USA, UK abusing media

media to incite people to rise against their legitimately elected governments.
In most cases, these powerful countries use manipulation of their economic muscle to impose their will onto developing countries, ending up with the removal from power of the serving presidents and replacing them with puppet leaders.
Powerful media houses like Cable News Network (CNN), British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Sky News, Reuters, France 24, Al Jazeera and other news agencies are always churning out poisonous news articles that portray leaders from developing countries as dictators who are not good to lead their countries. In American and British views, leaders from developing countries who stay longer than expected are viewed as dictators
A close analysis of events in some of the countries in which this media blitz was used to overthrow democratically elected leaders would reveal that allegations raised by such media houses were just flimsy.
In 2003, Saddam Hussein, former president of Iraq, was a target of abuse by USA and UK as both countries used CNN, Sky News, BBC etc to rubbish him as abusing human rights in his country. The media blitz on him was so intensive that he was labelled a war monger who possessed weapons of mass destruction.
The media failed to exonerate Saddam for not possessing the so called weapons of mass destruction after the inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that Iraq had no such weapons. Since America and Britain kept on saying that he possessed weapons of mass destruction, the media went to town over such lies ignoring the truth.
George W Bush, the then American president, in conjunctions with Tony Blair, the then British Prime Minister, thought the only option left was to militarily invade Iraq and get rid of Saddam.
Despite the fact that the IAEA failed to find weapons of mass destructions in Iraq, Bush and Blair used the mighty of the media to label Saddam as ready to declare war on American interests using weapons of mass destruction.
CNN and BBC kept on churning out Bush and Blair’s lies which they wanted the world to believe. They reported that Saddam Hussein actually was in possession of weapons of mass destruction. With such weapons of deception, Bush and Blair teamed up against Saddam and overthrew him, ending up hanging him in 2004.
The same media was used by America and Britain against Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president, who was convicted for war crimes at the International Criminal Court of Justice at The Hague. Taylor was accused of unleashing soldiers on defenseless people in Sierra Leone and using blood diamonds to finance the killings.
The media was used to nail Taylor, but the same media is failing to nail George W Bush and Tony Blair, who also have blood on their hands just like Taylor.
Since Charles Taylor was a president of a developing country, while Bush and Blair were leaders of the developed countries, the media is silent over what the two former western leaders did. Bush and Blair are living pretty yet they caused a lot of killings in Iraq and Afghanistan using flimsy excuses for invading those countries. The crimes which Taylor did while Liberian president are less than what Bush and Blair did in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the media remained silent over these crimes.
In 2011, the western media led by CNN targeted leaders from the Arab world claiming that they were abusing human rights in their counties. They were also accused of having stayed for too long in power. The media went on to say that leaders like Ben Ali of Tunisia and  Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Muamar Gaddafi of Libya were using hook and crook to stay in power, hence, the need for them to be removed violently.
The media launched a smear campaign of how those former leaders were reportedly abusing their powers in suppressing media freedom in their countries. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter were used in mobilising people in those countries to rise against their leaders. Demonstrations swept across those countries ending up with Ben Ali, Gaddafi and Mubarak being forcibly removed from power.
What the Americans, through, the media, failed to inform the public was that despite their long stay in power, those  countries were enjoying peace and stability. Now, since the departure of those leaders from power, those countries have not witnessed peace and their citizens are living in perpetual fear of civil war.
In Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe managed to ensure that the literacy levels in the country is second to none in Africa. He has also managed to equitably distribute land to landless people. As champion of indigenisation and empowerment programmes, President Mugabe introduced economic empowerment of indigenous people so that they benefit from their natural resources.
Instead of the media educating people on the good programmes of the indigenous people introduced by President Mugabe, the media is now portraying him as one who has overstayed in power hence a dictator.
Some people are failing to appreciate the good things that President Mugabe has done for this country. It is unfortunate that people always appreciate good things done by people when they are gone.

Mukuchana Hanyani is Harare-based social and political commentator.

The people who are vilifying President Mugabe know quite well that he is a man of principles, but they deliberately do not want to acknowledge that. They will talk of good things done by him when he is gone.

So when listening, watching and reading from such powerful media houses, do not be gullible, take everything with a pinch of salt.