Robert Mugabe Witch-hunts exiled Journalists!!

“Witch-hunt on for journalists writing for online papers”, ran a head line in the Zimbabwe Times. Those who thought they had a better catch of Robert Mugabe’s throat from the Diaspora should think in terms of their safety now.

News running across Zimbabwe curtails how Robert Mugabe’s government has embarked on hunting journalist streaming news online for the local media.

Zimbabwe is dominated by state media with hardly any privately owned houses existent in a country where outside its borders, only negativity is reported. The mandate as a result to report the good side locally is undebated.

Local journalists regarded to be patriotic are eating big. Its reported that “some of them have been paid $5million as a deposit , with promises of “huge amounts” in return for furnishing the CIO with “tangible information” leading to possible arrest of those secretly working as foreign correspondents under false names or under false accreditation.” According to the Zimbabwean Times.

That said, no body is safe in Zimbabwe. Working for a government institution anywhere in the world automatically rids the aspect of objectivity in subsequent reports. The Zimbabwe brand is not far from these. In fact they are the most affected worldwide.

The government is facing stiff opposition from abroad and taking criticism internally of any kind is no where near acceptance. Most Journalists as a result have fled the troubled country deciding to fight the battle from abroad.

As it stands today, Zimbabwe stands at the summit of the most fled country by journalists totaling to a region of 90 journalists. Ethiopia, Eritrea, Colombia and Uzbekistan follow them respectively.

The Zimbabwe Times as of 28th June; “In Zimbabwe, The CPJ (Committee to Protect Journalists) estimates that about 90 journalists have fled from Zimbabwe, fearing imprisonment or persecution by the government of president Mugabe, which has launched a deliberate campaign to silence the independent media.”

Prominent of the country’s elite journalist who have found their way out of Mugabe’s threats are Geoffrey Nyarota, the founding editor of The Daily News, Zimbabwe’s only daily newspaper. He Nyarota is the managing editor of The Zimbabwe Times, an online publication.

Others now living in exile include Conrad Nyamutata, deputy editor of The Zimbabwe Times, Mduduzi Mathuthu, editor of New Zimbabwe.com, Wilf Mbanga, editor of The Zimbabwean, a weekly newspaper, which is published in London. Also living in exile and active in journalism are Sandra Nyaira, editor of Zimbabwejournalists.com, and Makusha Mugabe who publishes Changezimbabwe.com, both of them online publications.

“More that 50 journalists have been beaten up, threatened and detained by the police while executing their duties. Journalists are forced to exercise self-censorship in order to survive” flows The Zimbabwe Times.

Journalists are the only avenue through which Zimbabwe can be looked at with the Cinderella mirror. The New York Times tells Bush’s side; The Guardian tells Blair’s side and so the likes of Zimbabwe Times, The Zimbabwe Daily zimlounge.com should tell the good side of Mugabe and his government.

Journalist like any other threatened Zimbabweans who fled to exile to better point out their fingers on Mugabe are now threatened as well.

This may look to be an impossible and rather ambitious plan by Mugabe, however with good intelligence; Zimbabwean Journalists are going to face a continuing life suspicion.

Robert Mugabe is ready to do anything, spend any amount of money, hire the best detectives as long as opposition strongholds are brought down to the ground and possibly to the grave.

He has managed to answer the most respected world leaders, and not just answering but harshly as well; Bush and Blair so to say and so minor attacks from journalist is the last thing Mugabe will accept to undermine his already threatened and ailing government.

Mugabe has likened the two to what just about anything bad one could ever imagine, at least politically. He at one point let loose at George W. Bush and Tony Blair, likening them to Hitler and Mussolini when in Italy.

Several times, the two have not escaped the wrath of being referred to “hang themselves” by Mugabe.

While Journalists have always had the second chance of voicing their throats out through the blessings of internet, the question remains pending if Mugabe successfully splashes money to spy on the most prominent.

It may cost a lot but Mugabe is as rich as his words. He controls every penny in Zimbabwe and so to prove a point to George Bush and now Gordon Brown, am optimistic Robert can do impossibilities.

Zimbabweans in exile at least have heard a voice for some time and this comes as bitter news and worrying times yet again. Could this tactic come to pass? Mugabe knows how to play a game he started from postcolonial Zimbabwe and so with Robert, “you never know.”