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NEW Ziana sits at the heart of the country’s information dissemination matrix, and therefore should be supported in its operations by all stakeholders, a senior Government official said yesterday.
Speaking at a strategic planning workshop for the Zimbabwe Mass Media Trust (ZMMT), Deputy Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Kindness Paradza, said the media organisation could be the main anchor of the information dissemination needs of the Government’s Devolution programme, which is centred in rural areas.
New Ziana played a critical role in giving, through its community newspapers, a voice to the country’s marginalised rural population, and articulating national interests to the outside world via its news agency.
New Ziana runs eight community newspapers throughout the country, and the country’s official news agency.
It is owned by the ZMMT, alongside book and stationery retailer Kingstons Limited and Zimpapers, the country’s biggest media group.
Deputy Minister Paradza said in catering for the news and information needs of both the rural and external audiences, New Ziana played an indispensable communication role that needed to be supported strongly.
“The online publication is certainly not benefiting our people in rural Zimbabwe. With ever increasing cost of data, a typical rural dweller is left to depend on news supplied by national and regional radio stations, which in themselves do not reach the entirety of the country,” he said.
“This is where New Ziana provincial newspapers, distributed for free and with a long shelf life, come in handy ensuring inclusive communication and development as promoted by the Government. This is your niche market.”
Externally, Deputy Minister Paradza said New Ziana’s global news and information reach, through a network of foreign news agencies it exchanges editorial material with, was vital in articulating the country’s national interests and view.
In recent years, this became critical as the country came under sustained media and political onslaught from the West.
“Internationally, it is envisaged that it (New Ziana) will help blunt some of the negative media narratives on the country peddled for years, particularly in the West – shinning a positive light on Zimbabwe in both local and foreign news markets,” said Deputy Minister Paradza.
He said New Ziana, through its newspapers, offered one of the best media platforms for the Government and rural communities to engage and interact, in the spirit of inclusive development.
“The rural community remains an important constituency as the majority of our folks live there. This marginalised population still faces a myriad of communication challenges, namely poor mobile networks, unaffordable data and airtime.
“The community newspapers, together with community radios, are therefore important sources of information for our people and must be sited at the heart of the Devolution agenda, which dovetails with Vision 2030,” said Deputy Minister Paradza.
He acknowledged challenges the company has faced in the recent past, caused in the main by reduced government and donor support, and dissolution of the ZMMT, and pledged Treasury support wherever and whenever possible.
But he also urged New Ziana to think outside the box, and develop sustainable revenue streams to complement support from government and other stakeholders.
“As your parent Ministry, we very much appreciate the challenges that the Zimbabwe Mass Media Trust has faced since its resuscitation in 2020, and we will do our best to assist although we expect ZMMT to be self-reliant and use the assets at its disposal to reposition itself to its former glory,” he said. – New Ziana.
Online Reporter