Zimbabwe: Experiences of journalists chronicled in new book

The Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ) has launched a book on the experiences of the Zimbabwean media from 2000 to 2005, writes a jocoza correspondent. Titled 'Journalists or Enemies of the State', the book was written by five journalists - Bornwell Chakaodza, Chakanyuka Bosha, Francis Harawa, Tapfuma Machakaireand Maxwell Sibanda. It was edited by John Gambanga and Bill Saidi who were both editors at The Daily News and Daily News On Sunday whose staff ranked among those affected by the government's hostile stance towards the media in the period covered by the book.

The publication was inspired by consequences that befell journalists at a social and family level at a time of media repression.

The book records and document tales and experiences encountered by journalists who were forced to abandon their careers as well as the experiences of journalists form independent media who were arrested and detained regularly.

At the state media a campaign that purged more than 700 journalists from both the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) and New Ziana, was allegedly ordered by the Department of Information and Publicity under the office of the President and Cabinet. At the ZBC, more than 400 staffers including journalists were retrenched in an apparently illegal redundancy exercise which was slammed by the labour court. No re-instatements followed. Former ZBC editor-in-chief Shephard Mutamba chronicled how he would be called into meetings and given lists of journalists who were deemed favouring the opposition. He was twice fired from the ZBC and New Ziana for protecting journalists who had been targeted for dismissal.

Among the issues captured include the bombing of the Daily News printing press by unknown military officers who witness said were in civilian clothes. A powerful bomb sent the print press into smithereens hours after the government of President Robert Mugabe had warned a day earlier that the Daily News would be silenced. During the launch, former The Daily News deputy editor Davison Maruziva gave an account of the morning after the bombing of The Daily News printing press and told colleagues how they battled to produce a truncated copy in defiance of the dastardly act on their printing press.

The book also captures the experiences of former Daily News journalists some who resorted to cross border trading in the absence of their paper.

Chengetai Zvauya, a former senior journalist with The Standard and The Daily News says the crackdown on the media affected him physically and psychologically. "Psychologically, I was affected when Jonathan Moyo (former Information minister) insulted me in newspapers and on television," he said. "He would call me all sorts of names whenever I wrote an article which he deemed critical."

Former Information Minister Jonathan Moyo presided over the closure of four newspapers and the creation of repressive media laws that affected journalists at both at the state media and private media. Former Deputy Sports Editor Simba Rushwaya ended up selling soap and cooking oil in his rural village at the time. In December 2008 he was arrested while visiting his sick mother at her home near the diamonds fields of Chiadzwa where he was taken and tortured.

Former Daily News and Financial Gazette news editor Luke Tamborinyoka says he was forced to join politics after the newspaper was shut down. "I am now into politics, I never thought I would to go into politics," remarked Tamborinyoka. "I am a politician by accident simply because of the closure of The Daily News. My children and I suffered because I had to withdraw them from boarding school."

-August 21, 2010 by Wits Journalism Programme

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Source: www.journalism.co.za/news-and-insight/151/3409-experiences-of-zim-journalists-chronicled-in-new-book.html  (accessed on 23.08.10)