The Political Economy of the Media in Zimbabwe
The Political Economy of the media in Zimbabwe
The political economy of the media in Zimbabwe is mostly centered on the hands of the government. The government has control over major media players like the public media which include print and broadcasting media. Through its control of the public media it has greatly impede freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom of information and freedom of opinion in the media. However, the government has manage to give some private players room to establish their media houses but these players have to dance to the music of those who are holding power through following harsh media laws enacted by the government. Hence, the political economy of the media in Zimbabwe has negative influence on freedom of the press, freedom of expression, freedom of information and freedom of opinion. Scholars like Stanford Mukasa has linked this assertion to the fact that most countries which were colonized in Africa inherited the structure of the media which was used by their colonial masters hence it is always repressive.
Political economy of the Zimbabwean media is largely controlled by the government. The government has control over the large sector of the print media through its shares in ZIMPAPERS (Munyuki 2006). Through these shares the government has impeded media freedom of expression. The public media can not criticize the government since the editors of these newspapers which include the Herald, Chronicle, Sunday Mail and Sunday News are appointed by the minister of Information (Nyanhuzi 2001). This then implies that the editors of these newspapers were appointed after the government closely scrutinized their ideology if it goes hand in hand with the ZANU PF one party ideology. The freedom of expression which the media should endure is not promoted and if a journalist rights a story which criticize the government the story will never see the light of the day and the journalist might even get fired. In overall the
The political economy of the media in Zimbabwe is mostly centered on the hands of the government. The government has control over major media players like the public media which include print and broadcasting media. Through its control of the public media it has greatly impede freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom of information and freedom of opinion in the media. However, the government has manage to give some private players room to establish their media houses but these players have to dance to the music of those who are holding power through following harsh media laws enacted by the government. Hence, the political economy of the media in Zimbabwe has negative influence on freedom of the press, freedom of expression, freedom of information and freedom of opinion. Scholars like Stanford Mukasa has linked this assertion to the fact that most countries which were colonized in Africa inherited the structure of the media which was used by their colonial masters hence it is always repressive.
Political economy of the Zimbabwean media is largely controlled by the government. The government has control over the large sector of the print media through its shares in ZIMPAPERS (Munyuki 2006). Through these shares the government has impeded media freedom of expression. The public media can not criticize the government since the editors of these newspapers which include the Herald, Chronicle, Sunday Mail and Sunday News are appointed by the minister of Information (Nyanhuzi 2001). This then implies that the editors of these newspapers were appointed after the government closely scrutinized their ideology if it goes hand in hand with the ZANU PF one party ideology. The freedom of expression which the media should endure is not promoted and if a journalist rights a story which criticize the government the story will never see the light of the day and the journalist might even get fired. In overall the