Settlement Chikwinya, Chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Media and Mbizo MP, told The Zimbabwean in an interview from Washington, that the state media ought to operate within the limits of the law.
This comes in the wake of a complaint put before the Zimbabwe Media Commission by PM Morgan Tsvagirai’s office on the “demonising campaign” launched by state media against MDC-T officials.
Some of the reports allege that Tsvangirai’s political adviser, Alex Magaisa, was in trouble for ill-advising the Prime Minister. Another story accused Edgar Gobvu, one of the Premier’s aides, of defrauding the State of $1, 500 through an alleged fake trip.
However, according to Luke Tamborinyoka, the PM’s spokesperson, the reports were false and aimed at reducing the esteem of MDC-T. “We shall invoke all tools to ensure compliance with the law by the state media, especially during this election period,” said Chikwinya.
He reiterated that each time there was an election, the official media resorted to a smear campaign of opponents of Zanu (PF), a trend that is in breach of local legislation and SADC guidelines as well as the Global Political Agreement.
“ZBC must adhere to Statutory Instrument 33/2008 and state print media must also be guided by article 19 of the GPA as legalised by Section 4 of the new constitution,” said Chikwinya.
The laws stipulate that state media should not be biased but seek to be fair to all parties and candidates participating in an election. SADC guidelines on election reporting also state that all parties should equally access the state media in the build up to elections. In the March and June 2008 elections, the country witnessed a monopoly of the state media by Zanu (PF) and the Media and Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe recorded hundreds of cases where the party’s leadership was given acres of space churning out hate speech to opponents.
Post published in: News