In September Saidi was in the Netherlands on the invitation of NiZA. He wasn’t afraid to return to Zimbabwe: "Next week we will be in the courtroom again to contest the shutdown of our paper."
Soviet Union
There is nothing new under the Zimbabwean sun when it comes to the maiming of independent newspapers. In 1981 Saidi worked for The Herald, the largest independent Zimbabwean newspaper at the time. The paper was taken over by the government. Saidi: "On day number two of the takeover I was handed a note which said that from that moment on, I was going to be pro Soviet Union and China and anti the United States and Great Britain. I threw the note away and resigned."
"From then on I knew that president Mugabe was a bad lot. It took the world a long time, however, to realize that Robert Mugabe, rather than the big reconciler who was going to make black and white live peacefully next to each other, was a power-mad person with a total disregard of his own people."
Saidi was involved in founding the Daily News in 1999. The newspaper called a spade a spade, which appealed greatly to the Zimbabweans. The paper’s daily circulation rose to 120,000 within two years of its existence. With a circulation of 60,000 the state newspaper, The Herald, contrasted poorly with its competitor. It has often been alleged that the Daily News acts as a mere club bulletin for the opposition party, the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change). "Rubbish," Saidi protested. "The fact that we speak out critically about the government does not imply that we are the mouthpiece of the opposition."
MDC members sometimes fail to remember, though, that the Daily News sets store by its independence. Saidi: "Not long ago the Deputy Minister of Education appeared in my office. This MDC manwas under the impression that I would be able to write a speech for him. Gently I got him to understand that independent journalists do not write speeches for ministers and deputy ministers."
Weapons of mass destruction
The critical stance of the Daily News on the new Constitution and the land redistribution issue have turned out to be nails in the newspaper’s coffin. In 2000 a bomb was detonated on the floor below the head office of the Daily News in Harare; however, it was not powerful enough to cause any serious damage to the office. In 2001 the printing press of the Daily News was blown up. None of those suspected of the bomb attacks have been arrested to this day.
The grand finale was the shutdown of the Daily News head office on 12 September by the police. "I reckon you’re looking for weapons of mass destruction?", the most junior journalist who witnessed the raid asked the morose policemen.
The reason for the police raid was that journalists at the Daily News had lodged a complaint against the AIPPA (Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act). Journalists who apply for registration in accordance with the AIPPA tie themselves down to the rules of the game drawn up by the government, which may well interfere with the freedom of expression and the free gathering of news. Because the journalists of the Daily News had not registered in accordance with the AIPPA, they were operating illegally and their paper had to close down, the Zimbabwean High Court ruled.
Next victims
Saidi expected the three remaining independent Zimbabwean newspapers, The Standard, The Independent and The Financial Gazette, with a circulation of around 40,000 for each paper, to be the next victims of the Mugabe government.
The general elections of 2005 will change everything, however. According to Saidi the people of Zimbabwe are starving and exhausted by fear and HIV. "Everyone, supporters of Zanu-PF and MDC alike, is fed up with the situation – as we will find out at the polls in 2005."
See also: Comment by Jeanette Minnie ALL RISE!
New website: http://www.daily-news.co.za/
Nienke van Trommel is a docter and free-lance journalist
Nienke@vantrommel.nl
