In Zimbabwe, the truth is not always welcome. Zimbabwe Cricket yesterday used the pro-government Herald to denounce Cricinfo’s recent reporting as being biased.

The website’s uses a correspondent who uses a pseudonym Stephen Price who has clearly taken sides with those who are rebelling against the board’s authority.

What the article, a thinly-disguised plant by the board, fails to grasp is that reporting the truth is not taking sides. It also fails to deny that the meeting and vote of no confidence referred to took place. Zimbabwe’s stakeholders are fed up with the management, and no end of media manipulation can hide that fact. This is the paper that ignored the defeats by Kenya, and neglected to mention any of the anti-board incidents which have occured in recent months.

And why does our man in Harare use a pseudonym? Because in Zimbabwe, journalists who oppose authority have an unfortunate record of being singled out for persecution. The pseudonym is not cowardice so much as self preservation.