Matonga lays down the law for Zimpapers editors

Matonga lays down the law for Zimpapers editors

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By Staff Reporter

THE deputy Minister of Information, Bright Matonga, has read the riot act to editors and journalists in Bulawayo accusing them of publishing anti-government stories, NewZimbabwe.com can reveal.

In a stormy meeting held at the Zimbabwe Newspapers offices and attended by staff from the Chronicle and Sunday News in Bulawayo on Thursday, Matonga is said to have expressed his displeasure at the paper's shifting editorial stance which he described as anti-government.

The Chronicle, whose editor Steven Ndlovu was fired for writing stories that openly supported former Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, is now being edited by Paul Mambo.

The paper's editorial stance has slightly shifted and has become a bit objective since Ndlovu's departure. Last week, the Chronicle contradicted government claims that there was enough food in the country with a story painting a picture of desperation for food aid in Matabeleland.

Matonga singled out a lead story in which the paper painted a gloomy picture about the energy situation in the country. The story mentioned that the current power outages afflicting the country are likely to continue.

Sources within Zimpapers told New Zimbabwe.com that although Matonga said government was not happy with some stories being published by the two
Bulawayo papers he assured staff that no one was going to be fired.

"Matonga told us that we just had to toe the line and no-one will be fired," said a source.

There had been fears that following the fall from grace of Moyo the government was going to purge all editors and staff who had been aligned to the beleaguered former information tsar.

However, sources within Zimpapers said the government was likely to retain the editors and staff mainly because of financial reasons. Zimpapers forked out more than $100 million as terminals for the fired Ndlovu.

"Government fears that if it fires more editors it will be forced to pay them huge sums of money. The best that Zimpapers can do is to force the editors to toe the government line," said the sources.

Meanwhile, Matonga held a reception last night for the media in Bulawayo where he said government will no longer "harass" the media.

"This is a new era," he said. "We want to build bridges between the private and the public media."
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