the law starkly illustrates
the intensity of the intimidation the media fraternity is subjected
to in Zimbabwe – and an indication of the extent of the government’s
intolerance and fear of a free Press.
And in the week
under review, the niche market private media continued to reveal
that such abuses are not restricted to the media. This week they
carried 15 stories on continuing human rights violations against
government critics. Of these, five were new cases while the remainder
were follow-up reports mainly on publisher Trevor Ncube’s battle
to regain his citizenship.
The incidents
included the arrest and beatings of civic activists, church leaders
and university students, who SW Radio Africa (23/1) reported as
having been later released and dumped "near the
Matopos National Park", at least 30 kilometres
outside Bulawayo.
The government
media turned a blind eye to these issues. In fact, their unwillingness
to report matters that reflect badly on the authorities resulted
in them suppressing details of Justice Chinembiri Bhunu’s ruling
against the Registrar General’s bid to withdraw Ncube’s citizenship.
The Herald
(26/1), for example, carried the matter in a small story tucked
away on page 2 and censored most of the unflattering remarks Justice
Bhunu made about the RG’s office. ZBC simply ignored the matter
altogether.
Again only the
private media carried more informative reports on the subject.
Visit the MMPZ fact
sheet
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