Makonde MP Kindness Paradza (Zanu PF) has rapped some local journalists for turning themselves into political activists and being embedded in politics at the expense of their noble profession.
BY NUNURAI JENA
Addressing journalists from Mashonaland West Province during at a belated World Press Freedom Day function on Saturday, Paradza defended the law of criminal defamation saying it was a “necessary devil” meant to rein in the current crop of journalists he described as “reckless”.
Paradza, a former journalist, said he had been victim of reckless reporting and would fight to keep the law in the statutes until journalists started operating as professionals.
“The new crop of journalists has thrown journalistic ethics to the dogs and is failing to follow the basics in reporting. I’m a victim of this reckless reporting and this piece of law is there to protect people like us from you half-backed journalists,” Paradza said.
He said it was unfortunate that journalists today were “embedded in politics and some of them are more Zanu PF than us MPs”.
Paradza said his name was soiled by the State media late last year when he was labelled as one of the “Zanu PF dirty dozen”, adding he decided to file a $60 000 criminal defamation suit against The Herald after the publication refused to make a retraction.
Paradza lost his position as Zanu PF Mashonaland West provincial secretary for administration after publication of the story.
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In 2004, while he was publisher of then Weekend Tribune, he claimed that the State media peddled lies that he had gone to Britain to sell out party secrets and was eventually expelled from the party for seven years.
