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MISA-Zimbabwe's response to ZBC attack
MISA-Zimbabwe
July 06, 2011
The recent malicious
attack on MISA-Zimbabwe by ZBC aimed at eroding the organisation's
integrity as an adherent of democratic values and practices, cannot
go unchallenged. The attack, which sadly came as MISA mourned
the death of its member Joseph Mandizvidza who died in a car accident
on his way to the organisation's Annual
General Meeting (AGM), further illustrates the extent to which
journalism standards have fallen at the broadcaster.
In its Newshour
of July 5, ZTV led with a blatant fabrication pertaining to MISA-Zimbabwe's
AGM. With no shred of evidence provided, ZTV reporter alleged that
the AGM was "marred by serious vote buying and rigging . . . "
He went on to quote some faceless MISA-Zimbabwe members alleging
that bouncers were hired to bar aspiring candidates from contesting.
Nothing could
be further from the truth. The AGM and indeed the election of the
new board was held without any incident and in accordance with MISA-Zimbabwe's
electoral guidelines. Evidence to support this is readily available.
If the journalist's intention was to factually report on the
event he could have easily been provided with such evidence or he
could have sought comments from MISA-Zimbabwe, which is a phone
call away from ZBC studios.
Seeking comment
from subjects of a story is a basic tenet of journalism that all
those who seek to factually report on events would be ashamed of
violating.
Therefore, the
reason why this piece of fabrication could be allowed to masquerade
as news can never be associated with professional journalism. Instead,
it can only be located within an attempt to mudsling the organisation
and buttress the state media's conspiracy theories that civil
society organisations were appendages of a sinister western 'regime
change' plot.
This became
clearer as the reporter tried to link the newly elected board members
to the alleged 3 million pounds that MDC-T Minister Jameson Timba
reportedly mobilised for the private media ahead of elections. Again
no evidence was provided to substantiate the alleged link.
Such unfounded
attacks on transparent and accountable leadership renewal processes
of MISA-Zimbabwe can only strengthen the organisation's calls
for the transformation of ZBC - currently shackled to the
caprices of the ZANU PF arm of government - into a true public
service broadcaster. MISA-Zimbabwe will not be distracted from pursuing
the complete democratisation of the media space by such unashamed
propagandist schemes. We can only hope the authorities would urgently
process the broadcasting license applications so as to give Zimbabweans
more choice of stations to listen to and thereby liberate them from
the poisonous daily propaganda they are subjected to by ZBC. Strong
competition in the broadcasting sector will go a long way in bringing
the broadcaster back to the professional fold. This is because the
market will definitely reject hogwash content and infantile propaganda
in favour of quality programming.
As an organisation
that firmly believes in media self regulation, MISA-Zimbabwe will
lodge a complaint with the Voluntary
Media Council of Zimbabwe (VMCZ) in its efforts to get appropriate
remedial action following this scandalous attack.
Visit
the MISA-Zimbabwe fact
sheet
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