(MISA/IFEX) – On 20 August 1999, President Robert Mugabe again attacked the independent press. On this occasion, he added the “Daily News” to his list of enemy publications by saying the newspaper was being used by former Rhodesians to discredit the government and the ruling ZANU-PF party. Mugabe was speaking at the ZANU-PF Women’s League […]
(MISA/IFEX) – On 20 August 1999, President Robert Mugabe again attacked the
independent press. On this occasion, he added the “Daily News” to his list
of enemy publications by saying the newspaper was being used by former
Rhodesians to discredit the government and the ruling ZANU-PF party.
Mugabe was speaking at the ZANU-PF Women’s League conference in Harare. He
blamed the whites in Zimbabwe for refusing to accept the hand of
reconciliation from the government and accused them of working with the
British government and their press and television to discredit his party and
the government. He then went on to say that the independent press in
Zimbabwe, namely the “Zimbabwe Independent”, “The Standard” and the “Daily
News”, “belong to the settler whites in the country.”
Amid applause and praise from the delegates, Mugabe went on: “They are all
in opposition, none of them is really independent, none of them supports the
government, you can read from the stance of the white men, they are never
independent.”
Throughout this year, Mugabe has made wide ranging attacks on the
independent press, accusing it of fabricating “subversive” stories against
his government. He has promised to introduce tougher measures to deal with
the question.
