MISA Zimbabwe Refused To "Wine And Dine With Media Hangmen"

Written by Radio VOP

Wednesday, 18 November 2009 06:51

Harare - The Media Institute of Southern Africa in Zimbabwe (Misa- Zimbabwe) says it boycotted the government sponsored media conference in May because it could not be seen wining and dining with media hangmen.
" History has told us that politicians are there to play a divide and rule game in the media, we all know what Media and Information Commission led by Tafataona Mahoso did to the industry. This is the reason why we boycotted the media conference which was held in May. We could not dine while our colleagues were languishing in jail for fighting for media
freedom, and we said to ourselves how can we go to Kariba and be taught media lessons by perpetrators and media hangmen," said Misa-Zimbabwe director, Takura Zhangazha at a media workshop in Harare.
charamba_mahoso

(Pictured: Zimbabwean media hangmen, George Charamba and Tafataona Mahoso) He added: "Even if you look at the draft composition of the commission (Zimbabwe Media Commission) you would easily tell that so and so supports which political party and we are saying the commission should be condemned by journalists and push for self regulation in the profession. Why should politicians control the media? The Media Commission selected by Parliament after interviews, some few months back, is still to be officially announced by President Robert Mugabe.
Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe Executive Director John Gambanga said: "We are challenging the current media scenario where ministers appoint editors, this means that the President is the Editor-in-chief of those media houses and it becomes difficult for journalists in such media houses to criticise the government. We do not hate the government but we need it to do the right things. "We are also disappointed to note that the journalists whom we are fighting this self regulation for are silent on the issue. We want you to write and inform the public that media self regulation gives them the chance to choose which paper to read and also gives them room to judge articles written by journalists.
"We are worried by the continued abuse of journalists by politicians which has led to some of them taking political sides. We are saying you are not secretaries of political parties... Politicians think they can easily put the media in their pockets and we are saying no to that," said Gambanga. "We are having problems with ZANU-PF officials like Information
secretary George Charamba, who are resisting the idea and viewing us as regime change agents who want to reverse the gains of the country's independence because we are donor funded. We want to say that we are a group of veteran journalists from the cross section of the country's media whose objective is to see the media being self regulatory. We are however pleased that journalists from the state controlled media such as ZBC and the Zimpapers have taken individual membership in our organization, and we strongly believe the state media should not be left in this drive as they constitute a huge chunk in the country's media industry.
"We have also had some meetings with editors from the state controlled media who are in agreement with the idea but have not yet endorsed it on paper saying they do not have ultimate authority to do so ...," said Gambanga. "The Government is reluctant to the formation of Voluntary Media Council only because it wants to control it for selfish political reasons
and nothing else. Once the Government controls the media it means no democracy prevails in that country, and this guarantees continued suppression of diverse opinions. We are saying there should not be a ministry of Information in this country and it should be a department responsible because Government has nothing to do in the media, and we want
it to have a stake in our organization."
Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe Coordinator Andy Moyse said: "... We are in an awkward environment where people have limited media outlets, controlled by the state and its unfair to them because they are forced to consume what they do not like. Once self media regulation comes in place news outlets that perpetrate hate speech will find themselves out of business as people would choose what to consume." Meanwhile Misa- Zmbabwe has pledged to sponsor Harare Polytechnic journalism students' newsletter and other communication projects. Zhangazha told the students in Harare that his organization was willing to assist them run an independent newsletter or a weekly flier.

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