Goebbels and Mugabe have a lot in common

Goebbels and Mugabe have a lot in common

JONATHAN Moyo: President Mugabe's spin doctor in this graphically generated image showing him as Iraq's former information minister Mohammed Saeed Al Sahaf

• Mugabe's own Goebbels

• Moyo vs Mohammed Saeed al Sahaf

• Moyo's constitutional debate

By Mihir Bose

THERE are lies, dammed lies and lies by the Robert Mugabe controlled press. Joseph Goebbels used to say if you repeat a lie often enough people will believe it. But Goebbels, a clever if evil man, invented believable lies. Mugabe's press henchmen seem so incompetent that they invent ridiculous lies.

Take this example from yesterday's Herald following my deportation from Zimbabwe. Under the headline 'Unaccredited British scribe deported' it said: "Highly placed sources said Bose, whose newspaper The Telegraph is highly critical of the Government and is linked to the British Government, had secretly entered the country as he intended to work 'undercover' to record unfolding events within Zimbabwean cricket . . . the sources said the British journalist was already exerting undue pressure on some sponsors of the national cricket team to withdraw their funding in the wake of 'radical changes' in the composition of the Zimbabwean team."

Oh, come on Herald, can't you invent something more believable? The idea that The Daily Telegraph is linked to the British Government will come as news to Tony Blair. What next, that Blair is secretly trying to buy the paper?

As for me entering the country secretly, let me reproduce the document which bears the signature of the chief immigration officer of the Department of Immigration Control, PO Box 189 Bulawayo. I was asked to counter-sign it to show I had received the document and this makes it abundantly clear I was admitted into Zimbabwe. However, that visa was cancelled and I had to leave by Tuesday.

I have a simple request for the Herald. As this is a Zimbabwean government document, why do they not reproduce it in their paper?

I must say I was much amused by their other lie claiming I was exerting "undue pressure" on sponsors of Zimbabwean cricket to withdraw their sponsorship. The implication here is that it would be all right to exert proper pressure, whatever that is, but not undue pressure. For the record, I do not know who the sponsors of Zimbabwean cricket are, made no attempt to contact them in the 24 hours I was allowed in Zimbabwe, and I saw no reason to do so in the context of the story I was trying to cover.
Bose is the Telegraph journalist deported on the orders of information minister Jonathan Moyo on Monday
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