{"id":10457,"date":"2012-05-03T20:32:18","date_gmt":"2012-05-03T18:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/05\/zimbabwe-minister-threatens-media-crackdown\/"},"modified":"2012-05-03T20:32:18","modified_gmt":"2012-05-03T18:32:18","slug":"zimbabwe-minister-threatens-media-crackdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/zimbabwe-minister-threatens-media-crackdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Zimbabwe minister threatens media crackdown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Minister threatens journalists on press freedom day<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Accused of intimidation tactic ahead of elections<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By Cris Chinaka<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>HARARE, May 3 (Reuters) &#8211; Zimbabwe on Thursday threatened a<br \/>\ncrackdown on the media over what it called sensational and<br \/>\ninaccurate reporting, following  stories over the health of<br \/>\n88-year-old President Robert Mugabe.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>However critics said the warning from the country&#8217;s<br \/>\ninformation ministry, controlled by Mugabe&#8217;s ZANU-PF party,<br \/>\ncould be an attempt to intimidate journalists ahead of elections<br \/>\nexpected next year.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Senior ZANU-PF officials last month were forced to issue<br \/>\nstatements dismissing reports that Mugabe was seriously ill in<br \/>\nSingapore, saying the stories were lies meant to destabilise<br \/>\nZimbabwe.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Addressing journalists at an event to mark World Press<br \/>\nFreedom Day on Thursday, information minister Webster Shamu<br \/>\nsaid: &#8220;If the clearly anti-African and anti-Zimbabwe frenzy we<br \/>\nhave experienced through some media outlets and platforms in<br \/>\nthis country continues, and if the conspiracy of silence within<br \/>\nthe media industry and profession also persists, the gloves may<br \/>\nsoon be off here as well.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Mugabe was forced into a power-sharing deal with his rival<br \/>\nand now Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement<br \/>\nfor Democratic Change, after a disputed 2008 poll which Western<br \/>\npowers said was marred by ZANU-PF violence and intimidation.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Under the terms of the deal, elections must be held by next<br \/>\nyear.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>* Minister threatens journalists on press freedom day * Accused of intimidation tactic ahead of elections By Cris Chinaka HARARE, May 3 (Reuters) &#8211; Zimbabwe on Thursday threatened a crackdown on the media over what it called sensational and inaccurate reporting, following stories over the health of 88-year-old President Robert Mugabe. However critics said the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-10457","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10457\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}