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Harare Bureau
Media practitioners have hailed Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo for making great strides in breaking polarisation between the public and private media and fostering dialogue on professional issues as well as addressing media industry concerns.
The journalists said this at a one-day Media Institute of Southern African (Misa) public discussion forum which was held in the capital yesterday under the theme: “Experiences of journalists: Local, Regional and International Perspectives.”
Panelists poured glowing praise on Prof Moyo for taking bold steps to bridge the gap between the public and private media and opening dialogue to discuss challenges facing the sector.
“After the elections we did not know the environment we were heading to and there was anxiety among us on what was going to happen since we had bad experiences in the past,” said Zimbabwe Independent editor Dumisani Muleya.
“For me personally, the appointment of Minister of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Prof Jonathan Moyo was a progressive and useful appointment.
“The re-engagement with the private media was something we had always wanted. Let us engage in order to create a good working environment for journalist since re-engagement would make us exercise democracy in reportage.
“The new constitution is very peaceful to us and with what Prof Moyo promised us, we hope that we are going to have a new kind of dispensation in the media industry.”
Speaking at the same occasion, Herald Editor Caesar Zvayi said there was need for media practitioners to engage in more interactions which would help people with different perspectives to come together and reach common ground.
“I am a Pan Africanist in nature and I am not even apologetic about it. I’m entitled to my opinions which some people do not understand and agree with. A person’s perspective is informed by his or her view of the world,” he said.
“We should continue to tell the Zimbabwean story in a way that support our views and policies through reportage and prohibit other journalists from foreign countries to tell our story for us.
“We welcome such initiatives that allow media practitioners from different backgrounds and beliefs to come together and discuss issues that can help the country to progress because this has been lacking in the media industry. With interaction, that can allow us to reach a common ground which is being patriotic towards our nations.”
However, Zvayi said that journalism in the country should not be judged in the context of the last 13 years but rather more reportage should also include investigative journalism than politics which has preoccupied the country in the past.
“There is not much of investigative journalism. Not much investigative reporting has been done because Zimbabwe has been preoccupied with politics,” he said.
Quoting an essay by Ngugi WaThiongo -Decolonising The Mind, Makhudu Sefara, editor with The Star newspaper of South Africa said the use of language could be used to convey complex messages, as in with the stories told, or used to control and manipulate as seen with colonisation.
He said African journalists should be unapologetic about their focus and candidly tell the African story.
“There is need for media practitioners to self-reflect and candidly tell the African story,” he said.
“We need to work together and report on stories that develop our nations rather than those that crumble us. We do not have to exaggerate news about ourselves because in that we would be only discrediting our beautiful African countries.”
In addition, he also challenged African journalists to uphold professional values that required them to report issues in an accurate, balanced and fair manner.
The forum was attended by at least 50 journalists mostly local and others from the region and abroad to discuss challenges in accessing information, protection of sources as well as getting the story out to the public.
Online Reporter