(MISA/IFEX) – On 12 March 1998, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) called for a workers’ boycott of “The Herald” to run every Thursday and Friday. The boycott has been called to protest against biased reporting and the use of a public institution as a government propaganda tool. The ZCTU has accused the paper […]
(MISA/IFEX) – On 12 March 1998, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)
called for a workers’ boycott of “The Herald” to run every Thursday and
Friday. The boycott has been called to protest against biased reporting and
the use of a public
institution as a government propaganda tool. The ZCTU has accused the paper
of “embarking on a public dis-information campaign of all activities deemed
to be critical of Robert Mugabe’s government.” A recent example cited by the
ZCTU is the unfavorable coverage of a mass labor stay-away on 3 and 4 March
1998.
In retaliation, the Minister of Information, Posts and Telecommunications,
Chen Chimutengwende announced on 14 March 1998 that the state-controlled
media, which includes “The Herald”, and Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation
(ZBC), should boycott coverage of the ZCTU.
The ZCTU boycott is also called to protest against the changes which have
taken place at Zimpapers (the government media holding company which also
controls “The Herald”) in the last 10 years; e.g partisan firing and hiring
of editorial staff, changes in the corporate ownership of Zimpapers,
partisan reporting and misinformation.
Early this year government effected changes at the Zimpapers Group. Tommy
Sithole, the former editor of “The Herald”, was demoted to the position of
Projects Manager for Business Affairs after writing editorials critical of
the government in the wake of the 9 December 1997 country-wide
demonstrations. “The Herald” is now edited by former “Sunday Mail” editor,
Charles Chikerema, a staunch ZANU (PF) supporter and nephew of President
Robert Mugabe.
ZCTU has mobilized 9 leading NGOs from the civil society including the
Catholic Commission for Justice & Peace, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights,
the Law Faculty at the UZ and the Forum for Democracy to lead the boycott
against the paper. ZCTU argues that “The Herald” is a national asset which
should reflect the interests of the people of Zimbabwe.
Background Information
President Robert Mugabe announced last week that his government no longer
considers the ZCTU as a labor movement, but an opposition political party
bent on destroying the government’s vision of unity and prosperity. “The
Herald” and the state-controlled ZBC went on a campaign to discredit the
ZCTU, along the lines of Mugabe’s speech. Prior to the mass stay away, the
ZBC led its main news with the same news urging people to ignore the ZCTU
call. There was a complete black-out of the ZCTU stay away on both the ZBC
and “The Herald.”
In the aftermath, the state-controlled media ran articles describing the
mass stay-way as a huge failure and generally underplayed the event. The
independent media, namely the “Zimbabwe Independent”, “The Financial
Gazette” and the “Zimbabwe Mirror”, on the other hand, told the opposite
story.
MISA-Zimbabwe has meanwhile learned that a ZBC journalist who had planned to
have ZCTU secretary-general Morgan Tsvangirai and Labour Minister Florence
Chitauro on his live phone-in programme on the last day of the stay-away was
told at the last minute to drop the labor leader from the programme.
