The newly-appointed Minister of Information, Media, and Broadcasting, Jenfan Muswere, has made a commitment to liberalise the media sector and introduce various measures involving private players.
After taking his oath of office, Muswere expressed his ministry’s dedication to upholding the constitutional rights to freedom of the media and freedom of access to information.
Replacing Monica Mutsvangwa, Muswere faces the significant challenge of repairing the strained relationship between privately owned media outlets and the State. He said:
I want to assure you that I will be a minister of all media houses given the diversity.
We are mainly focused on nation building, we are mainly focused on ensuring that we have an informed society which is beneficial to President Mnangagwa’s vision 2030.
In that a knowledgeable society with the requisite information is beneficial to nation building so it will be more and more in terms of sharpening of strategic thinking in terms of the transformation of the media sector given the reality that in the context of the fourth industrial revolution you now have other social media platforms.
Muswere said there is a need to regularise media operations on social media given that more than eight million Zimbabweans now rely on social media for news and credible information.
There will be a lot of diversity in terms of our approach, in terms of moving away, in terms of collaboration and cooperation and also in terms of fusing the mainstream media and social media platform as we seek to ensure that we inform each and every citizen of this country.
Muswere also emphasised the importance of infrastructure development throughout the country and highlighted the need for a shared responsibility among all media houses to foster unity among the people of Zimbabwe. He added that there will also be infrastructure development across the country and at the same time a shared responsibility across all media houses as we seek to ensure that we unite the people of Zimbabwe.