WE HAVE BEEN CENSORED !! And I Don’t Like It!
This article, written by Cont Mhlanga, Writer/Director of ‘The Good President’, appeared in Maggie’s Morning Mirror:
The play The Good President will be showing at the Bulawayo Theatre from the 13th to the 16th of June. On Wednesday to Friday 5.30 pm and 7.30 pm, whilst on Saturday the play will be showing at 2.00 pm, 5.30 pm and 7.30 pm. It is 50min long and is followed with a discussion. The writer, Cont Mhlanga is the moderator and takes questions from the audience about the play as well.
The team has been going through a process of marketing the play, but we have been censored at the state controlled media and I don’t like it!Earlier, this week, we intended to place an advertisement in the Chronicle, Sunday News and Umthunywa in Bulawayo, all brands of Zimpapers. Our advert was refused unless I agreed that it be censored. The same advert ran uncensored in the private media because there was nothing worth censoring in the first place. Removed where the seven dialogue lines extracted from the script. And I don’t like it!
I welcome to be edited, but I don’t want to be censored, especially on some funny grounds that the policy of the public media in Zimbabwe is to protect the President. Yes the advert was censored on grounds that they are PROTECTING THE PRESIDENT. And I don’t like It.
On one hand I respect the right of the media house to censor advert content, but I how ever don’t like the reason given for doing that. Yes I don’t like it!
How are my seven lines in my script harmful to the President? Does this qualify my conclusion then that the President does not know what the majority of us are saying about the current situation we are in because some one is protecting him to hear and listed to what we have to say? When he speaks down to us, the same papers don’t protect us to listen to what he has to say? When we speak back to him through the same paper it protects him to listen to us. I don’t like It!
Could this be the reason why 27 years after independence the country has no private daily papers, no private radio channels, no private TV channels? To protect the President from listening to us! I don’t like It!
How does a public listed company in the stock exchange become a state controlled company whose policy is not to protect national interests but just to protect the President? I don’t like It.
Those who lived during the days of the Rhodesian Front will be instantly reminded of the days when there was heavy censorship of any news to do with the war. The editors ended up leaving the spaces blank to show that their stories had been censored. It is ironical that the same people who fought against such practices are perpetrating the same offences. I don’t like It!
Theatre is a means of expressing people’s opinions about government policies and it is surely very strange to be censored for expressing one’s opinions whilst the constitution is always for freedom of expression. The right to freedom of expression can only be taken away if it infringes on other people’s rights. I would like to maintain that telling the head of State, how one feels about governance issues can never be infringing on his rights. All things being equal a President is elected by the people hence he should be accountable to the people. If a President is afraid of people’s opinions, to the point that he has to be protected by the public media and even by making sure that there is no private electronic media in the country that one leads, then either the people censoring on behalf of the President have a problem or the President has a problem and for me when my country of birth is run by people who have problems then I don’t like It!
How are public opinions supposed to get to the President if the public media censors the people. Where will the public sphere take place? Where will we Zimbabweans talk?
The Government has spun a great web of fear, very worrying as national elections are around the corner. As we have been distributing flyers all over he city of Bulawayo, the top question that came from the public was, if we come and watched the play, will we not be beaten by the police in the auditorium? In one hotel at the city centre we got several calls from the staff the following day that we should come and remove our flyers as state security agents where asking too many questions or else they would get beaten up. This degree of public fear is not good for any government record in the world.
The Government has presented itself to the people as being capable of great state violence if people express their opinions over governance issues.
I Don’t Like It!!
If you are in Bulawayo don’t be afraid. Come and watch the play. If you are far from Bulawayo please inform some one you know, about The Good President.
Tickets are only Z $50 000 and Z$25 000. School kids Z$15 000
Cont Mhlanga
Writer/Director
The Good President
