The Sunday News
Rutendo Nyeve, Sunday News Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) has urged media practitioners to be professional and responsible ahead of the forthcoming harmonized elections slated for 23 August this year.
The regulatory body whose functions include the duty to uphold, promote and develop freedom of the media, promote and enforce good ethics in the media and to promote fair competition and diversity in the media is already rolling out various programs to capacitate the media ahead of the elections.
With the regulator already having launched the election reporting and peace journalism manual, a Press jacket launch and distribution event was hosted yesterday in Bulawayo which saw various media houses being invited to grace it.
Speaking at the launch, ZMC Executive Secretary Mr Godwin Phiri said the Commission is particularly interested in seeing a professional and responsible media which promotes free flow of information and content which enables citizens to make an informed decision.
“As ZMC one of our key mandates is to ensure that we have a professional media that delivers to the people of Zimbabwe and meet the expectations of a democratic country. We expect citizens to make informed decisions which information they get from among other sources the media. We are worried about how in critical moments like this one we uphold and promote and develop a media that will help us gain a credible election,” he said.
Mr Phiri said elections should not divide the country as different choices do not diminish the country’s collectiveness under one family, driven by shared hopes, dreams, aspirations shared common history.
“We have seen in other countries that when the media does not take up its leadership role in terms of delivering quality information to citizens, it can actually be a source of division. For us as ZMC we feel that this might be an extremely sad situation. What then this means is that all media practitioners should conduct themselves in a professional manner as it is not the time to be promoting lies, hate speech and what some have termed fake news,” he said.
He reaffirmed that in line with its constitutional mandate, ZMC is taking important steps to ensure that the media plays its role in the upcoming elections.
“The media as the fourth estate is expected to provide a communication platform between the contestants and the voters. By providing such a platform for public debate, scrutiny and informing the public of the policies of candidates and political parties, the media enables voters to judge for themselves and make informed decisions when they cast their votes or ballots. The ability of voters to make informed choices is one of the key aspects of a democratic electoral process,” he said.
To enhance the safety of journalists during this period, the Commission has procured Press Jackets for all practitioners who will be covering the elections and distribution will be on going in Bulawayo today.
The launch of the jackets was attended by the Chronicle editor Mr Lawson Mabhena, Sunday News editor Mr Limukani Ncube amongst other media practitioners.
Meanwhile, in line with the provisions of the Electoral Act, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission will soon be setting up a Media Monitoring Committee to monitor the coverage of the 2023 Harmonised General Elections. The Committee is comprised of the ZEC, ZMC and the Broadcasting Author of Zimbabwe (BAZ). The committee is chaired by ZEC and is required to produce a report which is an addendum to the main elections report.
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