[I’ve been saying for many months the MDC is finished. They are preparing to do it. I like the terminology. Someone in the Soviet Union (Can’t remember who), once spoked of the Western world saying: “We will bury you”. Anyway… I’m sure the MDC will indeed be buried and forgotten in the next 2 years. Jan]

Information minister lays down the line to editors

Harare – Information Minister Jonathan Moyo has ordered editors of the government’s vast media empire to intensify propaganda against the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party ahead of next year’s general election. Some of the editors, who did not want to be named, said Moyo last Friday met editors and senior journalists working for state-controlled newspapers and the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holding (ZBH)’s radio and television services. The meeting took place at Harare’s Sheraton hotel from about 9 o’clock in the morning to about 2 p.m. According to the editors Moyo criticised the journalists for being too soft in their coverage of the MDC and instructed them to use their papers, television and radio stations to “bury the puppet MDC.” Moyo, who is known to have held such briefing meetings with journalists working for state-owned media companies in the past, switched off his cell phone when ZimOnline called him from Johannesburg.

A journalist who attended the meeting with Moyo said: “He said he was disappointed that our stories were not reflecting the fact that the MDC was no longer in existence as it had died a natural death. The Minister said he did not want to see a story that gave the MDC any measure of legitimacy. He said our job should now be to write obituaries on the opposition. Moyo said our stories should reflect that we are in a one party state because Zanu PF cannot compete with a dead party (MDC). He told us he wanted a big funeral for the MDC to show the whole world that the opposition party was indeed dead,” reported another editor. Stories suggesting that there were any talks going on between the MDC and Zanu PF had to be spiked, Moyo is said to have told the state journalists.

Once one of President Robert Mugabe’s fiercest critics, Moyo crossed the lines four years ago to emerge as the most zealous of Mugabe’s defenders. As Information Minister, Moyo has used the government’s vast media empire to demonise the MDC and its leader Morgan Tsvangirai. He also crafted the draconian Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) which requires journalists and newspaper companies to obtain licenses from the government in order to operate. The country’s largest and only independent daily paper, the Daily News, was shut down last year because it had not registered in accordance with AIPPA. Moyo’s instruction to editors of state media to deny positive coverage to the MDC comes barely a week after a Southern African Development Community summit in Mauritius last week. SADC leaders, including Mugabe, agreed to allow all political parties in their countries equal access to the public media as one of the conditions meant to ensure free and fair elections in the region.

Source:Zim Online (SA)
URL: http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID…/p>