Zimbabawe’s Mugabe condemns ‘biased’ media

Langkawi – Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe criticised what he called unfair media reports aimed at muddying the image of developing countries, as Asian and African leaders held talks yesterday on fighting poverty.

Mugabe, whose country was grappling with a financial crisis that he blamed partly on Western economic sanctions, used a dialogue session with media representatives at Langkawi International Dialogue in Malaysia to slam news reports that are ‘quite often deliberately intended to tarnish and mislead’. Mugabe said: “Should our journalists really indulge in what they know to be deliberately misleading stories, and therefore stories that go against objectivity and the truth?” Zimbabwe was confronting an economic meltdown that had spurred the International Monetary Fund to warn that the country’s inflation rate might hit 100 000% by the end of the year.The World Food Programme appealed last week for funds to help more than 3,3 million Zimbabweans – more than a quarter of the population – suffering severe food shortages.Mugabe, a frequent critic of the West, was among some 500 government and corporate leaders from about 20 mostly developing countries attending an anti-poverty conference on Malaysia’s northern Langkawi island.In a speech late on Sunday to launch the three-day meeting, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi urged governments to give citizens more power in determining their economic destinies, saying “people need to be able to feel that they are directly involved in charting the future of their own country”.He noted that Malaysia – one of Southeast Asia’s most industrialised economies – had reduced poverty by providing more opportunities for people through education and training, as well as by improving health care and housing services.Abdullah said that low-income earners should “have better access and make better use of various resources including land, labour, physical capital, infrastructure and technology, among others”.Abdullah’s audience included Swaziland’s King Mswati III, who had been facing a pro-democracy strike against his sweeping powers and economic policies, including plans to tax pensions.Other countries in attendance are Sudan, Namibia, Zambia, Thailand, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Uganda, Botswana, Mozambique, Gambia, Laos, Malta, Cambodia and Tanzania.Nampa-APMugabe said: “Should our journalists really indulge in what they know to be deliberately misleading stories, and therefore stories that go against objectivity and the truth?” Zimbabwe was confronting an economic meltdown that had spurred the International Monetary Fund to warn that the country’s inflation rate might hit 100 000% by the end of the year.The World Food Programme appealed last week for funds to help more than 3,3 million Zimbabweans – more than a quarter of the population – suffering severe food shortages.Mugabe, a frequent critic of the West, was among some 500 government and corporate leaders from about 20 mostly developing countries attending an anti-poverty conference on Malaysia’s northern Langkawi island.In a speech late on Sunday to launch the three-day meeting, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi urged governments to give citizens more power in determining their economic destinies, saying “people need to be able to feel that they are directly involved in charting the future of their own country”.He noted that Malaysia – one of Southeast Asia’s most industrialised economies – had reduced poverty by providing more opportunities for people through education and training, as well as by improving health care and housing services.Abdullah said that low-income earners should “have better access and make better use of various resources including land, labour, physical capital, infrastructure and technology, among others”.Abdullah’s audience included Swaziland’s King Mswati III, who had been facing a pro-democracy strike against his sweeping powers and economic policies, including plans to tax pensions.Other countries in attendance are Sudan, Namibia, Zambia, Thailand, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Uganda, Botswana, Mozambique, Gambia, Laos, Malta, Cambodia and Tanzania.Nampa-AP