(TALKZIMBABWE) MDC attempt to bribe newspaper exposed

MDC attempt to bribe newspaper exposed
By: TH-TZG
Posted: Friday, October 15, 2010 2:28 am

THE two formations of the Movement for Democratic Change approached Alpha Media Holdings chairman Mr Trevor Ncube to solicit favourable coverage from his newspapers against Zanu-PF. This information was revealed by the company's chairman, Trevor Ncube, in a public lecture at Midlands State University on Thursday.

Mr Ncube said MDC-T and MDC recently approached him separately for the favours. He is the publisher of three newspapers in Zimbabwe; two weeklies, The Zimbabwe Independent and The Standard and the daily newspaper, NewsDay. Mr Ncube also denied that AMH was foreign funded.

"About three weeks ago, a high-level delegation from both MDC-T and the MDC-M separately visited me and asked me why my paper (NewsDay) was anti-them in its reportage, but I frankly told them that I am not a pawn, which can be used willy-nilly.

"My newspaper has its own mandate and cannot be used by some other people who want to achieve their own agendas," he said.

He added: "These people were pushing me to be anti-Zanu-PF so that I could support them.

"They wanted me to work in their favour to damn Zanu-PF, but I refused because our values are that we will not support any political party.

"We are not in this business to support anyone. In 2005 again I had another delegation from MDC-M visiting me asking me to support them.

"We know we have been accused of being pro-MDC formations, but like in any country during election time, newspapers can support any political party of their choice.

"It is the duty of the editors to decide who they want to support, but it should not be on permanent basis."

Mr Ncube dismissed reports that some publications were denied licences to publish.

"There are some publications which were licensed, but cannot publish not because of Government, but because they are not ready," he said.

The Daily News is one of those newspapers that has been licensed, but has failed to take off.

It currently publishes online, despite previous claims that government was refusing to give it publishing rights.