Simon Mapurire registered his grievance with the MCC over an article published by the Manica Post on 6th-13th August 2016 headlined, “Tribalism, Patriarchy at play in MDC-T VPs’ appointments”.
The complainant was aggrieved as he complained that the appointments of Elias Mudzuri and Nelson Chamisa were decided by the MDC National Council and not party President Morgan Tsvangirai’s unilateral decision as portrayed in the article.
Mapurire also questioned the ‘labelling’ of Tsvangirai as a male chauvinist and his alleged insult of Ndebele people.
The complainant was therefore demanding a retraction as he argued that the article was unprofessional and an unjust attack on his party based not on facts but personal opinion.
Status: Finalised
The matter was amicably resolved following a VMCZ- facilitated dialogue between the complainant and the editor Hatred Zenenga. The editor explained to the complainant the news writing process and different story genres in newspapers, highlighting that as a result the article in question did not seek to represent unbiased, factual news reporting but was a representation of the columnist’s individual view and opinion. While the complainant declined the offer to submit their own opinion piece in response, they indicated that the meeting had been helpful in assisting the different story genres in the newspaper and that they would be better prepared to respond should the necessity arise again.
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