Minister claims BBC and CNN not banned

By Fortune Tazvida

Zimbabwe’s Information Minister Webster Shamu has incredibly claimed the country never banned the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and Cable News Network (CNN) from working in the country.

Shamu, the ministry’s Secretary, George Charamba, and Principal Director Dr Sylvester Maunganidze, met a BBC delegation on Sunday last week before holding discussions with CNN Johannesburg bureau chief Kim Norgaard on Tuesday.

A letter written to the BBC read;

“For the purposes of the record, I restate the main points of our meeting. We acknowledged the need to put behind us the mutually ruinous relationship of the past. We agreed that whatever communication problems which the BBC and officials of the Zimbabwe Government may have had in the past, the Zimbabwe Government never banned the BBC from carrying out lawful activities inside Zimbabwe.”

“To that end, the issue of ‘lifting the ban’ did not arise, with the BBC free to resume activities in Zimbabwe in terms of the country’s laws. The ministry emphasised that it would be important and helpful if the BBC would ensure that this misconception about ‘the ban’ was cleared worldwide, including with Unesco which had been wrongly made to believe that such a ban ever existed.”

Both organizations have been told they can work in Zimbabwe as long as they employ locals.