MEDIA ALERT

25 OCTOBER 2002

MINISTER AND PERMANENT SECRETARY THREATEN TO TAKE FURTHER ACTION AGAINST
"ERRANT" JOURNALISTS.

The Minister of Information and Publicity Professor Jonathan Moyo and his
Permanent Secretary Gorge Charamba have launched a scathing attack against
the Financial Gazette and private media journalists for what the two called
"treasonous" and "anti government" reporting. The two have warned that the
government will not brook any criticism and appropriate measures will be
taken against "errant" journalists.

In a statement Moyo castigated as "unlawful" and "treasonous" a front-page
article that appeared in the Financial Gazette on 24 October 2002. The
story headlined "Mbeki plots Mugabe's Exit ", was dismissed as false and a
fabrication by Moyo.

"The false front page story in today's Financial Gazette claiming that South
African President Mbeki is plotting an unconstitutional exit of President
Mugabe is a sickening example of the kind of diplomatic rubbish that can
only originate from incompetent and now very desperate British intelligence
operatives run by the likes of Brian Donnelly, the British High Commissioner
in Harare whose futile efforts to meddle in Zimbabwean national politics are
now a matter of public record," said Moyo.

The Financial Gazette wrote that South Africa's President Mbeki was planning
to hold consultations with Mugabe and the opposition over the crisis in
Zimbabwe. The story further stated that Mbeki wants the parties to reach a
compromise that would see Mugabe leave office in 2005 and the opposition
withdrawing court cases it has filed against Mugabe's "victory" in the March
presidential elections.

Moyo alleges that the story was planted in the paper by British intelligence
operatives and was also meant to mislead voters in a by election set for
26-27 October in a rural constituency. Moyo named the author of the story,
Financial Gazette, News Editor, Abel Mutsakani as a "sell out", "whose
association with opposition politics and anti- Zimbabwean conduct was self
evident".
"Legal questions must necessarily be raised as to whether Mutsakani, his
editor and publisher, had any factual and lawful reasons to believe the
manifestly British sponsored propaganda or, alternatively why they knowingly
or recklessly published a patently false article whose contents lacked even
the most rudimentary elements of a factual story," said Moyo.

In another statement Moyo's permanent Secretary George Charamba took a swipe
at the Political Editor of The Financial Gazette, Sydney Masamvu for his
opinion piece in which he likened the Zimbabwe regime to the Al Qaeda.
Charamba said that the article compromised a democratically elected
government and is a breach of the country's laws and a "criminalisation" of
the country's "democracy".
The headline of the opinion article read: "Life under Mugabe's "Al Qaeda"
regime".
Charamba said that the government would take appropriate measures once it is
through with "consultations". He further threatened that "any players
within the journalism fraternity who choose to interpret their roles outside
the binding requirements, and who wish even to goad, provoke and demonise
government for whatever reasons would quite naturally draw a deserved
response in fitting amounts".

Charamba said that in his article Masamvu sought to incite the people to
rise against the "legitimate" government of Mugabe.
END

Rashweat Mukundu
Research and Information Officer
MISA-Zimbabwe
221 Fife Ave
Box HR 8113
Harare
Zimbabwe

Phone: 00 263 4 721 841, 735 441-2
Cell : 00 263 4 011 602 685
E mail: [email protected]