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State of the media in Southern Africa 2002
2002
of Privacy Act. Chagonda informed
MISA-Zimbabwe that the same
charges would be preferred on
Wetherell.
At the time this alert was written,
Wetherell was still at the police station
where police had just finished recording
a “warned and cautioned”
statement from him. At 4:30 p.m.,
Chagonda told MISA-Zimbabwe that
the police were fingerprinting
Wetherell. “They are likely to release
him today,” said Chagonda.
Muleya, chief reporter of the “Zimbabwe
Independent”, was arrested at
3:00 p.m. on April 15 by the Criminal
Investigations Department (CID) for
having allegedly tarnished the image
of the First Lady.
In a April 12 “Zimbabwe Independent”
story, Muleya wrote that the First
Lady’s brother was involved in a labour
dispute in which he solicited the
help of his sister. Muleya was released
from police custody at 6:30 p.m. on
15 April but was told to return the following
day for fingerprinting. On April
16, he was additionally charged with
contravening Section 80, Subsection
1 (b) of the Access to Information and
Protection of Privacy Act for allegedly
“writing falsehoods” about the First
Lady.
ALERT
DATE: 2002-04-30
INSTITUTION(S): The Daily News
VIOLATION(S): Censored
The Minister of Information and Publicity,
Professor Jonathan Moyo, has
warned government parastatals
against advertising in “The Daily
News”. Moyo alleges the newspaper
has created a reputation of peddling
214 So This Is Democracy?
lies.
The minister made these remarks
after “The Daily News” published an
article on April 23 alleging that two
young girls had witnessed the beheading
of their mother by alleged Zimbabwe
African National Union Patriotic
Front (ZANU-PF) party supporters in
the rural area of Magunje. The story
was later picked up and published on
the front page of the “Independent” in
London, England. In a front page story
on April 27, “The Daily News” apologised
to the ruling party, ZANU-PF,
and to the government after it was revealed
that the victim’s husband might
have misled the newspaper.
Moyo said that the government
could not allow advertisers to “subsidise”
the “destruction” of Zimbabwe
through outright lies published by
“The Daily News”. He added that this
incident was the worst example of
what both the government and the public
are concerned about. “What is particularly
unacceptable and something
which must now stop is the fact that
there are some government-owned
parastatals who advertise in a trash
paper like ‘The Daily News’,” Moyo
stated.
The Minister said that the government
could not continue to allow a situation
whereby the taxpayers’ money
is used to subsidise endless attacks on
Zimbabwe. He added that if “the
parastatals did not stop the rot on their
own,” the government would ensure
the law assists them.
Moyo added that, as Minister responsible
for information and publicity
in the president’s office and cabinet,
he now realises that the problem
does not just concern the “The Daily
News”. He lashed out at the owners of