Journalists targeted in CIOGATE

Journalists targeted in CIOGATE

• Mandaza fires Mirror board

• Mandaza admits to CIO ownership

• Hollow tales full of sound and fury

• Parliament probes Mediagate

• Media scandal deepens

• CIOGATE: Mandaza muzzled

• Panic as Zimbabwe rocked by media scandal

• Zim newspapers sell their souls for survival

• Scandal rocks Zim media industry

• Sex pest Kaseke forced to resign

• Mujuru rape scandal causes stir

• Mujuru sucked into rape scandal

By Mduduzi Mathuthu

FOLLOWING dramatic media disclosures that Zimbabwe’s state security agency, the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), took over three private newspapers in a covert propaganda campaign, journalists of the newspaper which broke the story have become targets of a sinister CIO plot, it has emerged.

Intelligence sources in Harare told New Zimbabwe.com the CIO had now hatched a plan to harm Zimbabwe Independent journalists for exposing the biggest media scandal in the country since independence from Britain in 1980.

The independent made further stunning revelations on Friday, putting the story beyond reasonable doubt with identified characters, facts, and figures.

The story – now known as Mediagate or CIOgate – involves the take over of the Zimbabwe Mirror Group Newspapers group titles, The Daily Mirror and The Sunday Mirror, and a leading weekly -- the Financial Gazette.

Zimbabwe Independent news editor Dumisani Muleya broke the story on August 12, although it was picked by other papers later. The story has been running every week since then.

Sources said the CIO were disturbed by the story and have resolved to go after the journalists. Their wicked plan was understood to be to find out the sources of the story first and then harm the journalists involved by whatever means necessary.

“The CIO has a sinister plan to target Independent journalists. It involves probing the journalists’ sources to find out if the leak was internal or external,” a high-level intelligence source said.

“A woman intelligence officer who was trained as a journalist (name supplied) has been deployed to investigate the source. She has been working on the issue for weeks but hasn’t put her finger on the sources. The problem is the story’s sources are broad-based and also at the top echelons of the CIO.”

Sources aid the harm could come through a car accident, food or drink poisoning, kidnapping or any other sinister method. The CIO has a long history of using Gestapo tactics to deal with critics of President Robert Mugabe’s regime, although this has badly whittled away at the agency’s tattered reputation.

The Zimbabwe Independent management is said to be concerned about the security of its journalists and have brought the issue to the attention of media colleagues and diplomats who are now watching the situation closely.

The CIO was instrumental in the Matabeleland massacres and infamous disappearances of citizens in the 1980s, the likes of Captain Nleya and Rashiwe Guzha. They have also been accused of unnecessarily stalking innocent civilians, whilst dismally failing to deal with genuine state security interests such as people smuggling gold and those hijacking platinum on transit.

Sources said there were many theories in CIO circles of how the story leaked. One of them is that the Independent got it from top CIO officers. The other is that they got it from either a faction of the Mirror board at the height of boardroom infighting at the media house, while there is also yet another one which says Mirror CEO and editor-in-chief Ibbo Mandaza leaked the story out of disgruntlement with CIO presence in the papers. Mirror board chairman Jonathan Kadzura has also been mentioned as the possible source of the story.

“There is wide speculation on the issue. Politicians are also thought to be the sources. Some Mirror officials think Independent journalists got the story from the CIO because they are connected to them,” a source said.

“But the bottom line is that the CIO was ruffled and wants to know the source. They also want to harm the journalists. Whatever happens to Independent reporters by way of state-engineered harm, they will be responsible."

Sources said the plan was to attack the journalists after the story so that it would appear there was no connection between the action and the reports. Sources said the CIO also wanted to subject journalists to “a systematic campaign of terror, via psychological harassment and intimidation”.

The sources said journalists at the Mirror have also been affected by the CIO terror tactics. Mirror reporters and other staff members are now said to be “prisoners of fear” due to the prevailing situation.

The Mirror media workers are now afraid of speaking with colleagues on their fixed telephone lines and mobile phones because they think they are bugged.

“An aura of fear pervades the Mirror,” a source said. “This is the same situation the CIO wants to create at the Independent: a reign of fear.”

Efforts to get comment from State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa and Independent editor Vincent Kahiya failed. Muleya was said to be away on business.
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