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ZESN
holds a training workshop for journalists on local government elections
reporting
Zimbabwe
Election Support Network (ZESN)
August 26, 2003
Journalists
have attended and been party to a lot of workshops on an array of
issues. The workshop which was organised by the ZESN's Media and
Information Taskforce was held from the 15th to 16th August at Lake
View Inn Hotel-Kariba was aimed at capacitating journalists, particularly
those who report on elections, with the skills and knowledge of
covering elections in view of the Urban and Council elections, scheduled
to take place in the near future. However, knowledge on covering
elections on its own is not adequate. Journalists need to be equipped
with practical skills, ideas and knowledge of other guiding principles
such as laws and standards and ethics of practice in the process
of reporting on elections. The Election Reporting workshop sought
to impart the above - mentioned as well as facilitate the sharing
of knowledge and experiences on election coverage amongst the journalists.
The workshop
was designed to be highly participatory in order to give maximum
benefit to all participants. As a result, most of the sessions were
characterised by heated debates on the issues. During the introductory
sessions, the journalists showed a sense of awareness of what is
expected of them and an appreciation of the issues that the workshop
sought to address. Most acknowledged that the individual stood to
benefit from the interaction and sharing of knowledge.
The morning
sessions were conducted in plenary with either of the facilitators
giving platform to the participants to express their views while
the facilitator moderated. These sessions proved to be quite exciting
and most participants evidently benefited from the debates.
The afternoon
session (on day one) also proved to be quite interactive
as journalists got to share their views on smaller groups and presented
their findings in plenary. It was quite interesting to note that
all the groups had similar findings and they concurred on issues
relating to maintenance of ethics and standards but differed on
the implementation of these at house level.
Day two
was also packed with debate as journalists sought to link issues
discussed in day one with the Urban Councils Act and other laws
that govern journalists. All sessions on this day were in plenary.
The workshop
managed to address all the issues as set out in the objectives.
The workshop ended at 3:30p.m on Saturday after which, the participants
were free to sightsee in the Kariba neighbourhood.
Observations
- Attendance
- the workshop was attended by reporters from most forms of media,
particularly most print media houses and from the ZBC. Most newspaper
houses were represented including those from smaller towns. Equally
encouraging was all journalists’ willingness to participate in
an objective manner. All journalists present for the workshop
attended all sessions.
- Media
polarisation - also noteworthy was the issue of polarisation,
which constantly came up as a bone of contention in relation to
standards of reporting and access to information as well as on
how to report issues. It was however acknowledged that there was
not much the journalist could do in as far as house policies are
concerned but to try and be objective as far as possible using
the three principles of ‘fairness, balance and objectivity’. In
regards to debate, most participants showed tolerance to each
other’s differing views and contributed fairly reasonable answers
that showed understanding of what is expected of them
- Coverage
of elections - of note was the fact that reporters regarded
some anomalies that they espouse during the coverage of elections
as ‘necessary’ given the polarised media environment, which also
to some extent informs media house policies. Some were adamant
as to the practicality of changing some of the ‘unethical standards’
as they highlighted that it was part of the survival kit of a
journalist. On an individual level though, most reporters appreciated
the need for journalists to be to be aware of what was required
of them during election period. Some admitted having done unethical
things during elections but also admitted that change was subject
to the circumstances that the journalist is caught in. some of
the practical cases were said to border on ‘bread and butter issues’,
for instance, covering elections without accreditation.
- Urban
Councils Act - most journalists were not aware of the specific
provisions of the Urban Councils Act and how it should serve the
local government structures. An analysis of this Act provided
the journalists the platform to critique the various anomalies
within the act and in terms of how it is applied. Journalists
were urged to interrogate the Act to the advantage of the public
for the forthcoming Urban Councils elections.
- Electoral
laws and reform - Provisions of various laws were not common
ground for the journalists, especially laws that directly touch
on the operations of the journalists during election time. Most
journalists were familiar with media laws but showed little understanding
of how electoral laws work. While it was a common agreement that
journalists had a role to play in the electoral reform process,
most were not clear on the ideas of how journalists could go about
it. It was suggested by most that there was need for a workshop
where journalists could benefit from the discussions on electoral
laws and electoral reform.
- Access
to electoral information - most participants noted that in
terms of accessing electoral information, the Registrar-General’s
office proved to be the most difficult to access and the most
frustrating. Most did not regard CSOs as an integral part or important
source of information on elections. Participants however noted
that, when necessary, they did not have problems accessing information
from CSOs but had difficulty with those who are affiliated with
certain political parties due to some house policies, for instance,
the ZBC may not contact CSOs whom government considers as aligned
to the opposition.
- Election
news-writing - while journalists seemed conversant on the
practical electoral process, most interrogated the actual process
of capturing election stories and the challenges of making such
stories newsworthy and also highly informative. Most were of the
view that the life-span of electoral stories was very limited
and did not offer a lot of variety. However, several ways of elongating
these were proffered and possible areas to be written about during
election time were interrogated. However, it is my view that journalists
would benefit from a practical workshop on electoral reporting
vis-à-vis the actual story writing process.
Recommendations
- As was noted
by the participants, there is need for ZESN to come up with a
monitoring mechanism (in conjunction with MMPZ) to assess journalists
reporting during the electoral period. Focus should be on those
who attended the training. For future purposes, the report thereof
should be used as the port of call in correcting the journalists
and those to be trained in the future.
- A follow
up workshop should be considered at a later date in order to feed
back to the journalists on their performance and fall back on
some of the observed mistakes or the positive aspects observed
during the monitored electoral period. This would allow ZESN to
gauge the effectiveness of the training through rapport with the
concerned parties.
- ZESN should
consider holding election training workshops or refresher courses
for the journalists on an annual basis especially on electoral
laws/reforms.
- Journalists
need to also be capacitated with the actual writing skills of
election news and how to be both creative and informative about
issues relating to elections (it was observed that especially
during the pre-election period, most stories were mere profiles
of selected candidates). ZESN might consider election story-writing
as part of the training course in the future.
- A report
such as the one recommended in 1. should be compiled as a resource
book for future use by journalists covering elections.
For more information:
Ellen
Kandororo, Information Officer
Media and Communication Programme
E-mail: ellenk@zesn.org.zw
Visit the ZESN
fact sheet
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