Zimbabwe: Mugabe's Media Legacy

As Mugabe responds to reports that his wife assaulted someone, we examine the president's media tactics.

As Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has seen his popularity wane over the years, he has developed a time-worn tactic when faced with criticism in the media: dust off the anti-imperialist credentials and deflect attention onto Zimbabwe's white former colonial masters inside and outside the country.

Mugabe's response to a recent incident involving his wife, Grace, in South Africa, was a case in point. When the South African press censured Mrs Mugabe for allegedly assaulting a woman in Johannesburg, the president countered by questioning why whites still wield so much power in South Africa.

Even as a revolutionary, Robert Mugabe understood the power of the media. While in exile in neighbouring Mozambique in the 1970s, Mugabe would spend hours on the radio broadcasting speeches back into what was then called Rhodesia, calling for the end of white-m

India: Godmen, Con Men and the Media

We analyse how Indian media cover the so-called 'godmen' in the country. And we look at Mugabe and the Zimbabwean media.

India is dealing with the fallout from an unusual kind of protest that took place last weekend. Thirty-eight people were killed during a violent demonstration against the conviction of the leader of a religious sect for raping two of his female followers.

Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, one of India's so-called "godmen", has as many as 60 million online devotees, and last weekend's protest was not the first to turn violent in his defence. The reporter who first revealed Singh's sexual misconduct was shot dead shortly after the story broke. 

Singh is a flamboyant character who has used the Indian airwaves to build a one-man publicity machine, and his case has shed a light on how sect leaders are presented in the Indian media.