(MISA/IFEX) – Zimbabwe’s Minister of Information and Publicity Jonathan Moyo has said that the newly enacted Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act needs to be revisited so that foreign ownership of the media is totally banned in Zimbabwe. Moyo was addressing army officers at the Zimbabwe Military Staff College in the capital Harare […]
(MISA/IFEX) – Zimbabwe’s Minister of Information and Publicity Jonathan Moyo has said that the newly enacted Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act needs to be revisited so that foreign ownership of the media is totally banned in Zimbabwe.
Moyo was addressing army officers at the Zimbabwe Military Staff College in the capital Harare on Wednesday 20 March 2002. He said that in passing the media law, Zimbabwe was just following what other countries have done. Moyo stated that the law was never meant for the elections, but was needed for “democracy” and the “good governance” of the country.
Moyo also attacked the independent media calling the newspapers liars, “bent on promoting imperialist views” in Zimbabwe. “Unregulated freedom of expression can be a threat to the public, such as the ‘lies’ carried on a daily basis by the likes of ‘The Daily News’, which fan hatred and demonise institutions [such] as the judiciary,” the minister stated.
“The notion that freedom of information is a right for journalists only is false. It a right for you and me – for everyone,” he added.
Moyo also heaped praises on the state-controlled media, which he called “professional” and defenders of “national interests.”
