#Bbc news zimbabwe professional#

Mr Hain says Britain is ''a friend of Zimbabwe'', but sums up current relations as ''a dialogue of the deaf''. Prime Minister Tony Blair came under fire for allowing the sale of spare parts for Zimbabwe's Hawk jets which have been used in the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.īritain, which boasts about its ethical foreign plolicy, has since tightened controls on arms exports to Zimbabwe and other countries involved in the civil war.īut Mr Mugabe may soon find it is not just weapons that he cannot buy.īritain has warned that his erratic behaviour is jeopardising Zimbabwe's chances of receiving international financial assistance. However, one of Britain's recent exports landed it in hot water.

Mr Hain, the British foreign office minister, has said Britain is ready to advise on proper land reform instead of the present 'pistol to the head' seizures.īoth London and Harare stand to lose if relations deteriorate further.Īround 7% of Zimbabwe's imports come from Britain which in turn takes 11% of its exports.

They have also warned that the farm invasions are harming production and further damaging Zimbabwe's struggling economy. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well. White farmers do not dispute the need to redistribute land.īut they argue it would be economic suicide to seize land from experienced farmers and hand it over to people with no experience of large-scale farming. BBC News is an operational business division 1 of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. Mr Mugabe is refusing to remove squatters from white farms Yet white farmers still own 70% of the most fertile land.īritish settlers began moving blacks off their farmland when they started arriving in Zimbabwe, formerly known as Rhodesia, in the 1890s.Ībout half the population were shifted onto barren communal properties - often in drought-prone areas. There are only 70,000 whites left in Zimbabwe, around 0.6% of the population. The problem of land reform lies at the heart of the tensions between the two countries. He refers to Mr Blair's administration as the 'the gay government of the gay United gay Kingdom'. The president accused Prime Minister Tony Blair of using 'gay gangsters' to attack him because of his controversial plan to seize farms owned by British descendants. Mr Mugabe was infuriated last year when the British gay rights activist Peter Tatchell tried to arrest him during a trip to London over the torture of two journalists. In several outbursts he has even accused Britain of polluting the world with homosexual values. The British government and media have been vocal in their criticism of Mugabe over the land reform scheme and the occupation of white-owned farms and repression of the press and judiciary in the former British colony.Mr Tatchell tried to arrest Mr Mugabe in LondonĪnd when a fuel shortage brought factories to a halt, he said it was because British-owned banks were hoarding foreign exchange. To the regime of former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. Grant Ferrett, another BBC reporter, left earlier this year at the end of his permit which responded to the denial of Blair's work permit by likening the Zimbabwe government Telegraph, left the country after two years following a refusal by government to renew his work permit, in what Moyo said was purely an administrative decision. Propagating lies to the international community.'Īnother British journalist, David Blair of the British Daily Zimbabwe's Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa alleged that Winter and journalist Mercedes Sayagues of the Mail and Guardian - both of whom were given 24 hours to leave theĬountry - 'were distorting what is happening in Zimbabwe by

In February, Zimbabwe expelled Joseph Winter, a BBC residentĬorrespondent in Harare, for allegedly 'propagating lies'.

That is the bottom line, nothing less, nothing more,' the letter said.

#Bbc news zimbabwe professional#

'The time has come for the BBC to follow and uphold in Zimbabwe the same professional and ethical standards it follows in Britain. Moyo said it was 'apparent that, as happened many times before, the BBC approached the president's speech with a preconceived view to distorting it.' It added: 'There is a world of difference between 'forcible