Health journalists launch professional body

Sunday Mail Reporter

A group of local journalists covering health issues has launched a professional body, the Health Communicators Forum (HCF), to provide a link between the media and other stakeholders.

HCF, a network of journalists, media practitioners, bloggers and those with interest in health communication, was officially launched on Friday.

It, however, has been in existence since 2018.

The forum’s inaugural chairperson and Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation journalist, Anna Miti, said the organisation will promote capacity building among health journalists.

“We have been operating as a loose network since 2018 and we finally officially launched yesterday (Friday),” she said.

“Our aim is to provide a link between media and other stakeholders such as researchers, scientists and advocates for better health and science news. We are aware that health reporting is a specialised beat but there is simply not enough capacity building beyond just workshops on certain topics for us to have a crop of journalists who can report on these topics effectively.”

Miti said the forum will cooperate with like-minded international organisations.

“We have forged partnerships with organisations such as Mesha from Kenya and Hejnu from Uganda to cross-fertilise ideas on how to be better at communicating health and science issues.”

Other members of the HCF board are Njabulo Ncube (deputy chair), Catherine Murombedzi (secretary-general) and Ropafadzo Mapimhidze (deputy secretary-general).

The board also has committee members responsible for initiatives such as recruitment, welfare of journalists, campaigns and fundraising, with members drawn from different provinces.