A fighter for media freedom dies

By Violet Gonda
19 February 2010

A man who was instrumental in ensuring that the world knew what was happening in Zimbabwe, died earlier this week. This has reminded people of the brave and committed Zimbabweans who work without recognition to try to ensure freedom and democracy in Zimbabwe.

Mike Mason, who died suddenly at the age of 49, was one of those who worked behind the scenes to expose what was happening in Zimbabwe, especially during the violent election period of 2008.

Sky News Africa correspondent, Emma Hurd, told SW Radio Africa on Friday that Mason helped them report on the crisis at a time when all western journalists were banned, and he did this even though it put him in grave danger.

She said: “He was one of those fixers – local people who lived in the country - who helped us do our jobs. We had been banned for so long as the western media. The fixers in Zimbabwe were all the more crucial and Mike was one of those.”

Mason was a former white commercial farmer who was booted off his farm at the beginning of the farm evictions and became an ‘informal stringer’ to the international media, to expose what was happening. He picked up a camera during the 2008 elections and filmed many of the horrors of that period, that led to the deaths of hundreds of MDC supporters, the torture of tens of thousands and the displacement of hundreds of thousands. Hurd said at times Mason combined the role of cameraman with paramedic, loading injured victims into his car and taking them to a safe place for treatment.

The Sky news correspondent said while reporting in Zimbabwe has become easier since the formation of the inclusive government, there is still only a pretence of media freedom and that the country still has a long way to go. The western media was recently allowed back in the country but ZANU PF still tries to control their work and in many cases they have to travel with a ‘minder’ who monitors their operations.

Hurd said: “We still have to apply through a media office which is run by ZANU PF and is the only way we can get in. So it’s far from a free country to report in… I live in Johannesburg and I am not able to visit Zimbabwe in between other news stories. People like Mike have been our eyes and ears on the ground. So they have been hugely important.”

She said Mason was an amazing life force, no matter the situation or how dangerous, and that it was this which warmed him to so many people and journalists in the region.

He will be missed by many.