PUBLISHER TREVOR NCUBE’S NewsDay has ended the 7-year monopoly enjoyed by government-owned media by becoming the first private daily to hit the streets of Zimbabwe, writes Dumi Sigogo for journalism.co.za.
The paper launched on 4 June, just over a week after the Zimbabwe Media Commission issued it with a long-awaited registration certificate. Since 2003, when the President Robert Mugabe government banned the Daily News Zimbabweans have only had access to state-owned daily newspapers. A handful of independent weeklies survived the government crackdown.
NewsDay, published by Alpha Media Holdings (AMH), says in its maiden edition that it will make a difference to Zimbabwe’s media landscape by giving its readers open and honest alternative voices
"In the 30 years of our independence, media have been abused to relay hate and divisiveness and to create personality cult," NewsDay said. But the paper will “endeavour to report the news for Zimbabweans whose collective voice has systematically drowned out the din of slogans and abhorrent propaganda," the editorial says.
The other three daily papers who were granted licences are The Daily News owned by Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), The Daily Gazette owned by Modus Publications and The Mail owned by a Zanu PF Youth League aligned group called Fruitlink Publishers.
According to Ncube, owner of AMH and publisher of the Mail & Guardian, the unity government will be helped by a vibrant and independent media that empowers both the citizens and those in authority.
“We all need accurate information to make vital decisions and right now both the people and those in authority are poorly served,” he says. Prior to its registration, NewsDay had been running dummies in The Independent and The Standard, weeklies from the AMH stable.
ANZ director Jethro Goko says the Daily News will be out within a month. “Now that we’ve an operating licence, we’ll concretely begin to move ahead with plans to re-launch the paper. The Daily News is an established brand in Zimbabwe and we are hugely confident we will come back with a bang,” he said.
The ZMC was established last year by the new unity government of President Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to replace the unpopular and partisan Media and Information Commission (MIC).
With an investment totaling US$4 million, NewsDay is expected to employ about 300 people including journalists. Journalists have welcomed the granting of newspaper licences saying this progressive development is going to trigger massive competition for readers, advertisers and journalists among newspapers.
The spokesman for Zimbabwe Journalists for Human Rights Dumisani Muleya said: “The licensing of newspapers is a major step in enhancing the broad democratic reform agenda. Hopefully the growth of the media sector and competition will help to create better working conditions and salaries for journalists.”
The Zimbabwe Union of Journalists president, Dumisani Sibanda said: “It’s embarrassing that some journalists are being paid like domestic workers. We hope that these new papers would shake up employers. With competition coming, we as a union believe that salaries will rise.”
Journalists have however expressed their anger and disappointment at ZMC’s decision to keep former MIC chairman, Tafataona Mahoso as its Chief Executive Officer. Mahoso is known as the “media hangman” because under his leadership, the MIC caused the closure of five privately owned newspapers and orchestrated the imprisonment of several journalists.
The ZMC is divided on the issue as only pro-Zanu-PF commissioners support Mahoso’s appointment.
In an effort to drive foreign media out of the country, the now defunct MIC used to charge a massive US$3 000 to local journalists working for foreign media houses. The ZMC has now reduced to US$120. Foreign media organisations or news agencies who want to set up a bureau in the country now only pay US$2 500, down from the US$30 000 per year.
Tsvangirai has vowed to abolish the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, which bans foreign reporters from working permanently in the country.
No comments:
Post a Comment