African journalists are "stuck in
a rut" of writing negative stories and should concentrate on positive
things like football, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe is reported to have said.
The 91-year-old president, who has just disproved press
rumours that he had collapsed while on holiday in the Far East, said reporters
should concentrate on "good things”, according to Zimbabwe state media.
The official Sunday Mail quoted Mugabe as saying:
"Of course we feel that our journalists should report us better than they
have been doing all along."
He was speaking after a meeting with close ally Teodoro
Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea in Harare on Saturday. Both leaders have
been in power in their respective countries for more than 35 years.
"Report the good things that Africa is doing. There
are many positives, including football," the Zimbabwe leader was quoted as
saying.
Zimbabwe's soccer prowess did not appear to be such a
good story this weekend, with the Sunday Mail reporting that the national team
- the Warriors - had crashed out of the African Nations Championships after a
string of "miss[ed] chances” .
tate media and Mugabe's supporters are unhappy with
critical reporting from the local private press and foreign media on the
Zimbabwe president and his more controversial policies, including the land
reform programme and the drive towards company indigenisation.
The Sunday Mail appeared to be taking Mugabe's call for
positive press coverage to heart by publishing a glowing appraisal admittedly
not of the national soccer team but of the Zimbabwe president himself.
Mugabe "is the epitome of principle, boldness,
gallantry, endurance and most importantly African pride”, the newspaper said in
its lead editorial.
"We need not tell you how this honourable son of
Africa has steered the ship towards industrialisation," the editorial
continued.
The piece provoked a storm of sarcasm on Twitter, with
one Zimbabwean tweeting: "Shouldn't it read has steered ship towards
deindustrialisation?"
Opposition Movement for Democratic Change lawmaker Jessie
Majome retorted: "If that's what African pride is then give me
humility!"
Local media watchdog @ZimMediaReview said that the latest
edition of the Sunday Mail was "a collector's item for all those who
collect samples of the world's best boot-licking journalism."
The state ZBC broadcaster reported meanwhile that Mugabe
had seen off his Equatorial Guinean counterpart at the airport on Sunday
afternoon.
source:news24
About Unknown
0 comments:
Post a Comment