Deputy Chief Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet (Presidential Communications) George Charamba has renewed calls for public funding of journal...
Deputy Chief Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet (Presidential Communications) George Charamba has renewed calls for public funding of journalism in Zimbabwe, arguing that the media should be treated as a public good.
Charamba made the remarks in a post on his official X account as Zimbabwe’s media industry continues to face financial and operational pressures linked to declining revenues, changing audience habits and the rapid growth of digital and online journalism.
He said governments in other countries support the media through different funding mechanisms, including direct state funding and tax concessions.
“In many jurisdictions, the media get public funding in many ways: direct funding by the State – not Government! – or, indirect funding through numerous tax concessions especially around inputs into their production processes,” Charamba wrote.
He said some countries also provide targeted support to smaller publications, which he described as “fringe publications”, in an effort to maintain plurality in the media sector.
“More sophisticated jurisdictions give ‘bottom-up’ support, which is to say greater support is extended to smaller, struggling fringe publications to ensure plurality of voices,” he said.
Charamba pointed to Nordic countries as examples of jurisdictions where state support for journalism exists.
He argued that similar proposals in Zimbabwe have faced resistance, with critics accusing him of seeking to use public funding to influence or control the media.
Charamba said this criticism was inconsistent with the existence of foreign-funded media support programmes in Zimbabwe, which he argued had also involved external governments and organisations.
He questioned why state support for the media was viewed by some as a threat to press freedom while funding from foreign governments and organisations was regarded differently.
“Here State support faces aspersions from the same media and readers who think funding from foreign governments channelled through pseudo-NGOs or institutions like USAID when it lasted is the shibboleth of free press/media in the sense of an institution insulated from the State,” he wrote.
He further criticised what he described as an artificial distinction between private media and government-owned media, arguing that the distinction had contributed to divisions within Zimbabwe’s media environment.
According to Charamba, private media organisations have also relied on state advertising while operating commercially.
“Meanwhile, not once did any of the so-called private media turn down advertorials from the State,” he said.
He also argued that media organisations had not generally provided their products free of charge while limiting commercial opportunities to private-sector advertisers.
Charamba said the changing funding environment had forced media industry stakeholders to reconsider the economic foundations of journalism.
He said journalists, trade unionists, managers and media proprietors were increasingly recognising the challenges created by the disappearance or reduction of some forms of external funding.
“Journalism is a public good which can and should be publicly funded!” Charamba said.
The debate comes as media organisations globally continue to search for sustainable business models amid declining traditional advertising revenues, competition from social media platforms and changing consumer behaviour.
In Zimbabwe, newspapers and other news organisations have increasingly expanded into digital publishing as audiences move online.
Public funding of journalism, however, raises questions about how financial support can be structured without compromising editorial independence.
Any such model would therefore require clear rules on eligibility, allocation and oversight to prevent funding from becoming a mechanism for political influence.
Charamba’s proposal adds to an ongoing debate in Zimbabwe over how the country can sustain a diverse media sector while protecting editorial independence and ensuring access to information.
