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Auxillia Katongomara Chronicle Reporter
THE Western sponsored newspaper, The Zimbabwean which started publishing 11 years ago as part of an anti-government campaign meant to effect a regime change, has shut down. The publication is the latest casualty of donor fatigue.

The publication, infamous for publishing negative articles against the government, yesterday bade farewell to its readers through a copied “Thank you and good bye” statement originally coined by Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World.

The now defunct weekly’s Editor Wilfred Mbanga yesterday posted a statement on the paper’s website expressing “gratitude” to their “many donors from many different nations who provided the monetary support for us to be able to produce a paper in an economy characterised by fear — where advertisers were too afraid to support us.”

Mbanga said they wanted to honour the donors for their “commitment to freedom of expression and the people’s right to know.”

He said the newspaper would however continue to publish stories on its website.

Despite efforts by the United States and its Western allies to effect regime change by sponsoring publications like The Zimbabwean and political parties in the form of the MDCs, the revolutionary Zanu-PF party has managed to ward off the onslaught.