|
Back to Index
Disregard
for basic journalistic principles
Media
Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2005-39
Monday October 10th – Sunday October 16th
2005
IN the week
under review ZTV’s Newsnet again demonstrated its total disregard
for basic journalistic principles, which has long been a characteristic
of the station’s news reports. Instead of sticking to factual reports
of news events, its reporters and presenters embellish their coverage
with the insertion of comment and unsubstantiated allegations that
distort the intrinsic truth of the news item. In addition, the targets
against which the allegations are made are rarely, if ever, given
a chance to respond.
The 8pm bulletin
on Thursday (13/10) aired three news items, two by Newsnet’s chief
correspondent, Reuben Barwe, that serve as typical examples of such
unprofessional journalism.
While reporting
on the occasion of ambassadors presenting their credentials to President
Mugabe, Barwe opened the story with his own unsubstantiated and
irrelevant claim that "despite the concerted efforts
by the United Kingdom to isolate the Republic of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe
still has a lot of friends across the globe" before
telling viewers that "seven ambassadors presented their
credentials to President Mugabe at the State House…"
In this way he dishonestly attempted to give the impression that
a standard diplomatic procedure of protocol was an expression of
solidarity with Zimbabwe.
His other story
also departed from the swearing-in event of two High Court judges,
Felistas Chatukuta and Joseph Musakwa to ask Chief Justice, Godfrey
Chidyausiku, a biased leading question premised on an inaccurately
racist suggestion: "Quite a number of your detractors
out there say the bench has been compromised; it is all black and
you seem to be swimming along with the whims of the executive. Do
you buy that?" This was evidently phrased in a way
that would allow the Chief Justice the opportunity to respond with
a simplistic and irrelevantly racist answer that did nothing to
address important contemporary concerns that the judiciary has indeed
been compromised. Chidyausiku’s response was predictable,
"it was compromised then because it was all white and it was
swimming with the all-white government…"
This was the
latest example of what has become Barwe’s style of manipulating
the news.
Another unbalanced
story in the same bulletin simply depended on a faceless statement
from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs admonishing the United States
Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Christopher Dell, for attempting "to
disregard and undermine Zimbabwean security laws" and
create "a diplomatic incident." It turned
out later in the story that Presidential Guards had arrested the
diplomat for trespassing into a security zone at Harare’s Botanical
Gardens.
Without the
basic journalistic instinct to conduct its own investigations to
establish the facts, ZTV ran the entire statement and continued
to quote an unnamed Defence spokesman threatening that "anyone"
who went into the restricted area would "risk being shot…and
the American diplomat has the man on duty to thank for his tolerance
and restraint in their execution of duty…" No comment
was sought from the diplomat or the US embassy. The incident itself
was not directly reported, leaving audiences to guess at the truth
of the story from the government’s heavily one-sided statement.
Such unprofessional
journalistic practice has become entrenched at the national public
broadcaster and demonstrates the urgent need for its reform.
In another incident
undermining the nation’s right to be informed, the public media
censored news of Justice Omerjee’s ruling ordering the police and
Harare City Council not to evict 50 Mbare families who built shacks
in the suburb after their homes were destroyed in
the government’s purge on the urban poor, dubbed Operation Murambatsvina.
This reinforced the urgent need for alternative media institutions,
free from state control, and particularly a total reform of the
national public broadcaster.
Only Studio
7 and SW Radio Africa (10/10) carried news of the court ruling.
ZBH and the
government Press have long been manipulated to reflect the voice
of the authorities at the expense of the truth and impartiality
in their coverage of the news. In this particular case, the ruling
would have tarnished the exclusive impression they have been portraying
that the government purge was actually a programme aimed at "providing
decent accommodation" for Zimbabweans.
For example,
ZBH flooded its audiences during the week with 28 stories (ZTV,
17; Power FM, 11) on Murambatsvina’s successor, Operation
Garikai that simply sought to glorify the government
for initiating the programme while exonerating it for failing to
meet its own deadline.
In another example
of ZBH’s failure to assess the accountability of the government
and provide a fair and honest report of its housing programme, a
Colonel Callisto Gwanetsa, involved in the operation, was reported
simply announcing that "276 houses have so far been roofed
at Whitecliff Farm." (ZTV, 12/10, 8pm).
But the report
made no reference to an earlier court order barring government from
building houses at the farm because it is privately owned. It did
not clarify if the court order had been overturned or whether the
authorities were simply acting in total disregard of the law.
Visit the MMPZ
fact sheet
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
TOP
|
