Mercedes Sayagues
While Zimbabwean MiGs drop bombs on eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, back home the independent press is bombarded with other ammunition.
Last Friday, 150 toyi-toying, flag-waving, fiery youths in Zanu-PF T-shirts stormed the building of The Standard. They burnt a copy of the newspaper and threatened to torch the offices if the paper did not tone down its anti-government stance in 24 hours.
On Saturday, David Martin, a faithful government apologist, was trotted out during the evening newscast to blame homosexuals in powerful political offices in the West and homosexual foreign correspondents for feeding negative views of Zimbabwe in response to President Robert Mugabe’s attacks on gays. Martin is executive director of Zimbabwe Publishing House, at the donor-funded Southern African Research and Documentation Centre.
“Fat bum, ignoramus, obese lunatic lies,” wrote Bornwell Chakaodza, editor of the government- owned daily The Herald, in a diatribe against Trevor Ncube, editor and second major shareholder of The Independent and The Standard. Ncube is also described as a puppet “of Rhodesian handlers … the acceptable face of the beast, the mega lips of the monster”.
“The language of liberation war propaganda still appeals to some,” says Basildon Peta, an investigative reporter formerly with The Independent, now with a new daily in the pipeline. He was called “a neocolonised imbecile” in the government-owned Sunday Mail.
Since it was launched in May 1996, The Independent has consistently exposed government corruption. It has named top officials as looters and abusers of public funds – including some at the Ministry of Information.
Recently, it uncovered a scam where millions of dollars meant for water supply in poor villages were diverted from the district development fund to sink boreholes on suburban homes and farms of senior government officials. Also uncovered was a pay-TV bribery scandal implicating Vice- President Simon Muzenda. Furthermore, its reporting scuppered an illegal sale of British- made cluster bombs to Zimbabwe via a Swiss company.
Not to forget an unforgettable sin: in 1995, Ncube, then at the Financial Gazette, broke the story of Mugabe’s long relationship and wedding to his former secretary, Grace Marufu.
Fanning homophobia, exploiting the white/black ethnic faultline, resorting to insults – every day brings a new attack, from the mild to the wild, against the independent press. These range from long, boring, convoluted pieces in The Herald about the limits of press freedom to angry tirades by ministers.
Nowhere are the issues of misgovernance reported by the private press addressed. It is a case of killing the messenger who brings the bad news.
More threatening than mobs and homophobes are the new measures to curtail press freedom the Ministry of Information is considering. Among them: censorship of stories dealing with military matters, a media council, licensing arrangements, and restriction of foreign ownership of and foreign donations to local media.
The latter could dry up donor money for trade union or human rights publications, and threatens a new arrival on the local media scene, Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ). The ANZ is 60% foreign-owned and is launching a daily paper on March 30.
The new measures could be challenged in court under Section 20 of the Constitution for infringement of constitutional rights, says lawyer Tendai Biti.
“It’s an old story. Zanu-PF reacts to a crisis in a violent manner, literally and metaphorically, with legal and extra-legal reactions about form and not substance,” says Biti.
Zimbabwe already has severe laws regarding the press and defamation.
The government is aware it is treading on a minefield. Secretary of information Willard Chiwewa says the ministry is studying laws from other countries for inspiration.
The illegal arrest and torture of The Standard’s Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto in January triggered domestic and international condemnation. Donors are watching closely.
Worldwide, the trend is against controls and for democratisation. And, by tightening controls on foreign ownership while wooing foreign investment to rekindle the economy, the government is shooting itself in the foot.
A battle is raging for the soul and role of the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists. On the one hand, the sheer number of staff at the government- owned press sways the union towards an acquiescent position. On the other, activist reporters believe the union’s role should be to defend press freedom and union members such as Choto and Chavunduka.
Since mid-January, a project sponsored by media watchdog body Article XIX, the Media Institute of Southern Africa and Zimbabwe’s Catholic Commission of Justice and Peace monitors state- owned broadcast and print media.
Its weekly reports state that only 6% of stories on Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) TV are fair and balanced; 80% of stories (68% last week) are based on one source only; and roughly half the stories are “the voice of Zanu-PF”.
In a significant court victory, ZBC TV was recently forced to flight ads by the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), a coalition seeking to change the Constitution. Having won an urban constituency, NCA now wants to reach rural people, Zanu-PF’s traditional support base. This means TV.
NCA won its case on grounds that the sole TV public broadcaster has no right to dictate content or ban views that differ from the government’s.
To quote one philosopher cherished by Zanu-PF: “The reactionaries will lift a rock to hurl at us – and drop it on their feet.” So said Chairman Mao.
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