Cabinet team to summon state & independent editors to discuss hate speech

By Tichaona Sibanda
9 February 2010

A three-member cabinet team led by Vice-President John Nkomo has been tasked to summon editors from the state and independent media to discuss as a matter of urgency ‘hate speech’ in the media.

On Friday, a top executive meeting of the country’s inclusive government comprising Robert Mugabe and his two Vice-Presidents, the Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, as well as the two deputy premiers met in Harare and agreed hate speech should be a thing of the past.

The executive meeting called for the media in the country to promote national healing, and advocated for penalties against media houses and broadcasters that promote hate speech and violence.

It is understood that Mr Tsvangirai took great exception during the seven hour meeting to the vicious propaganda war being waged against him, some of his ministers and his party by the Ministry of Media, Information and Publicity. Tsvangirai was reportedly dismayed by the unusually high dose of toxic propaganda that accompanied all his foreign trips, while those by Mugabe are always painted in a positive light.

Mugabe is believed to have strongly objected to the transmission of ‘hate messages’ to Zimbabwe from ‘pirate radio’ stations based abroad. ZANU PF insists the foreign-based stations, which include SW Radio Africa, jeopardise the power-sharing unity government.

The issue of foreign-based stations was included in the September 2008 Global Political Agreement, which said Zimbabwean operators of such stations should be encouraged to return and broadcast from Zimbabwean soil. But SW Radio Africa station manager Gerry Jackson remains adamant that media reform has not progressed far enough to make such a move advisable.

The Friday meeting appointed Nkomo, because of his former role as Minister for National Healing and Reconciliation to head a team that includes MDC’s Nelson Chamisa and Webster Shamu from ZANU PF to engage the editors and read them the ‘riot act.’

Tsvangirai has been on the receiving end of a vicious war waged by the state media who exclusively receive their orders from George Charamba, the permanent secretary in the ministry of Information and Publicity.

The MDC last year singled out Charamba as the chief culprit in the propaganda campaign charging that the public media has been abused to become the theatre and arena of maligning and vilifying its leadership and members at the expense of covering pertinent issues affecting the ordinary man and woman.

‘The MDC regards the lampooning and hate speech against its ministers and officials as a threat to the Global Political Agreement. We are worried about the threat posed to the longevity of the GPA by a retinue of sulking remnants from the old order which is hell-bent on undermining the hope that had begun to be engendered by the inclusive government,’ the MDC said.

Simon Muchemwa, our Harare correspondent said it was hard to see how the principals would deal with hate speech since they were the masters of manipulating information to influence public opinion.

Usually a propaganda campaign is aimed at winning the hearts and minds of citizens but Muchemwa says those peddling the propaganda campaign for ZANU PF are infact arousing anger among citizens than anything else.

‘Most Zimbabweans have since stopped watching or listening to ZBC news or reading state dailies. They opt for online publications on the internet or watch foreign stations on satellite channels. It’s remarkable how they take every statement from the state media with a pinch of salt,’ Muchemwa added.