Zim and Namibian govts to launch ‘regional’ newspaper

THE head of Namibia’s Government-owned bi-weekly New Era newspaper has scoffed at suggestions that a planned regional publication by his organisation and Zimbabwean state run media will be a propaganda tool to counter “anti-Zimbabwe stories”.

New Era Managing Director, Protasius Ndauendapo, told The Namibian yesterday that the idea of a new newspaper was conceived from “purely business principles”. “People should not think that there is a political agenda.We were not pushed by any politician to embark on the project… this is a purely business venture,” maintained Ndauendapo.New Era Publication Corporation and Zimbabwe’s Zimpapers on Wednesday signed a co-operation agreement which will pave way for them to start a regional newspaper called the New Sunday Times to “counter the threat of the global media to African values”.The deal has, however, raised eyebrows in the region with critics in some neighbouring countries describing it as a “Mugabe [Zimbabwe’s President Robert] and Nujoma [Namibia’s President Sam] propaganda tool”.But Ndauendapo strongly refuted these insinuations.He said the project was part of a broad co-operation agreement between the two media groups, which includes news and information sharing and reciprocal secondment of staff for capacity building.He said apart from the envisaged newspaper, New Era and Zimpapers were also exploring the possibility of launching a regional tourism magazine in the near future.The New Era head said that the New Sunday Times will focus on enhancing the existing co-operation between the two countries and “help our people in the region better understand one another”.Ndauendapo said the newspaper will be distributed in all southern African countries and will start publishing on July 1.Assistant Editor of Zimbabwe’s state run Herald newspaper, Moses Magadza, will edit the New Sunday Times, assisted by a staff member from New Era.Ndauendapo said in its initial stages the new newspaper would depend on articles from New Era and Zimpapers, but it ultimately expected to be independent.The new publishing project comes in the wake of the signing of memorandum of understanding in February by the two countries’ by Information Ministers Nangolo Mbumba and Jonathan Moyo of Namibia and Zimbabwe respectively.”People should not think that there is a political agenda.We were not pushed by any politician to embark on the project… this is a purely business venture,” maintained Ndauendapo.New Era Publication Corporation and Zimbabwe’s Zimpapers on Wednesday signed a co-operation agreement which will pave way for them to start a regional newspaper called the New Sunday Times to “counter the threat of the global media to African values”.The deal has, however, raised eyebrows in the region with critics in some neighbouring countries describing it as a “Mugabe [Zimbabwe’s President Robert] and Nujoma [Namibia’s President Sam] propaganda tool”.But Ndauendapo strongly refuted these insinuations.He said the project was part of a broad co-operation agreement between the two media groups, which includes news and information sharing and reciprocal secondment of staff for capacity building.He said apart from the envisaged newspaper, New Era and Zimpapers were also exploring the possibility of launching a regional tourism magazine in the near future.The New Era head said that the New Sunday Times will focus on enhancing the existing co-operation between the two countries and “help our people in the region better understand one another”.Ndauendapo said the newspaper will be distributed in all southern African countries and will start publishing on July 1.Assistant Editor of Zimbabwe’s state run Herald newspaper, Moses Magadza, will edit the New Sunday Times, assisted by a staff member from New Era.Ndauendapo said in its initial stages the new newspaper would depend on articles from New Era and Zimpapers, but it ultimately expected to be independent.The new publishing project comes in the wake of the signing of memorandum of understanding in February by the two countries’ by Information Ministers Nangolo Mbumba and Jonathan Moyo of Namibia and Zimbabwe respectively.