THE ruling party in Zimbabwe will sue media organisations, including those outside the country, and the main opposition party for reporting a false story, the state-run Sunday Mail reported.
The story concerned a false claim by the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) two weeks ago that a woman was beheaded by supporters of President Robert Mugabe’s party.
The story was reported by the country’s only private daily paper, the Daily News, and received extensive international coverage.
Already four journalists — three from the Daily News and the Zimbabwe correspondent for Britain’s Guardian newspaper, Andrew Meldrum — have been arrested over the story.
The Sunday Mail quoted Professor Jonathan Moyo, the deputy secretary for information in the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF), who told the paper his party was ”sick and tired” of being demonised.
He said the party would also sue the MDC, as the source of the story. Moyo, who is also the country’s minister of information, said his party would no longer tolerate ”lies” told about Zanu-PF.
”We are sick and tired that the MDC, some journalists, The Daily News and certain media houses in the white Commonwealth, South Africa, America, Kenya and Nigeria had made it their daily business to demonise our party and we are not going to take it anymore.”
Under tough new media laws in Zimbabwe, journalists who report falsehoods can face up to two years in prison. – Sapa-AFP