Moyo: Jail for 'lying scribes'
2004-05-01 22:57
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe Information Minister Jonathan Moyo has warned that the country has enough prison space for local journalists who peddle "lies" in the foreign media.
Moyo told journalists late on Friday that the media was the next enemy that needed to be dealt with after the government had finished with its anti-corruption campaign in the financial sector.
"President Mugabe has said our main enemy is the financial sector but the other enemy is the media who use the pen to lie about this country. Such reporters are terrorists and the position on how to deal with terrorists is to subject them to the laws of Zimbabwe," Moyo said.
"If there are any reporters who think they would effect a regime change here they would find themselves in jail, we have enough prison room for them".
Those guys are trash
Reacting to a British Sky television crew which flew into the country this week without prior accreditation to cover - among other stories - the country's ongoing cricket saga, Moyo said the crew did not conform to an earlier arrangement with the government.
"We had invited them (Sky TV) to do a co-production with (state-television's) NewsNet and we had said we want to know who will be part of their team and who will be on the NewsNet team but before we knew it they were already in the country," Moyo said.
"Those guys are trash and we do not need them and Sky TV is no exception, whether it's CNN or whatever, we have no illusion that they have changed."
- AFP