Jonathan Moyo regrets media industry polarisation

Government has expressed concern over polarisation that characterised the country's media industry in the past 15 years adding that the vice will be dealt with accordingly in line with the provisions of the new Constitution.

Addressing Information and Media Panel of Inquiry panellists in Harare yesterday, Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo, said his ministry was duty bound to address the issue.

He also commended IMPI for doing a sterling job although it was yet to submit its report to the Ministry.

"Our public discourse, our interaction, our engagement with one another as citizens or residents has been characterised by deep-seated divisions and we have defined that as polarisation," he said.

"We need to align our practices with the new Constitution.

"It's the practices, which are the problem not the laws because there are a lot of people whose practices are still informed by the ideology of polarisation.

"This question of aligning our practices with the new Constitution is what is very important and a lot of the things that are happening - some arising from the submissions you (IMPI) may be getting and others related to what is being said about the panel has to do with misaligned practices and they will take time.

"But the fact that we should align our practices with the new Constitution raises fundamental questions from an information and media point of view . . .

"As a ministry, we have a responsibility to do this. We have even taken an oath of office that we will do so and do so in a manner that addresses everyone's interest."

Polarisation, Prof Moyo said, had become the central feature of the country's media and was evident in the manner in which people engaged at national level.

In this regard, he said it was important to find each other to ensure that the country moved forward.

"That polarisation has had a cost first in terms of our relationships as people," he said.

"It is not nice for people to be fighting every day. It is not nice to be in a country where every day is an election day.

"When you are in a country where every day feels like an election day, you can be assured that the big and even important questions or issues that need to be resolved and which make a difference, issues that have to do with attending to the business of the people, improving the livelihood of the people - attending to policy issues - that becomes difficult to do.

"You cannot do that where there is just polarisation or where the story of the day is about how divided we are, how quarrelsome we are, how disagreeable we are and how we are finding it difficult not to find each other."

On the work of IMPI, Prof Moyo said resistance that the panel faced in some areas was legitimate because there was no enough prior information on its mandate.

"When you have a public process all views are okay including those that denounce who have appointed you," he said.

"This is the nature of a public process but it should not dispirit you."

He said Zimbabwe was not used to such processes and IMPI was pioneering that.

Prof Moyo said reports that there were some tensions among IMPI panellists were a confirmation of the level of polarisation that had affected the country.

He, however, urged the panel to overcome such challenges and come up with a well thought out and informed report that helped to shape the country's media industry.

Prof Moyo said IMPI was apolitical, adding that it was composed of the country's best media practitioners.

Minister Moyo was accompanied by his deputy Cde Supa Mandiwanzira and permanent secretary Mr George Charamba.

IMPI has completed its outreach phase and it now wants to embark on a regional study of other countries' media industries.

IMPI chairman, Mr Geoff Nyarota, said their mandate ends at the end of this month.

He asked whether it was feasible to extend their working period to which Prof Moyo responded that it was feasible as long as it was sensible.