Western embassies snub MSU World Press Freedom Day commemmorations

The United States Ambassador to Zimbabwe Dr Christopher Dell and his British counterpart Dr Andrew Pocock failed to show up at a belated World Press Freedom Day function organised by Midlands State University’s Media Department, last week Thursday.

The two had been invited to take part in a five-panel presentation on the role the media has played in shaping relations between Zimbabwe and the two western nations. Invited to speak on the same subject were the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information Mr George Charamba, the CEO of the Media and Information Commission Dr Tafataona Mahoso and Mr Bornwell Chakaodza, former editor of The Standard.

Of the five invited guests only Mr Charamba and Dr Mahoso turned up for the function which kicked off almost an hour later than the scheduled time as the hosts were kept waiting for the arrival of the full panel of guest speakers who had all confirmed they were coming.

It ended up being a one sided debate as both the Permsec and MIC CEO presented government’s view on the topic. Presentations by the two ambassadors and from Mr Chakaodza representing civil society were expected to give alternative views helping to enrich the debate. But it was not to be.

No apologies or explanations were given for this last minute change of heart and cancellation and it left the gathered students wondering whether this was a sign that even those who were wont to preach the virtues of plurality of views and tolerance of dissenting opinions were after all not so tolerant themselves in practice.

Probably they felt that they could not share the same platform with representatives of a regime widely blamed for a poor human rights record. For the British Ambassador it could be understandable as it later emerged that there were probably more pressing issues at home with Prime Minister Tony Blair resigning on the same day.

In fact what happened on Thursday had been ironically captured in the very title of the debate: “The perceived role played by the media in the con(de)struction of bilateral relations between Zimbabwe and Britain and the USA: The case of what ought to be and what is”.

What could more clearly and emphatically demonstrate the gulf that exists between the ideal and reality? Ideally that all opinions should be given an equal opportunity to compete in the market place of ideas forms the bedrock of democratic liberalism but this has probably not happened anywhere else in the world, no not even in the so called cradles of democracy in the west. In fact Mr Charamba dismissed as fiction the argument that there was any free press in the world and that the watchdog role the press claims for itself was inherently compromised as media are always pandering to the interests of those who own them.

Mr Charamba said he did not find any problem with both Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) and the Broadcasting Services Act and state regulation of the media in general since every state has a legitimate interest in the opinion formation process of its people.

"Press freedom may be the ideal but it has remained exactly that - a case of what ought to be. The reality is that western governments exercise the same if not much more insidious control on their media by simply going to bed with media owners. Otherwise, how does one explain the phenomenon of embedded journalism so popularised in the western media's coverage of the invasion of Iraqi," said Mr Charamba.

He went on to say it was more important to talk about freedom of expression which the Constitution of Zimbabwe guarantees in Section 20, rather than on the narrow interests of the press in a country that is largely rural and where much of the communication takes place by means other than solely through the press.

By the Oracle