Daily News Fails to Deliver
The Herald (Harare)
OPINION
November 5, 2002
Posted to the web November 8, 2002
A Special Correspondent
Harare
The dishonesty and duplicity of The Daily News in masquerading as an independent
media when they are an extension of the opposition publicity machinery calls for
a deeper scrutiny in terms of licensing privately-owned media.
Apart from cheating the public in claiming that their paper is independent they
also cheated and benefited the opposition in posing as independent commentators
of political activities in Zimbabwe when they were full-time spin-doctors.
Those who sought to examine and analyse political events with minimum bias
relied heavily on MDC's propaganda thinking that they were sourcing independent
assessments.
Their major achievement was successful spread of falsehoods locally and
internationally.
Their erroneous reports of events were picked up by majority of the Western
media who later amplified the MDC propaganda.
The departure of a senior editor of that paper, William Bango for Harvest House
opens very serious ethical questions which need Government attention and public
scrutiny.
A basic requirement of the profession is that the media should not collect or
disseminate information without declaring who they are.
As the presidential campaign gained momentum there was clear distinction that
Daily News had become a newsletter of the opposition but the paper continued to
claim that they were fair players.
Their ethical obligations to the society and to the journalism profession were
flouted with impunity.
As soon as political activists like Bango were spontaneously employed by MDC and
Daily News their loyalty to the profession became void.
They immediately paid their loyalty to the consultancy and in the process
rubbished the professional ethics they publicly declared to uphold as
journalists
A reporter, who must get the story first, regardless of its completeness or
accuracy, would be demonstrating a misplaced loyalty to the professional ideal
of the scoop. And this is typical of Daily News.
One of the most troubling questions arising from the concept of professional
loyalty is whether an ethical person can be loyal to an unethical cause, for
example racism or genocide.
And since the launch of Daily News we have seen some of our journalists doing
all they can to rubbish the integrity of the nation and the President and
compromise sovereignty of this country for the sake of some British Pounds.
The loyalty of the journalist should be in harmony with the loyalty of the
reader.
Surely, loyalty to concept of free and unfettered political discussion - the
basis of modern democracy and journalism - means a newspaper should perform in
accordance with its claim of being independent without influence, favour or
bias.
To belong to a profession is traditionally to be held to certain standards of
conduct that go beyond the norm for others and journalism qualifies as one of
those professions with a higher expected norm of conduct.
The Daily News has failed dismally to deliver ethical responsibilities expected
of independent media.
If anything they have merely acknowledged their loyalty to pay-cheques. And yet
their readers expect them to be loyal to societal expectations of independent
journalists they claim to be.
Despite these debates, we intuitively sense that journalists have two central
responsibilities that are distinct because of the role journalists play in
modern society.
First, they have a greater responsibility to tell the truth than most
professions.
Second, journalists also seem to carry a somewhat greater obligation to foster
political activity than the average person. And this is where they abused the
later.
They have failed to serve as examples of open institutions where truth is
required, foster open discussion and debate, interpret their professional
actions to readers, serve as a voice for the voiceless and serve as a mirror of
society.
Bango was news editor before he was promoted to special projects editor - a very
senior position at which he decided what goes into the paper, its length and its
bias.
While the redeployment to the publicity department of MDC was not surprising the
disturbing thing is the easy at which the so-called independent media is
treating this departure.
What the Daily News is doing is blatant abuse of the privilege accorded to them
as an independent newspaper.
The only consolation is that their abuse failed to deliver the victory they
desperately wanted.
This revelation should dispel all the nonsense that goes with the far-fetched
argument that the opposition did not get fair play in the media.
The opposition was running and continue to run a daily newspaper - examples of
the false story of the Magunje woman who was purported to have been beheaded by
Zanu-PF youths vindicates the symbiotic relationship between MDC and Daily News.
But with a free hand of running a daily newspaper the opposition failed to
deliver any message of substance to guarantee them victory at the polls.
With a daily paper manned by its senior officials (Bango as one), with unlimited
funding from London and Washington, with the material and moral support from the
British Foreign service and the American State department Tsvangison failed to
deliver.
With all this machinery including a subversive radio station the people of
Zimbabwe saw through who Morgan Tsvangirai stood for and read what the MDC
represents - Western Interests.
[EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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"Ivinicus factus sum veritabem diceus." ( I have become an enemy for speaking the truth ) St Paul!
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Mitayo Potosi
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