The Newsbearer
The Newsbearer
He died
For bearing the news
They didn’t want people to hear.
by Lawrence Hoba
CNN’s Christiane Amanpour talks to Robert Mugabe
On Amanpour this Thursday, Christiane Amanpour sits down for an EXCLUSIVE live interview with the President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe.
In President Mugabe’s first interview with a major Western media outlet in years, Christiane will explore the historic power-sharing agreement with the unity government there, and get the president’s thoughts on the highly-emotive issue of land redistribution.
As Mugabe prepares to take centre stage at the UN on Friday, Christiane will take the opportunity to ask if the power-sharing agreement is really working, if international sanctions are responsible for his country’s economic and political turmoil, and what kind of engagement he is looking for from the international community.
In this rare interview, Christiane will also address signs of optimism emerging in Zimbabwe; sky-rocketing inflation stabilising, basic goods returning to store shelves, and a loosening of restrictive media laws.
Amanpour is CNN International’s new live global interview programme, which launched on 21st September 2009 as the centrepiece of its new evening line up.
Trevor Ncube, Media Mogul
Zimbabwean, Trevor Ncube is a one of Southern Africa’s most powerful newspaper publishers. His media empire spans Zimbabwe and South Africa where he owns newspapers, printing presses and distribution networks.. and he says he now looking to expand his business further into Africa. Trevor Ncube started working in Zimbabwean newsrooms - writing and editing - but he says he soon realised he prefered being behind the scenes.
He now owns sister publications The Independent and the Standard in Zimbabwe as well as Mail and Guardian newspaper in South Africa. A self-described idealist Ncube believes in the power of the press to change and influences societies for the good. After years of restrictive press laws and harassement of the media, he says the time is now right to launch a new daily newspaper in Zimbabwe
“In the past ten years, journalists have been seen as the enemies of the state, newspaper publishers have been hounded, foreign journalist have been hounded. This means we have existed in an environment where we were seen as a group of people to be eliminated, arrested, but still we expanded the democratic space and provided a platform where people talk to each other, where the nation looks at itself and decided which paths to follow. I’m very optimistic, about the short term,” commented Ncube.
To hear more from this African Media Baron tune into CNN’s African Voices on Saturdays at 12.30 and 21.30 GMT; Sunday August 16, 18.00 GMT
