Speaking death on ourselves

Perspective Stephen Mpofu
WITH Western imperialists again ganging up on the people of Zimbabwe in a bid to exact illegal regime change, the times ahead look decidedly hard for this country.
Which is why it is futile for Zimbabweans to hold their heads and wail as that is likely to make the enemy work even harder in the belief that their goal is now within easy reach and might even scent a false kill.

And which is why this country’s media should dig deeper in their heels in shared print and electronic trenches in the frontline of the defence of our sovereignty with radical and sustained responses to cheap but lethal propaganda daily being unleashed against this country by the Western press as the bearers of the noose that the enemy is hell-bent on tightening up around Zimbabwe’s neck as a reprisal for President Mugabe’s no-holds-barred address to the United Nations last month.

The President pronounced “shame, shame, shame”, on the United States of America and on Britain – along with their European and other puppies – for refusing to accept the outcome of harmonised elections held on 31 July as fair and credible while admitting, ironically, that the elections were free.

What their verdict suggests is that the elections were not good enough because they did not bring to power the West’s political quislings who might then have effected a change of government or quickened up that process once they were in control of things.

Shame, indeed, on countries so full of themselves they will not countenance anything contrary to their liking, however democratic these might be – witness our elections, witness also the right of members of a democratic institution, such as the United Nations to speak freely and without fear or favour about unholy alliances by other members of the UN.

Zimbabwe’s media are duty bound, as watchdogs of society, to rally the support of every patriot against the propaganda onslaught that is persistently being unleashed by the imperialists using their own media to try to discredit Zanu-PF, its leaders and government for introducing land reform under which thousands of landless families took possession of that vital asset to produce food for both themselves and the nation as a whole.

The agrarian revolution exposed the racism of Western countries which were against the repossession by the Government of farms “owned” by whites even though some of the land was not being fully utilised to feed the nation, hence the failed illegal regime change agenda by a West which knows no defeat, nor acts of democratic self-determination by small nations.

When Professor Jonathan Moyo was inaugurated a second time as Minister of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services, he decried the West’s sustained propaganda blitz against Zimbabwe and called upon the local media to unite in their defence of the country.

That call no doubt continues to ring in the ears of practitioners in both the electronic and print media which, unfortunately, appear lamentably incapable of forging a united front to protect Zimbabwe’s independence and sovereignty.

For instance, when those employed in the media industry gather there is a tendency for some of them to show off the stuff of which they are made by indulging in exuberant, neo-academic communicological niceties instead of coming up with strategic decisions to counteract the foreign propaganda beamed from other countries to poison the minds of especially gullible Zimbabweans who believe that whatever the foreign media says is gospel truth.

The absence of a common stand by Zimbabwe’s media is a serious loophole that the enemy without and within exploits to keep the Zimbabwean population divided and therefore susceptible to vanquishment.

As a result of this tragic situation, Zimbabweans remain polarised politically, aided by sections of the media that write and speak death not only on the country but on themselves as well.

This pen does not suggest that the media should turn a blind eye to any wrongs they uncover in our system of government or elsewhere, for if they did that they would belie their watchdog role.

But to oppose anything in the country for the sake of opposing – which panders to the external enemy – is not good journalism at all as that does not resonate with a transformative role that the media are expected to play in society.

Which is why this pen believes Zimbabwean media practitioners should search out and find themselves as soldiers in the first line of defence against external intrusion either through the airwaves or in black and white.

But perhaps the problem in Zimbabwe and elsewhere in Africa lies with the ownership of the media. Where media are bankrolled by powerful nations or by individuals in those countries, the financial aid is tied aid, however innocuous the investment might appear at first because editorial policies will always emanate from the source of funding.

That is why in 1981, a year after independence in Zimbabwe, the Government bought out the majority shareholding of the Argus Newspaper Group in South Africa which owned the Rhodesian printing and publishing company – now Zimbabwe Newspapers Private Limited so that editorial policy would emanate from within this country regarded at the time as an enemy of apartheid rule in South Africa.

Now, the time may be long overdue for any media company in this country owned by investors in Western countries which regard Zimbabwe as an enemy, to localise their shareholding so that no foreign investor directs editorial policies, however subtle this might be.
When that happens, only a foolish media practitioner in Zimbabwe, or his employer, will cut his nose to spite his face.

This pen believes that when the media in Zimbabwe speak with one voice in exposing and correcting wrongs in our society for the good of everyone then our different sections of the media will have come of age by realising that when acting together and in unison, Zimbabwe will stand but that when divided they and the country will fall and the armed struggle in which precious lives were lost will have been in vain.