In a statement, RWB said that Mugabe’s harassment of private newspapers should earn him the award of shame.
“It is thanks to its President that Zimbabwe's privately-owned print media are constantly harassed and that the state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) has a monopoly of radio and TV broadcasting.
‘‘Robert Mugabe blocks everything, prevents the national unity government from functioning properly, makes sure the independent media are unable to express themselves freely and, with the help of his closest aides, keeps the state media under tight control,” said RSF.
Mugabe has been accused of muzzling the media in the last 12 years.
Journalists have been placed under electronic surveillance, abducted or arrested.
Despite being hailed as a "liberator" when he came to power in 980, President Mugabe’s government is infamous for the arbitrary arrest and harassment of journalists.
In 2002, his government crafted the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), the sole aim of which was to repress journalists.
Reporters Without Borders also named leaders Yahya Jammeh (Gambia), Issaias Afeworki (Eritrea), Teodoro Obiang Nguema (Equatorial Guinea), Paul Kagamé (Rwanda), King Mswati III (Swaziland) and Somalia’s Islamist militias, Al-Shabaab and Hizb-Al-Islam as the other predators of media freedom.
Post published in: News