(MISA/IFEX) – “The Daily News” came under sharp criticism from the government for defiling “traditional norms” and attempting to undermine the country’s values through repeated attempts at making a mockery out of the death of African leaders, “The Herald” reported on 5 June 2001. In a stinging attack, Information and Publicity Minister Jonathan Moyo said […]
(MISA/IFEX) – “The Daily News” came under sharp criticism from the government for defiling “traditional norms” and attempting to undermine the country’s values through repeated attempts at making a mockery out of the death of African leaders, “The Herald” reported on 5 June 2001.
In a stinging attack, Information and Publicity Minister Jonathan Moyo said the time had come for decent and right-minded Zimbabweans to put a stop to that habit. He castigated “The Daily News” for ridiculing the state-owned newspapers, “The Sunday Mail” and “The Herald”, for giving prominence to Defence Minister Moven Mahachi’s death. “The Herald” reports that “The Daily News” downplayed the deaths of Ministers Mahachi and Border Gezi and Democratic Republic of Congo President Laurent Kabila. “The Herald” goes on to say that nobody was opposed to downplaying deaths and funerals, but what irked “decent Zimbabweans” were attempts by privately owned papers, including “The Daily News”, to ridicule leaders in their deaths. “It’s shameful that ‘The Daily News’ and The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) are taking the change slogan to mean change of our moral and ethical values as Africans. This we cannot change,” said Moyo. “This is no longer freedom of expression. The time has come to defend our values, culture and indeed humanity for decent people to put a stop to this madness. We will start raising questions to those that advertise in papers that insult our dignity as Africans.”
Moyo went on to say that publications had an obligation to uphold standards of common decency and Zimbabweans were entitled to take a dim view of businesses and other interests that underwrite and sponsor such publications that defile their humanity as “The Daily News” was doing. “If ‘The Daily News’ and its party the MDC think that they will profit politically by continuing to celebrate death in the manner they have been doing, then they ain’t seen nothing yet because evil deeds have their rewards in hell,” said Moyo. “There is no problem in people expressing themselves. We support that as part of our democracy that came with our hard won independence. We are, however, very clear that this does not include the cold bloodied callousness and cannibalism exhibited by the British mouthpieces.”
