Zimbabwe, Russia Strengthen Media Cooperation to Tackle West's Disinformation

Zimbabwe and Russia are going to sign a memorandum of understanding in the media sphere, that will definitely broaden media space in the African nation, Monica Mutsvangwa, Minister of Information, Broadcasting and Publicity of Zimbabwe told Sputnik Africa.

"We are going to be signing a MoU with the media in Russia. And this is to make sure that we actually enlarge the media space in Zimbabwe," the minister said.

The official also stressed that the African nation have provided its citizens with the access to information.

"We have made sure that all people have access to information. My president, Dr. E.D. Mnangagwa, talks about access to information, universal access to information to all. And his mantra is ‘don't leave anybody behind or any place behind’."

In this regard, Zimbabwe has already laid the groundwork by namely licensing some local communities that used to have no access to radio or TV, while removing the monopoly on TV broadcasting.

"We have licensed a number of community radio stations, especially we started off with those marginalised communities who never had access to radio and television," she noted. "We have also made sure that we remove the monopoly which was in Zimbabwe with only one television station, which was the national broadcaster. And today as I speak because of the strictness of our President, Dr. E.D. Mnangagwa. In the last five years, we have managed to license six commercial televisions so that we are walking the talk, when you say access, universal access to information for all."

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Mutsvangwa outlined that the African nation has adopted social media, with all its advantages and disadvantages.

"And we also are aware of the fact that digital rights have become like human rights," she stated. "So we as a country have embraced social media with all its pros and cons, but we have embraced it".

According to the minister, the nation now is tuned for developing skills in the media domain.

"What we want now is training, as we speak to the media here in Russia to understand how they've dealt with misinformation, disinformation and fake news. So also, we also want to grow. You also have to understand, or most of our documents in Zimbabwe are still in analogue form. And you know very well that the young generation of today, they no longer go to libraries. Neither do they watch TV. They are all stuck with their media gadgets," Mutsvangwa outlined.

Moreover, Mutsvangwa emphasized that Zimbabwe is set to become "fully digitalized".

"So it is our job and this is what we are sticking investors in to make sure that we get fully digitalized, we move away from analogue and move into digitalization. Because if we don't feed our young generation of Zimbabweans the rightful content and leave them to depend on Facebook*, Twitter, American content, then we'll have a generation of people who are not proud of being who they are," she stated.

*Meta, Facebook are banned in Russia over extremist activities