HARARE -- President Robert Mugabes press secretary, George Charamba, has threatened to order the arrest of Barnabas Thondlana, the editor of soon-to-come newspaper, Newsday, should the paper publish without a licence.Newsday is the new daily newspaper from the Zimbabwe Independent Group that is owned by South African-based Zimbabwean media mogul, Trevor Ncube. The paper cannot publish because it does not have a licence while the Zimbabwe Media Commission that should licence newspapers is yet to be appointed.
“I will pick you up,” Charamba told a stunned Thondlana in Harare last week. “If your paper goes on the streets of Harare without a license I will send my boys to get you in your office.”
Charamba, who is permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information, was addressing more than 30 newspaper editors from Zimbabwe’s diverse media in Harare. ? He also told Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe (VMCZ) Executive Director, John Gambanga that his organisation should “abolish itself to again find itself as a genuine effort”.
“The VMC will never come right until and unless it abolishes itself, to again found itself as a genuine media effort,” he said.
Charamba, who was in a no nonsense mood told editors that there was no way his ministry would allow newspapers to spring up in Zimbabwe. He said the new H-Metro tabloid had been issued an operating licence by the old Media and Information Council of Dr Tafataona Mahoso.
Post published in: Politics