BY PRECIOUS CHIDA

INFORMATION, Media and Broadcasting Services parliamentary portfolio committee chairperson Prince Dubeko Sibanda has implored government to implement democratic media laws to address the polarisation in the industry.

Sibanda was speaking at the Media Alliance of Zimbabwe (MAZ), stakeholders’ conference in Harare on Thursday.

“There is mistrust between the ministry and the stakeholders in the media industry with regards to the manner the reforms have to be handled,” Sibanda said.

He said part of the mistrust emanated from the fact that despite the coming in of a new Constitution in 2013 and a promise of a new dispensation in 2017, all State-owned media remains entrenched in partisan and biased reporting.

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Sibanda said the ministry had been shifting goal posts on the reform agenda, raising questions about its sincerity. He commended some of the initiatives that the government through the Information ministry has taken to align some media laws to the Constitution.

Secretary for Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Nick Mangwana said the government was working on a policy framework that would re-energise the media sector.