By A Correspondent- Information ministry permanent secretary Nick Mangwana on Wednesday apologised over the harassment of journalists by state security agents during the course of their duties which had intensified during the 21 Day Lockdown.

He said this while peaking during a media webinar on the national response to COVID-19 in Zimbabwe organised by United Nations Development Programme and partners.

Mangwana said journalists play a critical role in peace building during the COVID-19 crisis and their duties must be respected constitutionally.

He said:

“Firstly, I would like to apologise on how some media players were ill-treated by State security agents of late.

Media is an essential service provider as it plays a critical role during the COVID-19 crisis. As a ministry, we are fighting two court cases where a media body has taken us to court while the deaf organisation is also fighting for their rights.

There was no need for us to fight in court over how journalists operate or those living with disabilities. We want to see media packaging and distributing information to the end-user so that we reach out to even marginalised communities.”

Asked how safe were the journalists exposing brutality among citizens by the security agents, he said that media had a constitutional right to expose what is wrong.