Black minister attacks press

Press, 11 June 1980, Page 9

Black minister attacks press

NZPA-Reuter London j The Zimbabwean Information Minister (Dr Nathan Shamuyarira) has described his country’s press as a remaining pillar of white power and said the new Government was determined to establish a free and independent mass media. Zimbabwe deserved a press and radio system that articulated the people’s wishes and defended the independence they had fought for and won, he said in an address read on his behalf to the Commonwealth Press Union in London. He added: “However, as most of our mass-media institutions are dominated by all-white establishment o’f the previous regimes, and by counterpart institutions in South Africa, freedom could

easily mean freedom to defend racism, fascism, and control by foreign powers that are anti-Zimbabwe.” Dr Shamuyarira said it was the general interests of the broad masses of Zimbabwe that had to be defended and not the privilege of a few. In Salisbury, another piece of Rhodesia has been chopped away with the removal of a public holiday commemorating Cecil Rhodes, the founder of the former British colony. Rhodes and Founders Week-end, the second one of July, is being replaced by Heroes Day in honour of the guerrillas who fought the white-led Rhodesian Army in the struggle for majority rule that ended with Zimbabwe independence in April.