Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. Former Zimbabwe Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara says African people should establish a media company owned wholly by black people so that outsiders will not decide what people on the continent watch.
Mutambara said this in response to DStv’s parent company, MultiChoice’s move to freeze Russia Today, a Russian television channel following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last week.
The former MDC leader said White people, through DStv, decide what Africans can watch, a situation he believes is less than ideal. Said Mutambara:
Multichoice (DStv) has just shut down RT (Russian Television) Channel across Africa because of the invasion of Ukraine.
It is the view of the company that Africans must not listen to anything balanced or sympathetic to Russia. Very sad and shameful, indeed.
Multichoice is an ‘African’ company switching off the entire continent from accessing balanced information about a war that has nothing to do with Africa.
White people who own this conglomerate are deciding what information is available to Africans across the continent.
If there was a need to demonstrate our lack of agency and control on the continent, this is it.
If we don’t control what information we have access to what else don’t we control?
If one white company on the continent can shut down access across the continent what does that say of us Africans?
White people who own an ‘African’ company, Multichoice have more influence than all the African governments put together.
Can we not set up an African company that we control as black people in the media space?
Given our 55 governments and our many black billionaires?
Why are we being totally undermined by one white company in our continent?
On Wednesday, 2 March, DStv froze RT after the European Union (EU) banned RT and another Russian state media outlet, Sputnik, from broadcasting in the bloc.
For More News And Analysis About Zimbabwe Follow Africa-Press
