Wilf Mbanga, editor of the Zimbabwean
The first issue of a new newspaper compiled by Zimbabwean journalists in exile hit the streets today. The Zimbabwean is compiled by more than 50 refugees who have given their services free of charge to get the venture started. It is edited by Wilf Mbanga, the founder of the publishers of The Daily News, which was closed down by Robert Mugabe's regime in 2003. The weekly tabloid, which will be printed in Britain and South Africa, also has a website, although this is still very much in its infancy and will not be fully up and running until mid-March.
The paper's stated intention is to give a voice to the three million Zimbabweans - some 25% of the country's population - living in exile. An estimated one million live in Britain and two million in southern Africa, mainly in Botswana and South Africa.
On its website, The Zimbabwean promises to be "a newspaper dedicated to freedom of expression and access to information for all the peoples of Zimbabwe, founded on the sacred principles of journalism - fairness and honesty", and aims to "play a role in opposing everything offensive to basic human decency and hostile to peace, in order that Zimbabwe may return to the path of wisdom and sanity, and become once again an honourable nation, governed by honourable people with due respect for human rights, democracy and the rule of law".
