Back to Index

Prime Minister Tsvangirai respects a free press
Movement for Democratic Change
May 19, 2011

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai respects a free press in Zimbabwe and he sincerely believes that press freedom is an integral part of a democratic society.

The Prime Minister, for long a victim of hate speech and a subservient public media, has largely remained quiet in the wake of vicious and defamatory attacks. He respects the public media, but the same media also have a responsibility to respect him and the public office that he holds.

It is in this context that the Prime Minister made what the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists is calling unpalatable remarks about journalists from the public media. At a recent seminar organized by the SAPES Trust, the Prime Minister berated the public media for irresponsible journalism, adding that judging by the incessant propaganda peddled from those media houses, it was hard to believe that the journalists themselves believed in their own stories.

Prime Minister Tsvangirai has always been a victim and not a perpetrator of hate speech. He has been a victim of a hostile public media that has consistently and persistently attacked his person and it is regrettable that the ZUJ has not sought to protect him or to censor the responsible journalists and the media houses.

Everyone deserves protection from the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists and the Zimbabwe Media Commission; from the public media journalists who are themselves victims of government bureaucrats and politicians, to the hapless Zimbabweans like the Prime Minister who are needlessly vilified every day. The Prime Minister is a staunch disciple of press freedom and that is why he has championed media reforms as a key deliverable if this country is to have conditions for free and fair polls.

Journalists, particularly those in the public media, must be free to do their duties with neither fear nor coercion. They must refuse to be purveyors of one political party and one political leader, but must respect the political diversity that Zimbabwe has become since the consummation of the inclusive government in 2009.

The Prime Minister believes in the role of free expression in economic development. He believes that the fanning of violence and hatred by the media must stop immediately in the national interest. But he also upholds and respects the GPA, which calls for the granting of new broadcasting licenses to private players and calls on the public media to refrain from abusive language and hate speech.

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP