The Herald is a government owned daily newspaper published in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe.
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The newspaper's origins date back to the 19th century. Its forerunner was launched on June 27 1891 by W E Fairbridge[1] for the Argus group of South Africa. Named the “Mashonaland Herald and Zambesian Times”, it was a weekly, hand-written news sheet produced using the cyclostyle duplicating process. In October the following year it became a printed newspaper and changed its name to "The Rhodesia Herald”.[2]
The Argus group later set up a subsidiary called the Rhodesian Printing and Publishing Company[3] to run its newspapers in what was then Southern Rhodesia.
After the white minority Rhodesian Front government unilaterally declared independence on 11 November 1965, it started censoring The Rhodesia Herald. The newspaper responded by leaving blank spaces where articles had been removed, enabling readers to gauge the extent of the censorship.
In 1981, after Zimbabwe became independent, the government bought The Herald and other papers from the Argus group, using a US$20 million grant from Nigeria[4], and established the Zimbabwe Mass Media Trust[5] to operate them. The Trust created Zimbabwe Newspapers, Ltd., as the publisher of the papers.
Other newspapers published by the same group include The Sunday Mail in Harare, The Chronicle (Zimbabwe) and The Sunday News in Bulawayo and the Manica Post in Mutare.[6] The Chronicle, launched in October 1894 as The Bulawayo Chronicle, is the second oldest newspaper in the country.[7]
The Herald has for some time been noted for its completely one sided reporting for the government of President Robert Mugabe and the Zanu-PF party, and its demonization of the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). It often accuses the MDC of being agents of colonial powers.[8]
The Herald faces limited competition from within Zimbabwe, although there are still several independent newspapers based in Zimbabwe, such as the Independent, due to very restrictive accreditation laws in Zimbabwe.[9][10] Many opposition media claim that the paper has evolved into an instrument of rather crude and aggressive propaganda.[11] (On the other hand, it often offers important insights into the workings of the Zanu-PF elite.) The editorial staff are open in their partisanship.[12] The paper makes no pretense of impartiality. The editors also support the restrictions on opposition newspapers. Their rationale for this is explained as follows by Caesar Zvayi, a regular contributor to the Herald:
In mid-May 2008, its website was briefly shut down by cyber hackers.
The Herald's offices are in Herald House, overlooking Africa Unity Square in central Harare.
As of February 2010, the editor of The Herald was Pikirayi Deketeke.[13]