BY VANESSA C.K MUSARURWA

Great Zimbabwe University on Friday joined the world in commemorating the world press Freedom Day amid calls by media practitioners to align media laws with the constitution six years after the country adopted a new constitution in order for them to execute their duties freely.

The director of the Great Zimbabwe Campus radio, Golden Maunganidze said, “We have also reached out to our valuable stakeholders through partnership with organizations such as ZBC, Zimpapers, Yah FM,, and AB Communications and we are also working very closely with our local media Organizations here in Masvingo such as The Mirror, TellZim Newspaper, Masvingo Star and Hevoi FM to equip our media students with knowledge through work elate learning.”

The director added on to say that media stakeholders in the media industry have helped so much in producing energetic, focused and determined  news men and women who are instrumental in harnessing and facilitating communication towards development and restoration of democracy in the second republic.

The Vice Chancellor in his speech stated that press freedom is day has seen its promises to the revitalization of democracy and social change. “We associate Great Zimbabwe University with pursuit of research, production of knowledge and the dissemination of information, the development of individuals and the nation is made possible through access to knowledge, research outputs and intervention.” 

“In pursuance of the ideas of free access to information, I’m pleased to inform you that Great Zimbabwe University has embraced technology to live upon its mandate, this consistence to the second republic’s vision of 2030 as a ministry of higher and tertiary education, science and technology development 5.0 model of education which is geared towards innovation and industrialization”, said the Vice Chancellor.

Speaking at a Public Lecture at great Zimbabwe University, the minister of information, publicity and broadcasting Hon Mutsvangwa said “the government is doing everything possible within its capacity to make sure that all constitutional provisions which guarantee freedom of expression, media and access to information are practically realized. Work is ongoing to align different pieces of legislation to ensure they conform to the constitution in tandem the ideas of the second Republic.” 

Hon Mutsvangwa urged media practitioners, both qualified and aspiring to make good use of the media particularly the social media space in a bid to facilitate national development. “Access to information goes a long way in stimulating active citizen participation in democratic and government processes and because of what I presume to be monopolies and short comings of our media institutions, we have inevitably exposed our citizens to the nefarious, frivolous agendas of political and economic saboteurs who circulate fake news on social media, yes with the phenomenon of social media we are appealing to our citizens to circulate what is factual.  

In her speech, Hon Mutsvangwa reiterated on the importance of participatory democracy and urged every Zimbabwean to take part in national development. “The second republic is committed to move beyond the challenges of the first republic and make sure that citizens play a central role in the developmental processes of our country Zimbabwe.”