Journalists urged to uphold ethics
August 31, 2013
JOURNALISTS should always uphold journalism ethics and desist from misinforming the public by writing opinionated and unbalanced stories, veteran journalist, Tapfuma Machakaire has said.
Addressing journalists at a Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe (VMCZ) workshop on election coverage review held in Gweru this week, former broadcaster and veteran journalist, Machakaire who is a VMCZ board member, said the state of journalism in the country was worrying.
He said journalists from both the public and independent media have lost the public trust by ignoring simple journalistic ethics when writing.
“The media especially here in Zimbabwe has since lost its status as a reliable tool of information. In other words, the general public in Zimbabwe has lost trust in us because of this tendency by journalists from both the independent and public media of insulting their readers by writing opinions instead of the actual news based on facts,” said Machakaire.
“They at times quote known political activists as political analysts. There is actually nothing wrong in quoting a political activist and referring to him or her as a political activist. Referring to political activists as analysts is an insult to the readers.
“What these political activists who masquerade as analysts would do is to defend their party policies and not analyse issues,” he said.
The VMCZ workshop on election coverage review also coincided with the launch of a research report on the state of the media in Zimbabwe by VMCZ.
Machakaire said the unethical and unprofessional conduct of journalists was evident in the build up to, during and after the 31 July harmonised elections where both the private and public media took a partisan stance.
He said during campaigns by political parties, the media, both the print and electronic, would focus on trivial issues instead of reporting on important issues which would have been said during the campaign.
“As media, our primary duty is to inform the public. We have a duty to help people make an informed decision during elections by writing about political parties’ manifesto and what their leaders say. We noticed in the recent elections that the local media, both the print and electronic, would focus more on trivial issues that would have been said by the leaders of different parties while disregarding important issues. The media would focus more on insults,” he said.
Machakaire said the local media was also developing a culture of playing a fire fighting role for individuals in society-The Chronicle Online
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