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Crisis Report - Issue 219
Crisis
in Zimbabwe Coalition
September 10, 2013
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Media
profession body moves to protect scribes
Zimbabwe
Union of Journalists (ZUJ) Secretary General Foster Dongozi
revealed in Harare on September 4 that his organisation plans to
set up a fund and hire lawyers on retainer to protect its members
in times of occupational danger after admitting that the work environment
for reporters in the country was littered with security problems.
“On the
issue of security for journalists particularly given the kind of
environment that we are operating in we have since launched a safety
fund which will be used to defend journalists in any form of problem
whether be it legal or otherwise,” said Dongozi, speaking
at the Annual Media Stake-holders’ Conference organized by
the Media Alliance
of Zimbabwe (MAZ).
“And because
we are a labour organisation we have also put a network of lawyers
around the country.
“It’s
a rapid response force of lawyers that is going to respond to any
cases that warrant or need attention.”
Dongozi also
revealed that the media profession body, seeing the gravity of the
security issues had decided to carry out safety trainings for journalists,
but added that the government was suspicious of the trainings.
“When
IMS sponsored a training in Zambia, the next thing was that we were
being accused of undergoing military training in a foreign land,”
Dongozi said.
Dongozi also
claimed that there was a lot of snooping activities by global governments
on journalists on the pretext of security enforcement.
“With
the internet fast becoming the major route of communication, authorities
across the world have made snooping on journalists their top priority,
Interception of
Communications Act and so on.
“We have
been seeing a lot of evidence that there has been quite a lot of
snooping on our telephones and internet that goes on depending on
the level of your prominence,” he said.
Dongozi said
that there was little chance that professional journalism and the
ethics of news reporting will be strictly adhered to in an environment
where journalists felt threatened and news reporters were susceptible
to corruption if they did not get adequate remuneration.
“At the
International Federation of Journalists we say in an environment
of fear and poverty, no professional or ethical journalism can be
expected to thrive,” he said.
“In line
with the working environment, the issue of sexual harassment is
the big elephant in the room that we don’t want to talk about,”
he said. “But the debates that we have held across the country
have indicated that from university the female journalism students
are abused in exchange for higher marks by lecturers.
“It does
not end there, when they go to the news room they are abused and
harassed by colleagues and senior people in the newsroom and also
subjected to sex for in return for better recommendation, or something
like that.”
Dongozi further
claimed that the problem was not being perpetrated by lecturers
and bosses alone but implicated news sources from different sectors
of society as being part of the culprits in this abominable usage.
“And it
gets even worse because even the news sources, very respectable
men and women that we did not expect to do such things end up stalking
them as well,” Dongozi said. “But obviously following
our interventions the cases have reduced because we are talking
about them and we are naming and shaming the culprits.
“So some
people while you mention it, they will think that you are talking
about them so they will quickly stop whatever they are doing which
is a plus for us.”
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