Editor suspended for peddling falsehoods

Farirai Machivenyika Senior Reporter
EMBARRASSED by a succession of false stories that drew strong rebuttals from people concerned, Alpha Media Holdings yesterday suspended the editor of their flagship title, NewsDay, to facilitate investigations into unethical journalistic practice at the title.In a statement on its website last night, AMH said Constantine Chimakure’s suspension came in the wake of the publication of two false stories in succession concerning former South African president Cde Thabo Mbeki and MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai, which stories the group said did not conform to set ethical standards.

NewsDay on Wednesday and yesterday, carried stories under the headlines: “Mbeki speaks on Zim polls, chaotic land reform” and “Mugabe offers Tsvangirai VP Post” which have both been denied by Cde Mbeki and Mr Tsvangirai.

“We feel the stories fell short of the basic journalistic standards set in our ethics guidelines; How we put accuracy to the test, the AMH Code of Ethics and the AMH Pledge whose tenets are fundamental to our operations,” said AMH editor-in-Chief Vincent Kahiya.

The stable said it will appoint an investigator to probe the acts of misconduct and in the event that they conclude that Chimakure has a case to answer, the editor will be charged in terms of the AMH Code.

Following the publication of the false story on Wednesday, Mr Mbeki issued a strongly worded statement castigating the paper for publishing falsehoods.

The statement issued by Mr Mbeki’s office accused NewsDay of twisting the statements he made during a seminar at the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute at the University of South Africa in Tshwane.

“The NewsDay article is nothing but a mischievous cut and paste job of quotations intended to communicate falsehoods to achieve particular political outcomes,” the statement reads.

The statement denied that Cde Mbeki had been critical of Zimbabwe’s land reform programme.
“With regard to Zimbabwe’s land reform process, Former President Mbeki said that though Sadc agreed with the Zimbabwean Government about the imperative for land reform,  it did not agree with the manner in which the process was carried out.

“He added that this agreement notwithstanding, the land reform process in Zimbabwe has proved successful. The fact that Sadc, of which South Africa is a member, expressed a contrary

opinion to the Government of Zimbabwe at the time must surely have come as a shocking surprise to NewsDay, but shocking as this revelation might be to NewsDay, it is no justification to twist and manipulate the truth” the statement further reads.

On the part of Mr Tsvangirai he had to take to Facebook to refute NewsDay’s story.
He said: “I am aware of reports circulating that I have been offered a post as Vice-President in a new Cabinet. Those reports are false. The fact is I am not talking to anyone about the possibility of joining a Government which the majority of Zimbabweans consider as illegitimate.”

In the same story the newspaper also claimed that the purported overtures to Mr Tsvangirai accounted for delays in the swearing in of the Cabinet ignoring the fact that Cabinet can only be sworn-in after the swearing-in of parliamentarians.

Parliamentarians will be sworn-in on Tuesday with Cabinet expected to be announced afterwards.
The NewsDay has of late been concocting stories to suit their political ends.

Soon after the announcement of results of the harmonised elections the newspaper claimed that prices of fuel had gone up as a result of the overwhelming victory by President Mugabe and Zanu PF.

The prices of fuel have however, not gone up and remain at the levels they were before the elections.
The newspaper has also failed to point to contradictions on the part of some MDC-T officials and recently carried a story glorifying the ascension of Mr Obert Gutu as mayor of Harare without noting that Mr Gutu had refused to acknowledge the results of the elections that led to his rise as mayor.

Zimbabwe Media Commission chairperson Mr Godfrey Majonga said they did not condone false reporting.
“The Commission does not condone incorrect reporting or quoting people out of context. One of the mandates of the Commission is to promote journalistic standards and ethics so we urge all media organisations to be factual and truthful in their reporting to avoid quoting people out of context,” Mr Majonga said.

He however, said the Commission would not take any action as the law required that there be a complainant before any investigations are instituted.

Zimbabwe Union of Journalists Secretary General Mr Foster Dongozi said his organisation was still gathering facts on the matter.
“We have heard about the case and we are also carrying out own investigations into the matter and will issue a comprehensive statement in due course.

“As a union we however, always insist on that journalists should be professional and ethical and at the same time we want to see that the rights of workers are also protected and recognised,” Mr Dongozi.

Political analyst Professor Jonathan Moyo said the two stories were the tip of the iceberg at AMH.
“I think that the record will show that these stories coming one after the other have been of such a high profile nature that their consequences could not be ignored and hence the suspension of the editor by AMH.

“The truth is that the two stories are part of a pattern within the group, you will find the same thing in all their four titles especially the NewsDay and Southern Eye. They have become notorious for institutionalising falsehoods in very blatant and unprofessional sympathy with and for the MDC-T and to the detriment of the national interest and national security.

“When you look at the pattern over recent months there is a clear case for the ZMC to take a look at the pattern and exercise its oversight responsibility for the sake of both the profession of journalism and the protection of national interest,” he said.
Prof Moyo said the Zanu-PF leadership had suffered from the false reportage of the AMH title.

He said AMH had tried to prop Tsvangirai since he lost the elections resulting in the newspaper publishing the false story that he had been offered the vice-presidency post.

“It was obvious even to an idiot that it was not possible for Zanu-PF to offer the first vice-presidency to Tsvangirai. Where will be Mai Mujuru in that? Which congress was Tsvangirai elected to be the vice-president?” He said.