It touts itself as Zimbabwe’s independent news agency. But it does not even operate from Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe Online operates from South Africa. The reasons: the “general decimation of media in Zimbabwe”, the enactment of “a vicious media law which enables the government to licence media houses and journalists to do their work, the closure of mainstream newspapers, the routine intimidation and arrests of journalists……”.
ZimOnline was launched on 8 July 2004 to provide an “alternative voice for Zimbabwean journalists” who found themselves restricted in their profession because of the various obstacles that had been imposed by the government. It was meant to be a “professional media project” whose only interest was “an accurate reflection of the true state of affairs in Zimbabwe”. Its mission was “to provide a source of accurate, balanced and in-depth information about Zimbabwe”.
The project has been very secretive about who runs or funds it. Although most of its stories are now by-lined, most of the writers are unknown except perhaps by the editors. The only name that seems to be known is that of Abel Mutsakani who is said to be the online agency’s editor, though another Zimbabwean now based in South Africa Basildon Peta is strongly believed to be the brains behind the project.
With the political and economic turmoil in Zimbabwe, the online agency has become a major source of news for the international community and exiled Zimbabweans who are said to exceed 3 million.
The agency says it operates through a network of experienced correspondents throughout Zimbabwe and seeks to provide accurate and balanced information about the country but some of its stories could be pure fiction.
On Monday, 18 June, for example, it ran a story entitled: Zim opposition activists murdered. The story was datelined Bulawayo and was written by Brian Ncube. It read:
Two Zimbabwe opposition activists abducted from the rural Matobo district by suspected state secret agents were found dead last Thursday, in a development certain to spread fear across the opposition supporting southern half of the country.
The battered bodies of Edward Ndiweni and Albert Sibanda, who were both members of the Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC party, were discovered by villagers dumped at an abandoned former white-owned farm, about 15 kilometres from the deceased men’s home village.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena confirmed the discovery of the bodies of the murdered MDC activists and said investigations into the matter were in progress.
“I can confirm that the two were found dead on Thursday . . . police are still investigating the case and we hope we will be able to account for those responsible," said Bvudzijena.
However, MDC Member of Parliament for Matobo Lovemore Moyo immediately blamed the abduction and subsequent murder of the two activists on agents of President Robert Mugabe’s government which he said was out to crush the opposition and all dissenting voices ahead of elections next year.
"It is unfortunate that the government’s intolerance of dissenting voices and its disrespect of the MDC as an opposition party has led to this (murder of Ndiweni and Sibanda)," said Moyo.
Information Minister and government spokesman Sikhanyiso Ndlovu was not immediately available for comment on the matter.
Zimbabwe holds joint presidential and parliamentary elections next year which some analysts have warned the government could lose, citing an acute economic crisis and food shortages fuelling public discontent against Mugabe and his ruling Zanu PF party.
Ndiweni, Sibanda and three other MDC activists were abducted from their homes at different times on May 25 by six armed men who were driving an unmarked red Toyota Corolla car that did not have vehicle registration numbers.
They were taken to a farm not far from their homes but not the same one were (sic) the bodies of the two murdered activists were found. For three days, the opposition activists were severely assaulted and tortured by their captors who accused them of campaigning for the MDC and seeking to topple Mugabe’s government.
The rest of the MDC activists were later released except for Ndiweni and Sibanda whose whereabouts remained unknown until their bodies were found dumped at a farm.
Ndiweni and Sibanda, aged 39 and 42 respectively at the time of their deaths, join a growing list of activists of the opposition murdered by unknown people – but suspected to be members of the government’s feared Central Intelligence Organisation – since the party’s formation eight years ago.
The MDC, which poses the greatest threat to Mugabe’s government in next year’s elections, says state security agents have abducted scores of its activists and arrested others on false charges in a bid to cripple the party ahead of the polls.
The Harare administration denies targeting opposition activists for arrest and insists anyone suspected of breaking the law is liable to arrest regardless of their political affiliation.
This was a well balanced story in which the reporter had tried to get views of various sides, including that of the police and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. The only problem was that the reporter had not talked to either of the two people quoted.
Moyo was in South Africa when the story broke. He had to rush back to his constituency to verify the story when international organisations like Amnesty International and Voice of America started phoning him to comment on the murders.
He went to the constituency on Tuesday and discovered that there was nothing of the sort.
“The murders may have happened elsewhere but not in my constituency,” he said. “They may have taken place in the neighbouring constituencies but even then, the police would know about them. But what has upset me most is that the reporter claimed to have talked to me and even quoted me when he did not speak to me. I do not even know who wrote that story.”
Bvudzijena said he had not spoken to anyone from Zimbabwe Online for one-and-a-half years now but they continued to quote him and other police spokesmen.
“I have even complained to Mutsakani that what they are doing is unprofessional, but he has never come back to me,” Bvudzijena said. Though now an assistant police commissioner, Bvudzijena is a trained journalist and was editor of the police magazine Outpost, before being promoted to head the police’s public relations department.
Since the legislator for the area and the police have denied any knowledge about the killings, one is left wondering what else is not true in the story.
What is more disturbing is that Moyo was skeptical about talking to journalists in general when they sought to confirm the killings with him because he believed they were liars. While Ncube will get some rands that will translate into millions of Zimbabwe dollars, he has put the careers, and even lives, of his colleagues who are not hiding behind pseudonyms on the line.
The story has already been picked up by several organisations and has been widely circulated. It is likely to be used by organizations and institutions doing research on Zimbabwe because no one has publicly refuted it so far.
A report by Kate Bird and Stefanie Busse of the British Overseas Development Institute entitled: Rethinking aid policy in response to Zimbabwe’s protracted crisis which was commissioned for a roundtable discussion on Zimbabwe that was held early this month, says it relied heavily on a paper by Karen Proudlock, also of the same institute, entitled Zimbabwe Media Digest.
Zimonline was one of Proudlock’s prime sources of information in that digest. It was cited 12 times and only came second to IRIN, the United-Nations linked news regional information network, which was quoted 13 times. Twenty-four media sources were cited. The Zimbabwe Independent was only cited three times, The Financial Gazette, once, and The Zimbabwean six times.
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