Mangwana Blasts Zimbo Journalists
Reporting by SAPA/DPA
South Africa
Journalists in Zimbabwe are working
undercover to advance Western interests and
denigrate President Robert Mugabe’s government,
the acting minister of information was quoted as saying Monday.
Paul Mangwana said some reporters had dedicated
their careers to working with Zimbabwe’s enemies
to bring about regime change, the official Herald newspaper reported.
Mangwana described those journalists as “willing
soldiers in a war that is not theirs.”
Mugabe’s government and reporters for the private
and international media have long had strained
relations, which sunk to new lows under the iron
rule of former information minister Jonathan Moyo.
In 2002, Moyo managed to bring in tough press
laws known as the Access to Information and
Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), that made it a
crime to operate as an unlicensed reporter or to
report anything deemed a falsehood.
Under AIPPA, dozens of reporters have been
arrested, several foreign correspondents
deported, and four private newspapers closed.
Mangwana has been acting information minister
since the death of Moyo’s successor, Tichaona Jokonya earlier this year.
The minister said reporters should report as
patriotic Zimbabweans, the Herald said.