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Machirori wins IWMF Lifetime Achievement Award
Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe
May 07, 2013

Edna Machirori, a Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe (VMCZ) Board Member has been awarded the 2013 International Women’s Media Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

According to IWMF Machirori, who as the first black female editor of a newspaper in Zimbabwe has represented unprecedented achievement for women in finding their place in a post-colonial landscape.

Machirori is the second IWMF Lifetime Achievement Award winner from Zimbabwe, following Peta Thornycroft who won the award in 2007.

In 2002, another Zimbabwean journalist Sandra Nyaira won the IWMF Courage in Journalism Award.

Machirori has acted as a mentor to other women throughout her career and has faced down critics for her incisive reporting.

Machirori started her work in journalism in 1963 as a cadet reporter for the African Daily News, a nationalist newspaper based in Harare (then Salisbury, under colonial rule), after sending the paper “letters to the editor” while she was in high school.

During her early years with the African Daily News, Machirori was the only woman on the staff at any level. Later, she occupied editing positions at The Chronicle and The Financial Gazette.

Machirori is currently a freelance journalist and columnist for The Daily News and also sits on the committee of the Federation of African Media Women in Zimbabwe (FAMWZ).

In 1988, when Machirori was leading the news team as news editor, The Chronicle published “The Willowgate Scandal”, an investigation into corruption among high-level members of ruling party Zanu-PF.

The Courage in Journalism Awards and Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented at ceremonies in New York on October 23 and in Los Angeles on October 29.

Founded in 1990, the IWMF believes the news media worldwide are not truly free and representative without the equal voice of women. IWMF celebrates the courage of women journalists who overcome threats and oppression to speak out on global issues.

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