THE NEW MEDIA POLICY A DAMP SQUIB…The recently launched media policy by the Zanu PF administration is yet another hollow gesture. Let’s be clear: the real crisis in Zimbabwe’s media sector is not a lack of policy, but the continued criminalisation of journalism. No amount of lipstick will beautify a frog. Instead of opening space for investment and innovation, this policy tightens the administration’s grip on the media. True reform would have meant breaking the monopoly, not entrenching it; promoting local investment, not stifling it. A real media policy would empower journalists, not threaten them with deregistration under vague “rules and standards” designed to muzzle dissent. It would promote self-regulation, as we see in other respected professions. It would transform ZBC and Zimpapers into genuine public service platforms, not echo chambers of outdated propaganda. The so-called proposed Media Fund will burden struggling media houses even further. Our journalists, including those in public media, are earning peanuts, not because of poor work ethic, but because of collapsing revenues aided by a hostile environment. This policy offers no meaningful support for retooling in the digital age. It’s not a new dispensation, it’s a new deception. We need a complete overhaul. It is time to decriminalise journalism, dismantle media capture, and enable Zimbabwe’s media to thrive as a job-creating, economy-boosting industry. For the people. For the country. For God. Forever and always.~ nc