One of the mouthpieces of the Zimbabwean government, the state-owned "Herald" newspaper, has published a vicious personal attack against prominent Mozambican journalist Fernando Goncalves, editor of the independent weekly "Savana".
Goncalves headed a recent fact-finding mission sent to Zimbabwe by the press freedom body MISA (Media Institute of Southern Africa). The report, published earlier this month, dealt with such issues as political violence and the regime's abuse of the publicly owned media.
The "Herald" does not like fact-finding missions - an unsigned opinion piece published in Saturday's edition describes them as "New evangelists for imperialist aggression".
Incomprehensibly, it describes MISA as a "hermaphrodite", and, in a gross insult to the many southern African journalists working in MISA chapters, as a "she-male" western donor construct".
If the reference to the sexual nature of MISA is beyond understanding, except in terms of the pathology of the anonymous author, the repugnant personal attack on Fernando Goncalves is only too clear.
It describes Goncalves as "a hopeless, hobbling Magwitch- like figure", who allegedly "ran to Zimbabwe from war in his country". Previously, the "Herald" claims he had been "unemployed".
In fact, prior to taking up a job in Zimbabwe, Goncalves was the Chief News Editor of the Mozambique News Agency (AIM). He worked at AIM from 1980 to 1992.
An even worse lie is the claim that Goncalves ran away from the war of destabilisation that raged in Mozambique throughout the 1980s. As a matter of hard, indisputable fact, Goncalves went to Zimbabwe in January 1993. The Mozambican war ended with the peace agreement of 4 October 1992.
Responding to the Herald's attack, Goncalves told AIM "I did not simply pack my bags and fly to Zimbabwe. I was invited to go and work there".
And even if he had left because of the war, "how many people run away from wars in their countries ?", Goncalves asked. In Mozambique's case, the answer is over 1.5 million, who fled into neighbouring countries.
But Goncalves was not one of them. He worked at AIM throughout the most difficult period of recent Mozambican history.
Furthermore, his record is clean. "I should remain proud that while in my attributed "exile", I did not steal anyone's money, and I have no criminal case pending against me in any country", Goncalves added.
Perhaps the worst aspect of the attack on Goncalves is the sneer at his "hobbling". For Goncalves is disabled, and walks with a limp.
Goncalves told AIM he did not wish to comment "on some of the personal attacks directed against me, including ridiculing me for my physical disability. But the fact that the author of the article sought to resort to such personal attacks, rather than responding to the contents of the report, goes a long way to show that he had no arguments against it, and serves to validate some of the findings of the mission about the use of the state media in Zimbabwe to character assassinate those who dare to point out what is going wrong in the country".
As for "Magwitch-like", this is presumably a reference to the character Abel Magwitch in the novel "Great Expectations" by the 19th century British author Charles Dickens. Magwitch is a convict sentenced to transportation to Australia. Here he turns over a new leaf, becomes a successful farmer, and sends money back to the book's hero, the boy Pip. Magwitch makes the mistake of returning to Britain (a capital offence for a transported convict). He is sentenced to death in an unjust trial, but dies in jail before he can be executed.
What has this story got to do with Fernando Goncalves ? In what way does Goncalves resemble the Dickens character ? Perhaps the anonymous "Herald" author dropped in a literary reference to impress us all with his erudition. Perhaps he only read the first chapter of "Great Expectations", and concluded that Magwitch was an evil criminal, and therefore an apt comparison for anyone the "Herald" dislikes - had he bothered to read to the end of the novel, he would have discovered that Magwitch becomes one of the book's more sympathetic characters.
"In principle, I would not want to respond to a faceless author", Goncalves told AIM. "After all he knows me, but I do not know him. So, how can I debate any issue with a ghost ? But it is important to point out that it is a universally recognised best practice that editors should not compromise the professionalism and integrity of their newspapers by allowing anonymous authors to use their pages to launch personal attacks against individuals".
"While it is acceptable that newspapers may carry unsigned opinion pieces that are the responsibility of the newspaper as an entity, it is prudent in certain cases - such as this - for the authors to show their victims who they really are", Goncalves added. "But in the current environment, professionalism and integrity are the last things one would ask from the "Herald".
The anonymous article claims that the MISA report is "hopelessly pedestrian, fashioned along the what-I-want-to-be- when-I-grow-up Form One essay". But at no point does the "Herald" quote from the report.
Readers of the report are not told what the MISA mission discovered: instead the report's findings are hidden from the paper's readership.
In reality the report is a sober and moderate document. It does not call for the overthrow of the Zimbabwean government, and far from demanding the reversal of the land reform (as the "Herald" suggests) it does not so much as mention the issue.
Instead it concentrates on the conditions for free and fair elections and the state of the media, concluding that high levels of political violence, repressive legislation and the ruling party's abuse of the publicly-owned media are among the factors that call into question the possibility of free parliamentary elections in 2005.
If the "Herald" disagrees, then it had every opportunity to discuss the matter with the MISA mission. Goncalves and his colleagues requested, well in advance, meetings with representatives of the ruling ZANU-PF, and with journalists from the public media. But there was no response to these requests, and the MISA mission was not told why.
Among the mission's findings, for example, was that the state broadcaster, ZBH, is used to air "inciting and hateful messages" against opponents - not simply against the opposition Movement for Democratic change (MDC), but also "opposing views within the ruling party, NGOs, trade unions not associated with the ruling party, media groups such as MISA, advocacy groups and civil rights activists etc."
The Information Minister himself, Jonathan Moyo, the report added "was accused not only of interfering in the programming and editorial independence of ZBH, but was said to be in the habit of using the public broadcaster as personal property".
Is the "Herald" afraid of citing these specific claims ? If it disagrees, it could argue against them. But instead it has embarked on an anonymous slur campaign.
One of the people mentioned in the MISA report as targets for hate campaigns in the state media is the Catholic Bishop of Bulawayo, Pius Ncube.
Ncube is also attacked in the "Herald" article. He features in a list of three people dismissed as "purchased" Africans".
The other two are the former Anglican archbishopo of Cape Town, and Nobel peace prize winner, Desmond Tutu, and the deputy director of the South African Institute of International Affairs, Moeletsi Mbeki, brother of President Thabo Mbeki.
Why is Mbeki on this list of hate figures ? Could it have anything to do with the fact that in 2002, he publicly declared that Jonathan Moyo owes 100,000 rands to the TV production company Endemol, that Mbeki headed ? Moyo threatened to sue Moeletsi Mbeki, but never did so.
But the incident has not been forgotten and is perhaps a clue to the true author of the "Herald" article.
Fonte: AIM
