Somehow I don’t think a critical template was applied to this recent article about a conference in Geneva where the correspondent saw ‘vintage’ Robert Mugabe, whose speech ‘stood out’. As Natalie said about Ethiopia, to be fair the BBC do have some critical coverage- in this case some angles on how bad Mugabe’s Zimbabwe is. But why don’t they hold him to account personally, instead of permitting an article to fawn over him just because he stands out from the other leaders? Yes, he does stand out, amazingly enough in a continent with such corrupt and ‘colourful’ leadership. Maybe those leaders weren’t performing the ‘old classics’ about inequality and colonialism for their Swiss hosts because they still care about being included in a sane and potentially lucrative political discourse.
They wouldn’t take this ‘neutral’ a stance at the BBC if the vast bulk of their reporters didn’t look to blame ‘the West’ (and in this case us, the British) first, or if the vast bulk of reporters had any sympathy with the real deprivations of Zimbabwe. Where there is blame to be laid, you can guarantee it won’t be understood, let alone tolerated, by an intemperate despot like Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean Head of (a suffering) State. If you take any lead from such a man, the real story is already lost to you.
nb. I am aware the BBC has been banned from Zimbabwe by Mugabe- which in theory would limit their coverage. This only increases the bizarreness that the BBC are willing to talk of ‘vintage Mugabe’- the same vintage Mugabe that banned them I suppose. And by the way, no mention either of Mugabe’s travel ban (part of EU sanctions intended to affect him personally). A big thank you to the Swiss then, with an assist to Chirac who set the trend by inviting Mugabe to Paris- but didn’t shake his hand in a very, er, French compromise.
Just an aside: Switzerland isn’t in the European Union, so isn’t required to enforce EU sanctions.
No, but I read somewhere that they agreed to be bound by the rules on Mugabe. Sorry I can’t be more specific. Maybe they have some kind of agreement on the matter of such EU rulings, since it would make a mockery of a number of such arrangements if Switzerland declared itself exempt? Of course, to get to Switzerland he’d have to pass through air space or territories of countries that did sign up directly to the EU ruling- which probably have the power to have prevented that happening.