Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said on Thursday that foreign journalists are free to report in the troubled southern African nation where many have previously been banned and others arrested and harassed.
The veteran opposition leader who formed a coalition with longtime President Robert Mugabe in February said continuing violations of the power-sharing deal threaten the unity government, but insisted that progress has been made.
Tsvangirai deplored recent arrests of independent journalists and lawyers and called for a ”new culture of respect”.
He said a new state media commission would be formed to ”facilitate the opening up of media space”.
Stringent licensing of local and foreign journalists that effectively banned most foreign news organisations from entering the country had ceased to apply under the coalition agreement, he said.
Journalists and media organisations no longer are legally obliged to apply for accreditation until a new media commission is in place, Tsvangirai said.
Some organisations such as the BBC were banned from entering the country while others have been deterred by licensing fees in the tens of the thousands of United States dollars. Some journalists entered and worked unofficially.
”There’s no reason why these news agencies and groups should not be in the country,” Tsvangirai said.
In another step forward, he said the coalition partners have agreed on how to share the posts of provincial governors and civil servants to head ministries, significant sticking points that had paralysed the unity government.
However, regional leaders still will be asked to mediate the deadlock over two appointments seen as vital to Zimbabwe’s economic recovery and restoring the rule of law. Mugabe had unilaterally reappointed central bank governor Gideon Gono and attorney general Johannes Tomana, in what Tsvangirai’s party claims is a violation of the unity government agreement.
Gono, who has held the position for a number of years, is blamed for the economic collapse by printing Zimbabwe dollars until they were worthless and raiding hundreds of millions of dollars from foreign currency accounts belonging to international aid groups and businesses.
Tomana has ignored the ruling of the regional court of the Southern African Development Community to support continued state-sponsored seizures of the few remaining white-owned commercial farms in Zimbabwe. The seizures brought about the collapse of the agriculture-based economy and left the country dependent on international food handouts.
Tsvangirai singled out the continuing invasions of white-owned farms, blamed on militants and officials of Mugabe’s party, as one of the violations threatening the unity government.
Western donors, led by the US and Britain, have refused to provide aid to support the unity government, saying they want to see Mugabe’s commitment to the rule of law and ensure that aid reaches the people in need.
Mugabe justified the land seizures, saying he was turning it over to landless peasants. Instead, most farms have gone to army generals, Cabinet minister, relatives and cronies.
Tsvangirai cited the appointment of 10 provincial governors as progress in the government. The positions will be divided between the parties and five vacant ambassadorial posts will be filled by his Movement for Democratic Change and a smaller coalition partner.
Mugabe will also allow opposition lawmaker Roy Bennett to be sworn in as deputy agriculture minister, he said.
All previous appointments under Mugabe’s government, many open loyalists to the man who has ruled since independence in 1980, remain in their jobs on the strength of experience. That includes George Charamba, a Mugabe loyalist and harsh critic of Western media, who stays on as secretary for information.
But Tsvangirai warned that civil servants showing party allegiance could be fired.
”We are coming through a history of political affiliation by individuals. From today, it must be a thing of the past,” Tsvangirai said. — Sapa-AP