SUB EDITORS with the Herald newspaper who were on duty last week when President Robert Mugabe fell at the Harare International Airport upon arrival from Ethiopia have been ordered to write reports detailing who authorized them to publish the aging leaders’ pictures.
President Mugabe Wednesday fell as he stepped down from the podium after addressing party supporters who had come to welcome him at the airport.
Despite attempts to censor the journalists Mugabe’s pictures went viral and were developed into an internet meme.
The memes featured a cut-out image of Mugabe in various imagined circumstances, such as part of Beyonce’s Single Ladies choreography, surfing or running from security forces.
A highly placed source at the Herald Newspaper told Newzimbabwe.com that last Friday three sub editors were ordered to write ‘comprehensive’ reports explaining who authorized them to publish pictures of the aging leader’s famous fall.
On Wednesday, immediately after the airport mishap, CIO officers forced some of the journalists covering the event to delete the pictures.
The source said the sub editors were authorized by the editor.
“We see this as being unfair on the part of the government because the pictures were published for propaganda purposes and it was after we had been directed to use them.
“Also the pictures did not originate from the Herald but from the President’s office through his photographer Joseph Nyadzayo, whom we all saw in the newsroom Wednesday evening. It was after Nyadzayo had come to the Herald and had a meeting with the editor Caesar Zvayi that sub editors then published the pictures on a story claiming that the President had not fallen but slipped,” said the source who requested anonymity.
