'The media is our next enemy' - Moyo

Jonathan Moyo, Zimbabwe's information minister, has said that journalists who peddle "lies" in the foreign media deserve to be jailed.

An AFP report quoted Moyo as saying that the media was the next enemy that needed to be dealt with after the government had finished with its clean-up in the financial sector. He claimed that a section of reporters lie about the country in their writings, and labelled them "terrorists".

"President Mugabe has said our main enemy is the financial sector, but the other enemy is the media who use the pen to lie about this country ... such reporters are terrorists and the position on how to deal with terrorists is to subject them to the laws of Zimbabwe.

"If there are any reporters who think they would effect a regime change here they would find themselves in jail. We have enough prison room for them."

A Sky News TV crew was ordered to leave Zimbabwe last week after the government claimed that they had entered the country illegally. Reacting to that, Moyo said, "We had invited them to do a co-production with NewsNet [the state television] and we had said we want to know who will be part of their team and who will be on the NewsNet team. But before we knew it, they were already in the country.

"Those guys are trash and we do not need them. And Sky TV is no exception. Whether it's CNN or whatever, we have no illusion that they have changed."

Ozais Bvute, who is the chairman of the ZCU marketing committee and also responsible for implementing racial quotas, is reckoned by many to have a direct line to Moyo. Apart from the Sky TV crew, two sports journalists were expelled after immigration officials claimed that they had incorrect paperwork.