(MISA/IFEX) – Zimbabwe’s Minister of State for Information and Publicity Jonathan Moyo wants the European Union (EU) to urge the British and Netherlands governments to stop sponsoring short wave radio stations that broadcast in Zimbabwe. On Friday 11 January 2002, Moyo was talking to “The Sunday Mail” about the current deliberations between the EU and […]
(MISA/IFEX) – Zimbabwe’s Minister of State for Information and Publicity Jonathan Moyo wants the European Union (EU) to urge the British and Netherlands governments to stop sponsoring short wave radio stations that broadcast in Zimbabwe.
On Friday 11 January 2002, Moyo was talking to “The Sunday Mail” about the current deliberations between the EU and Zimbabwe taking place in Brussels, Belgium. He said that Britain and the Netherlands are sponsoring illegal short wave radio station broadcasts in Zimbabwe. “The British are funding their citizen, Jerry Jackson, who in September 2000 ran a pirate radio station calling itself Capital Radio, working with [Movement for Democratic Change, MDC] legislator and Rhodesian war veteran David Coltart, Mike Auret Jnr. and other Rhodesians,” said Moyo. “Who else is having access to the EU sponsored illegal broadcasts besides the treacherous MDC?” asked Moyo.
In the course of the deliberations, the EU asked the Zimbabwean government to send a letter to the EU Presidency within a week, detailing its actions on all points covered in the discussion. The EU Heads of Mission in Harare was invited to report urgently on the progress made in view of an assessment by the General Affairs Council on 28 January.
The “Voice of the People” and “SW” are the two radio stations to which Moyo was referring in his attack. Both are operating short-wave stations broadcasting news on the situation in Zimbabwe. Moyo accuses the two of being pro-opposition. Jackson is the former director of Capital Radio; the first station to challenge the monopoly of the state-owned and run Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) at the Supreme Court. ZBC’s monopoly was subsequently overthrown, deemed unconstitutional.
