Nature of Complaint
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Nick Mangwana, brought to the attention of the MCC a complaint an article published by NewsDay on 18 November 2019 headlined, “Government squanders US$10.6billion.
Mr. Mangwana states that the complaint is centred on the following “misrepresentations” by the newspaper:
- In the opening paragraph the article alleges that “President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Government spent over US$10 billion in unbudgeted public funds …” The Permanent Secretary argues that this is a gross misrepresentation of facts since President Mnangagwa only assumed office on 26 August 2018.
- Information used to back up this claim in paragraph 5 of the article clearly shows a timeline from 2015 when Robert Mugabe was still President. He therefore states that, subsequently, the sum of US$25 305 741 [2015], US$1 530 890 050 [2016] and US$4 562 064 122 cannot and should not have been attributed to President Mnangagwa’s government.
- Mr. Mangwana argues that in this respect, the author of the article and the newspaper had an agenda to smear President Mnangagwa and did not adhere to journalistic principles and ethics of factual reporting.
Mr Mangwana seeks corrective action in the form of a Matter of Fact, retraction and apology to the Government as well as undertaking that such deliberate misrepresentation will not recur in future.
Status: Concluded
The NewsDay newspaper issued retraction and apology on the matter on 20 November 2018. Relevant to this complaint is section 4 (c) of the Media Code of Conduct which states: “When compiling reports media practitioners must check their facts and the editors and publishers of newspapers and other media must take proper care not to publish inaccurate. Before a media institution publishes a report, the reporter and the editor must ensure that all the steps that a reasonable competent and objective practitioner would take to check its accuracy have in fact been taken”.
Recent Comments