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YESTERDAY’S lead story in the NewsDay makes for interesting reading. The story headlined “War vets batter, humiliate Mugabe”, is as interesting as it is revealing. For starters, it is a blatant lie. Humiliate means to make (someone) feel ashamed and foolish by injuring their dignity and pride. To believe NewsDay, one has to believe that by speaking frankly to their patron about their challenges, the war vets injured President Mugabe’s dignity and pride. According to the paper, the war vets made a fool out of their patron by offering solutions to problems bedevilling the party that he leads.
This false take on an event that was beamed live by the national broadcaster is of interest because it exposes fundamental flaws in modern day journalism, makes the paper’s intentions explicitly clear and, above all, shows how seriously we take our readers as journalists in 21st century Zimbabwe.
Prolific writer George Orwell, in an article published by the Tribune of the UK in November 22, 1946, made an interesting observation about the relationship between readers and newspapers. “It is not said often enough that a nation gets the newspapers it deserves. Admittedly, this is not the whole of the truth. When the bulk of the press is owned by a handful of people, one has not much choice,” Orwell said in the piece where he rated newspapers according to intelligence (as far as he was able to judge) and popularity.
Said Orwell on intelligence of newspapers: “By intelligence I do not mean agreement with my own opinions. I mean a readiness to present news objectively, to give prominence to the things that really matter, to discuss serious questions even when they are dull, and to advocate policies which are at least coherent and intelligible.”
This 70-year-old comment is useful when trying to make sense of the NewsDay’s version of events with regards to the historic meeting between veterans of the liberation struggle and their patron, President Mugabe.
Did the paper report objectively? Did it give prominence to the serious issues raised during the meeting? Did it discuss serious questions even if these were not the questions the paper wanted to be raised at the meeting? If the answer to all these questions is NO, then we know where exactly the article stands in as far as Orwell’s barometer for intelligence is concerned.
It does not matter what local media houses, us included, wanted to see happen at the historic meet. What matters is what actually transpired.
All level-headed people who attended the meeting or watched it live on ZBC TV will agree that the war vets and their patron held a successful conference.
The war vets were clear about the challenges facing them; they were equally clear on their role in Zanu-PF and how they should play a central role in keeping the party in check.
They articulated the functions of the commissariat and National Disciplinary Committee without fear or favour.
“There is a difference between stakeholders and stockholders. War veterans are stockholders who must sustain the party. Stakeholders can jump ship, but as stockholders we have nowhere else to go. This is our home,” the war veterans said.
President Mugabe, who didn’t expect anything less from the freedom fighters, was also frank in his address. For instance, he told the war vets point blank that their allowances would only be increased once funds were available. He also stressed the need for discipline and warned members against abusing their positions.
“You can’t say big words — you should never, never be heard saying big words to your elders. Never! The discipline we give in the army; that’s it. Right turn, left turn, forward march. Whether you like it or not you must right turn, left turn, about turn and forward march whether you like it or not, that’s military.
“It’s external but in life its internal discipline and what you give yourself, you forward march yourself, right turn, left turn yourself. Know that there are these two forms of discipline — the external and the internal,” he said.
So who battered who? Who humiliated who? And why did President Mugabe and the war vets agree to meet every year if the meeting was humiliating?
The gallant sons and daughters of the soil who delivered us from the jaws of oppression must not be swayed by unintelligent reports whose only claim to fame is peddling falsehoods about President Mugabe.
“Amid reports the ex-fighters were aligned to Mnangagwa’s faction, the group seemed to throw brickbats at (First Lady) Grace (Mugabe) and her faction, which allegedly includes Vice-President Phelekezela Mphoko, party national commissar Saviour Kasukuwere and secretary for technology Jonathan Moyo,” the paper unashamedly reported in the front-page article.
All 10 000-plus war vets who gathered at the City Sports Centre for the indaba are aligned to a faction. Is that the truth or what NewsDay wants to see? Again, this report is telling.
We applaud the war vets for their conduct during the indaba and congratulate them for holding a successful meeting.
May they continue to safeguard the ideology of the revolutionary party without fear or favour.
Online Reporter