Al-Jazeera International, a subsidiary of famous Arabic television channel al-Jazeera, has opened a two-man bureau in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare.
Al-Jazeera International, which like its parent company is headquartered in Doha, Qatar, broadcasts news and current affairs in English 24 hours a day. It is the only English news channel with its head office in the Middle East.
The Arab-owned news channel has, since the beginning of the year, been rumoured to be keen to set up a bureau in Zimbabwe, which, with its conflict with major Western nations over human rights and other governance issues, fits in well into the bill for the television channel.
But a press conference called by President Robert Mugabe’s government last Friday to officially announce the opening of al-Jazeera International’s Harare bureau was cancelled at the last minute.
Government officials later said on Monday that the press conference that was to take place at Mugabe’s Munhumutapa offices had been called off after acting Information Minister Paul Mangwana — who was to also address journalists at the briefing — was summoned to attend to other urgent government business.
“The press conference was to announce that al-Jazeera has opened a bureau in Harare. It had to be cancelled because Minister Mangwana had to attend to other pressing government business,” said an Information Ministry official, who declined to be named.
Besides Mangwana, al-Jazeera director of news Steve Clark, managing editor Ormar Bec and Africa bureau chief Andrew Simmons, who arrived in Harare last Thursday, would also have addressed the press conference at the Munhumutapa building.
It was not immediately clear on Monday night whether the al-Jazeera officials were still in Harare or whether another press conference to announce the channel’s presence in Harare will be called at a later date.
But the two journalists hired by al-Jazeera, Cyrus Nhara and Farai Sevenzo, are said to have already started work. Nhara is a cameraman and producer who has done work for Reuters television in Harare. Sevenzo is a news reporter who has done work for Britain’s Channel 4.
Al-Jazeera is the first international news channel in more than three years to be allowed to set up a permanent base in Zimbabwe after Mugabe’s government chased away mostly Western television and radio broadcasters such as the BBC.
Most of the Western networks are still allowed into Zimbabwe, but on temporary basis and only to cover specific stories. — ZimOnline