Mangwana blames journalists

he media was obsessed with reporting negatively about Zimbabwe.
He warned the small group of journalists drawn mainly from the private press that turned up for the meeting against “endangering national interests”.
“Journalists should not be misled by rich media houses that are financed from abroad within the context of neo-colonialism and contribute to the destruction of the economy for the sake of money,” he said.
Journalists told Mangwana that no news organisation or reporter would manufacture false reports about anyone and get away with it. They reminded the minister that penalties under the laws of libel and defamation have always seen to it that perpetrators of such injudicious acts are punished.
The truth, said one journalist, was that the Mugabe regime invited bad publicity upon itself through flagrant abuse of human and property rights.
“In fact, it could be strongly argued that the Zanu (PF) government often goes out of its way to ensure it acts in ways which guarantee something negative is said or reported about it on almost a daily basis,” he said.
Mangwana defended State-regulation of the press saying, “We had to come up with the Media and Information Commission because journalism, as powerful as it is as the Fourth Estate, cannot operate in a vacuum.”
MIC chairman Tafataona Mahoso, who also attended the meeting, was challenged to explain why he shut down four newspapers. He stormed out of the meeting.