(MISA/IFEX) – Zimbabwe’s Manicaland Provincial Governor Oppar Muchinguri threw out private media journalists from a land resettlement meeting on Thursday 19 July 2001, on the grounds that government officials were about to discuss sensitive issues. According to reports in the “Daily News”, journalists Patrick Mwale of the “Daily News” and Muchaneta Manyengavana of the “Financial […]
(MISA/IFEX) – Zimbabwe’s Manicaland Provincial Governor Oppar Muchinguri threw out private media journalists from a land resettlement meeting on Thursday 19 July 2001, on the grounds that government officials were about to discuss sensitive issues.
According to reports in the “Daily News”, journalists Patrick Mwale of the “Daily News” and Muchaneta Manyengavana of the “Financial Gazette” were ordered out because what was about to be discussed was classified information. “What we are about to discuss is sensitive,” said Muchinguri before ordering the journalists out.
The governor, however, rescued the “Daily News” reporter after war veterans attending the same meeting pounced on Mwale. Journalists from state-controlled media the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) and Zimbabwe Inter Africa News Agency (ZIANA) were allowed to stay and cover the meeting.
