Nature of the Complaint
The Media Complaints Committee received a complaint from Ms Evangelista Zhou over an article published by H-Metro on 16 March, 2022 headlined: “Madam Boss hubby secret affair exposed.” Ms Zhou says the story contains falsehoods that need to be corrected and therefore demands that the story be retracted and pulled down from H-Metro online platforms and an apology issued to her. Ms Zhou says she is not pregnant at all and does not know Ngonidzashe Munetsiwa, madam boss’s husband and has never been involved in any relationship with him. Ms Zhou says she is not pregnant with Munetsiwa’s child as alleged by the paper.
She says comments attributed to her by the reporter are false as she never made the said comments. Ms Zhou contends that the video being circulated of her taking poisonous stuff and is said to be recent, is a 2017 video that has been edited and has been tempered with, together with fake created social media accounts under her name. She further says when the H-Metro reporter spoke to her the reporter was covert and never mentioned anyone by name and says the reporter kept asking her where her boyfriend was and kept demanding her boyfriend’s number, which she refused to give. She says the H-Metro reporter kept saying she was doing a story pertaining to her sour relationship with her boyfriend, a statement she denied as her relationship with her boyfriend in Mutare was cordial. Ms Zhou says she was surprised when she read on H-Metro that she was pregnant and was in an affair with Munetsiwa.
Procedure
The Media Complaints Committee contacted H-Metro over the matter and the newspaper indicated that it stands by its story as it had evidence that supported the publication of the story. Delays were encountered as the deputy editor Charles Mushinga handling the matter was away for some time. H-Metro indicated that it will give an account of issues when an adjudication on the matter is convened. An adjudication was convened on Tuesday 24 May, 2022 and H-Metro indicated they will attend the meeting.
Status: Finalised
Ms Zhou was contacted on Thursday 19 May 2022 to attend the adjudication meeting at the VMCZ offices. She indicated that she was now pursuing the matter through civil court remedies but indicated that she was out of town and will communicate her availability for the adjudication meeting on the weekend. She was later unavailable over the weekend and did not respond to phone calls, SMS, and WhatsApp communication when contacted by the committee. With the unavailability of the complainant and her indication that she wants to proceed and pursue the matter through the civil courts, the Media complaints Committee was left with no choice but to strike the case off the register. However, the Committee and H-Metro are still open to having the case go for an adjudication.
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