THIS year’s World Press Freedom Day — marked every year on May 3 across the world — comes at a time the local media is seriously compromised and far from operating freely, media practitioners said yesterday.
REPORT BY PHILLIP CHIDAVAENZI
Media Centre director Ernest Mudzengi said the day has come at a time the political developments in the country have negatively impacted on media operations.
“The fact of the matter is that the media remains unfree. The operations of the media are not promoting democracy because we have had a situation where the media is seriously compromised by the political developments unfolding in the country,” he said.
He added that it was depressing that in some instances the media has been abused by politicians to push their parochial agendas.
Zimbabwe National Editors’ Forum (Zinef) chairperson Brian Mangwende also said that it was unfortunate corrupt practices were now prevalent in the media industry making it vulnerable to political manipulation.
“Journalists are now being used by politicians to create instability within society and that is of major concern to Zinef. Professionalism has to be observed, we need to be fair and balanced and journalists shouldn’t have the tendency of corruption,” he said.
“The media landscape has drastically changed as we have new radio stations such as Zi Fm and Star FM although a lot still needs to be done. But what is of major concern is the quality of the content that is coming out of the media.” Zimbabwe Association of Community Radio Stations (Zacras) chairperson Gift Mambipiri said it was important to salute efforts made by volunteers of community radio stations in communities in the country.
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“Zacras remains convinced that community radios are the missing link in the communication revolution in the country, as they are an invaluable asset for our communities to develop. Our feeling is that the government has not accorded this important sector the attention it deserves to enable it to develop together with other sectors,” he said.
He encouraged the authorities to licence genuine community radios, constitute an independent broadcasting commission, desist from hate speech and promote use of alternative media.
