Posts Tagged ‘Robert Mugabe’
June 30th, 2011
Police in
Zimbabwe have arrested two journalists from the Sunday Standard newspaper: editor Nevanje Madanhire and reporter Patience Nyangove for
publishing allegedly “false statements” about the arrest of a government official. The official, Jameson Timba is minister for the Movement for Democratic Change party and
was arrested for reportedly calling President Robert Mugabe a liar. Mr Timba’s release was later ordered during a special hearing in the Harare High Court. It is a criminal offence to insult the President under Zimbabwean law. Nyangove and Ramakgapola were charged with “publishing false statements prejudicial to the state” and are due to appear in court tomorrow.
December 17th, 2010
Grace Mugabe has filed a
lawsuit against Standard newspaper claiming $15m for defamation. The newspaper published leaked US cables from wikileaks alleging the first lady of gaining millions of dollars from illegal diamond trade.
Other high ranking officials implicated by the cables include Joyce Mujuru, the vice-president, and the head of the army, General Constantine Chiwenga. The first lady has reacted calling the allegations “false, scandalous, malicious, wrongful and defamatory”. The diamond trade in Zimbabwe, known as
“blood diamond” is notorious for its violence and extensive human rights abuse.
November 24th, 2010
The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) now regularly
refers to Morgan Tsvangirai as “the leader of the MDC party” rather than “the Prime Minister” in news bulletins. Political analyst Bekithemba Mhlanga has claimed that, with an election marked for 2011, ZANU PF has entered election mode and ZBC,
still tightly controlled by President Mugabe, helps enforce this agenda. Mugabe, in ZBC reports, has a number of titles, including “the President”, “The Head of State”, and “Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces”.
September 13th, 2010
Zimbabwe’s government has
banned South African group
Freshlyground over a music video that portrays President Mugabe as a chicken afraid to relinquish power. The video that accompanies the song “Chicken To Change” represents the president in the style of satirical show
Spitting Image. The song is a product of the band’s collaboration with controversial cartoonist
Jonathan Zapiro. Freshlyground was due to perform a concert in Harare next month, but members of the group have now had their working visas revoked.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdf2lBIe4Ac
May 26th, 2010
The Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) is to authorize the
publication of two newspapers independent of state control in Harare. The privately produced Daily News and Newsday, also publishers of the weekly Zimbabwe Independent and Standard newspapers, have both had their applications to publish accepted by the ZMC secretariat following their closure as a result of legislation censoring the media in 2003. Journalists from a series of media houses and newspapers previously banned by Robert Mugabe’s government have
re-applied for their previous jobs whilst many organizations have applied for magazine and periodical publishing licenses since 4 May. The Zimbabwean government has yet to announce changes to restrictions on the granting of broadcast licenses.
December 3rd, 2009
The Zimbabwean government is reported to be lodging a formal diplomatic complaint with Botswana over the alleged transmission of foreign radio news broadcasts into their territory. The state-controlled Herald newspaper, closely aligned with the former ruling ZANU-PF party of President Robert Mugabe, quoted Foreign Affairs Secretary Joey Bimha as saying the government objects to the transmission of what Bimha called “hate messages” from Botswana. Read more
here
November 2nd, 2009
Zimbabwe’s ministry of Media, Information and Publicity has ordered the state-controlled Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) and public newspapers to stop reporting on ministers from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T), until Morgan Tsvangirai and his party reverse its decision to withdraw contact with ZANU PF, led by President Robert Mugabe.
Read more
here
