Gov't puts pressure on newsprint producer ahead of run off

14 May 2008

The Zimbabwe government is exerting pressure on Mutare Board and Paper Mills (MBPM) to increase newsprint supplies to the state-controlled newspaper group, Zimbabwe Newspapers (Zimpapers), whose publications it hailed for “standing firm in defence of national institutions” during the March 29 elections.

The Minister of Information and Publicity Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said MBPM had undertaken to boost newsprint supplies to Zimpapers to 400 tons per month, but did not disclose how much was currently being delivered to the newspaper group from MBPM.

His statement, which came soon after a tour of the MBPM plant on Saturday, May 10, 2008 “to investigate the current newspaper shortages”, said MBPM management had pledged to increase newsprint supplies to Zimpapers to allow for wider circulation of the stable's newspapers.

Zimpapers publishes two dailies - The Herald and The Chronicle - as well as three English weeklies: The Sunday Mail, The Sunday News and The Manica Post. It also publishes entertainment magazines as well as two indigenous language weeklies.

While Ndlovu tried to suggest an amicable deal with MBPM's parent company ART Holdings' management for the increase in newsprint supplies, his ministry's permanent secretary, George Charamba, rebuked MBPM, saying it had failed to supply adequate newsprint to Zimpapers despite government all its requirements for increased supplies were in place.

He suggested this was linked to “the stepped-up anti-government, media-led hostility”.

“The Herald, The Chronicle, The Sunday Mail and Sunday News have now become city papers, not national as before. Government discussed this matter, wondering whether or not it was fortuitous that these supply problems surfaced around the time of elections and more or less the same time hostile tabloids published from Britain and South Africa were stepping up their imports into the country,” Charamba was quoted saying by The Herald during an address to Zimpapers workers last week.

Charamba paid tribute to Zimpapers for defending national institutions and Zimbabwe's electoral process, but said the state broadcaster had sold out.

“I am still trying to understand why the national broadcaster, breaking with a long established tradition of national activism and global leadership on national processes, surrendered to outsiders,” Charamba charged.

“ZEC (Zimbabwe Electoral Commission) could not have gone out to defend itself. It had to rely on other levers for its own defence. ZEC chairman Justice George Chiweshe is truly grateful and asks me to convey ZEC's message to Zimpapers and its staff,” Charamba said in complimentary remarks to Zimpapers.

Zimpapers newspapers have been accused of bias against the opposition parties and of working as a propaganda tool of the ruling party and the government.