Media Watch

ZIMBABWE has an independent daily newspaper for the first time in seven years after the launch today of NewsDay, which aims to provide a counterpoint to state media that is fiercely loyal to longtime president Robert Mugabe.

The paper's publisher, Trevor Ncube, said it will not fall prey to "hate, divisiveness, abhorrent propaganda and personality cults".

HARARE -  It is on record that our company Fruitlink Ventures (Private) Limited has been granted a licence to operate a daily nationwide newspaper titled - The Mail.

The board and management of the company would like to extend their sincere gratitude to the Zimbabwe
Media Commission (ZMC), for this bold stance which will ensure and guarantee freedom of expression, as
granted under the Constitution of Zimbabwe.

MISA-Zimbabwe welcomes the Zimbabwe Media Commission’s (ZMC’s) approval of applications for
three new newspapers, re-registration of the banned The Daily News and the weekly publication of The
Worker.

The ZMC approved applications submitted by Alpha Media Holdings to publish the NewsDay; Modus Publications for The Daily Gazette and The Mail to be funded through Youth Empowerment Fund.

THE Zimbabwe Media Commission last week postponed a crucial workshop to expedite the licensing of new newspapers because of financial problems amid reports that commissioners were also in disagreement on who to hire as resource persons.

ZMC sources said the postponement would result in further delays in licensing new newspapers.

Embattled freelance photo-journalist Anderson Manyere was arrested yet again Monday morning after he filmed a group of alleged coup plotters who were being led into the Harare Magistrate’s Court building by prison officers.

Manyere’s video camera was confiscated by the prison officers.

There are many familiar faces in this room tonight because the struggle for a new democratic dispensation requires a parallel struggle for a free and open media environment.

ANNIE Mpalume, a free lance journalist, was last week arrested in the Chiadzwa diamond fields on allegations of entering a protected area without a pass.

She was filming and taking photographs in the diamond fields. Mpalume has since been freed on bail.

THE internet poses a threat to the “moral fibre” of Zimbabwean people, President Robert Mugabe has told a conference on information communication technology being held in Geneva, Switzerland.

Mugabe also expressed concern at the “weaponisation” of the internet to act as a “platform for aggression”.