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Report:
Zimbabwe journalists abandon ethics, embrace corruption
VOA News
August 27, 2013
View this article
on the VOA News website
The quality
of news reporting in Zimbabwe has steadily declined since 2000,
thanks to political interference, polarization, corruption and other
challenges, according to an assessment from a report compiled by
the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe (VMCZ).
The report, entitled “The State of Journalism Ethics in Zimbabwe,”
is based on confidential interviews with a number of Zimbabwean
journalists and media professionals. It found a serious drop of
professionalism and disregard of ethics by Zimbabwean journalists.
The report blames this largely on interference by politicians. In
2000, it says, the Zanu-PF government wanted to counter the Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC), as the party was gaining popularity.
Largely through former Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, the government
instructed state journalists what stories to write and how to write
them, and used legal and extra-legal means to discipline privately-owned
media critical of its policies.
As other political leaders started seeing the media as either patriotic
or treasonous, they began to speak only to those media outlets they
support. That made it extremely difficult for media houses to adhere
to the journalistic principles of balance and fairness, accuracy,
and independence.
While conditions improved in the first years of the unity government,
the report says interparty tensions ahead
of the 2013 elections changed that. It quotes a sub-editor at
the Herald newspaper saying in June this year that the newspaper
was instructed that any photo of MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai
published in the newspaper needed to “depict him in a state
of confusion.”
VMCZ’s ethics committee chairman and veteran journalist, Tapfuma
Machakaire told VOA Studio 7 that his committee monitored five publications
during the run-up to elections, and agrees with the findings of
the report.
The report also
highlights the taking of bribes as rampant among journalists in
both the private and state media, adding that some journalists at
ZTV revealed that they regularly receive bribes in exchange for
positive coverage of certain prominent people.
The report says although news websites and radio stations like SW
Radio, Radio VOP,
and the Voice of America’s Studio 7 have provided alternative
spaces for the expression of other views besides official ones,
they often articulate what the report calls “a narrow regime
change agenda, more to win the favour of their funders than to promote
democracy and active citizenship in Zimbabwe.”
The report also alleges that some stories by overseas journalists
are sensational.
Programs officer Loughty Dube said VMCZ
commissioned the report over its concern about the decline of professionalism
in the media, and the growing appearance of what he calls hate speech.
Dube said the
findings of the report will help VMCZ formulate programs that can
be used to restore professionalism among journalists.
VMCZ promotes
professionalism and self-regulation of the media industry.
The VMCZ launched its report in Gweru on Monday. It was written
by Wallace Chuma, a media studies lecturer at the University of
Cape Town.
Zenzele Ndebele
of Bulawayo’s Radio
Dialogue said there is chaos in the Zimbabwe media as some journalists
demand payment for covering stories and in some cases outright bribery.
“Those
journalists in the state-controlled media do not write anything
positive about the opposition and media practitioners working for
independent newspaper don’t even criticize the opposition.
For example, if independent journalists criticize criticize Morgan
Tsvangirai and Welshman Ncube, they are labeled traitors, Zanu-PF
functionaries or operatives of the Central Intelligence Organization,”
said Ndebele.
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