Media ‘talibans’ set to dominate Kariba conference

By Lance Guma
04 May 2009

A government organized conference set for Kariba this week, to look at reforming the media, has already drawn criticism for ignoring most of the major stakeholders and having an unclear agenda. Not only has the conference ignored exiled media organizations forced out by repressive laws, but the same people at the forefront of persecuting the media have been selected to be keynote speakers.

Set to make presentations will be Jonathan Moyo (credited with crafting the repressive media laws that were used to shut down newspapers and which ensure there is still no independent broadcast media); Media and Information Commission Chairman Tafataona Mahoso, (whose body denied licences to independent newspapers); Attorney General Johannes Tomana (a blue-eyed member of the ZANU PF regime and former ambassador to China); and senior Mugabe aide Chris Mutsvangwa.

A commentary in the Zimbabwe Standard newspaper attacked the presence of what it called ‘media talibans’, saying skepticism about the government’s intentions was being fuelled by the inclusion of, ‘characters with a violently unrepentant disposition towards free speech.’ Zim Rights national director Okay Machisa is equally shocked that media ‘oppressors’ are emerging at the forefront of so-called media reform. Other commentators questioned the need for a media conference in a holiday resort, when it was clear all that is needed is for repressive laws to be scrapped.

Although MDC official Jameson Timba, the Deputy Minister of Media, Information and Publicity, has been telling journalists the government is serious about media reforms, his counterpart, Information Minister Webster Shamu, has still been threatening journalists. Last week Shamu threatened to ‘punish’ the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper for “publicizing cabinet deliberations” claiming that the fact that they did so without government authority was a ‘punishable offence’ the world over. The persecution of journalists like Anderson Manyere, Jestina Mukoko and others also adds another reminder that media reform is definitely not on the ZANU PF agenda.

The organization of the conference has also been mired in confusion. It was initially set for Kariba’s Carribbea Bay Resort before it was moved to Nyanga. Now it has been moved back to Kariba. Journalists have slammed this as an attempt to exclude most of them from the conference, by taking it far away. The Media Alliance of Zimbabwe also criticized the agenda for the conference, saying the agenda and topics were ‘fatally compromised.’