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Farirai Machivenyika Senior Reporter
GOVERNMENT will soon come up with an all-inclusive mechanism to deal with issues raised during consultations with various media players in the country, Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo has said. “We have engaged the media, it is a continuous process but not an indefinite process,” said the minister during a media workshop organised by Silveira House in Harare yesterday.

“It is a process we are about to conclude its first phase after which we will have to come up with a much more considered mechanism for one to further reflect on the issues that have come up, about the regulation of the media, the business interests of the media that is accessing newsprint, technologies, convergence technologies, welfare issues affecting the interests of journalists and the broader issues of how the media can participate in nation building,”said Prof Moyo.

He said his ministry would employ a mechanism that will include all mainstream media players irrespective of ownership structure.
“The mechanism to probe these things will be driven by the media bringing the media together across the simplistic divide (public and privately owned media) that has not done us any good and we would like to be informed by that process and the two things that will be very instrumental in shaping our direction is what the media say to us and what the Constitution says to us and then the policy of Government in relation to those two things,” he said.

The minister, however, said Government would also stand guided by past events on how to do things differently.
Meanwhile, Prof Moyo said Government was committed to eradicate polarisation of the media.

“The Government recognises that the media has a very important role to play in coming up with a common or generally shared position on these issues (nation building and mechanisms of achieving that). The Government has been in office for seven weeks and we have given priority to the media to first make ourselves available against a backdrop of a very difficult period we are coming from as Zimbabweans of a highly polarised environment to begin with and more precisely the media environment,” he said.

Prof Moyo said Government wanted to eliminate the continued reference to public or private media as this did not add any value but was meant to cast aspersions on the media houses.

“Zimpapers, AMH, Modus Publications and ANZ are, in fact, respectable media houses in Zimbabwe and there is none of them who is better than the other by definition or by name,” he said.

“They all met the requirements of law to exist and they have a right to engage in the business which they are doing and so why smear them or any one of them through a label that has nothing to do with the content or their material.”

Prof Moyo said newspapers should now be distinguished by their content and not their ownership structure.
Prof Moyo has since his re-appointment showed his commitment to work with all the stakeholders in developing the country’s media sector and ending polarisation.

He has toured various media houses in the country, held consultative meetings and pledged to create an environment where both the public and private media will be driven by the common goal of setting the agenda for the country’s development.