Back to Index

Statement on abuse of opinion pages
MISA-Zimbabwe
October 05, 2011

MISA-Zimbabwe is appealing to the media, politicians and Zimbabwean citizens in general to desist from abusing the right to freedom of expression and media freedom as evidenced by some of the personal vilifications and vile name-calling that is manifest in the opinion-editorial (op-ed) pages of both private and public newspapers.

The right to freedom of expression and journalistic privilege demands greater responsibility and integrity on the part of editors and journalists.

It is trite to note that MISA-Zimbabwe's concerns come on the backdrop of the Media Ethics Indaba held in Harare on 29 September 2011, almost a week after the International Media Ethics Day which is commemorated annually on 23 September.

Delegates at the indaba acknowledged the decline in journalism ethics and professionalism in Zimbabwe and agreed that corrective self-regulatory measures needed to be instituted as a matter of urgency.

It was agreed that there is urgent need to retain respectability to the profession through strict adherence to the cardinal rules of reporting truthfully without bias, embellishments or resort to personal vilifications.

This calls for journalism that eschews hate speech, xenophobia, tribalism, gender discrimination, racism and vile name-calling and intemperate language.

MISA-Zimbabwe is therefore urging publishers, editors and journalists to seriously reflect on their professional conduct as dictated by the codes and ethics of journalism in order to retain and maintain the integrity and respect of the profession.

Visit the MISA-Zimbabwe 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