Zimbabwe’s independent press, the target of a sustained government offensive last year, has entered 2003 in disarray.
The country’s largest circulating daily has seen the removal of its editor in acrimonious circumstances, a respected financial weekly appears to have fallen into the hands of a bank executive with close ties to President Robert Mugabe’s regime, while papers owned by prominent supporters of Mugabe’s party have moved into the market alongside a bevy of state-owned publications.
The Daily News last week announced the departure of veteran editor Geoff Nyarota who was accused by management of paying striking reporters without its approval. The Daily News, which survived bomb attacks on its premises in 2000 and 2001, serial arrests of staff last year and repeated threats by government spokesmen, was closed over the recent holiday period following the pay dispute.
Nyarota has claimed that majority shareholder Strive Masiyiwa, based in Johannesburg, was determined to close the popular, but heavily indebted paper, a thorn in the government’s side since its launch nearly four years ago.
Masiyiwa, who has built a reputation as a fearless businessman, denies the claim, pointing out that he recently poured in fresh funds.
The Daily News drew fire from the government last month after it published a report erroneously claiming Mugabe had arrived in South Africa to attend the African National Congress’s Stellenbosch conference. Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, who appeared irked by a reference in the report to Mugabe as an ”ageing dictator”, warned that ”the public should take action” against the paper when it published ”falsehoods”. A new editorial team is now at the helm.
Meanwhile, the Financial Gazette business weekly is now the property of Harare banker Gideon Gono, according to reports, following a botched attempt by a consortium headed by its former editor, Francis Mdlongwa, to acquire a controlling stake.
Gono, who negotiates Libyan fuel deals for the government, has remained silent on the reports that claim he has wider media ambitions. Harare’s Mighty Movies production house, the country’s largest, was recently acquired by a company owned by former Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation presenter Supa Mandiwanzira, reportedly with Gono’s help.
Foreign news teams use Mighty Movies facilities and the new owners appear keen to get the SABC on board.
In addition to owning an array of newspapers and enjoying a monopoly on broadcasting, the government receives support from two papers claiming to be independent: the Business Tribune and the Daily Mirror. The Tribune is thought to be backed by pro-Zanu-PF business magnate Mutumwa Mawere, while the Mirror is published by former government apparatchik Ibbo Mandaza.
Meanwhile, the Media and Information Commission, headed by a ruling-party ideologue who makes no secret of his hostility towards the independent press, was this week issuing one-year permits to those media houses and journalists it has deigned to licence while determining whether sample stories submitted by foreign correspondents are ”fair” to the regime.
The commission is Moyo’s chosen instrument in his crusade against papers he claims are allies of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and agents of British imperialism. His fulminations and threats have more recently given way to what some observers see as a more subtle approach. Nyarota is convinced the Daily News’ problems stem from ”infiltration at the highest level”.
Where arrests and prosecutions have failed, other tactics may succeed. In the meantime, although battered and bruised, the independent media is squaring up for another round with a regime determined to land further disabling blows. Just how remains to be seen.
Iden Wetherell is editor of the Zimbabwe Independent. His media licence number is 2612JE27702