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journalistic privileges by denouncing the country and its leadership, a Cabinet Minister has said.
Media, Information and Publicity Minister, Cde Webster Shamu said some foreign and private media organisations were abusing their journalistic privilege by denigrating the country’s leadership.
Britain, said Cde Shamu, which is touted as the champion of democracy, has more than 50 media laws that gagged the media, but nobody was making a fuss about it.
Cde Shamu, who is also Zanu-PF national political commissar, said this at the weekend in Mutare where he was addressing the party’s provincial inter-district conference.
There has been a trend, said Cde Shamu, to denigrate the President and the First Family by the foreign and private media for unjustifiable reasons premised on falsehoods.
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“The hypocrisy of the West, particularly Britain and America, in regard to Press freedom should be exposed. These two countries have got some of the most draconian media laws on earth which severely restrict media freedom under the guise of protecting their national security,” he said.
“Britain has over 50 legislation that impinge on Press freedom, including one that goes back to 1840, the Treason Felony Act that says anybody who advocates in print for the downfall of the King or Queen should be banished for the rest of his or her natural life.”
He said while Government had no problem with constructive criticism, it would invoke necessary legal statutes should the media houses unjustifiably vilify the country.
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“We are not against criticism but not vilification. They are forcing us to take measures and they must stand warned.”
He called upon local journalists to defend at all times, the country’s national interests.
“Of late, these media houses and pirate radio stations have intensified their vitriolic attacks and the use of hate language on the person of His Excellency, the President and the party in a well calculated move aimed at influencing the results of the forthcoming elections. In other words, the execution of the regime change agenda has been intensified.”
In Zimbabwe, said Cde Shamu, the land issue would always be a national issue yet Zanu-PF which spearheaded it is being demonised.
“The party which is fighting to safeguard the land, for which it is being persecuted, is ironically the same party that fought for the freedoms that are today being abused by some foreign sponsored media houses,” he said.
The minister said the Government had demonstrated that they had nothing to hide when they gave licences to various media houses.
“We have opened up to the BBC, we have licensed newspapers, and some have closed on their own, something that we had warned them that we need to be vibrant based on the performance of the economy,” he said.
“We can not allow the denigration of the highest office in the land,” he said.
He commended the ethanol project in Chisumbanje, which he said would go a long way in mitigating the availability of fuel that the country is currently importing.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter