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Geoffrey Nyarota Correspondent
IT is the mission of Dr Tafataona Mahoso’s Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) “to uphold and develop freedom of the Press, diverse views that reflect our cultural values, ethical practice, engaging all stakeholders, supervision and enforcement of regulations, for the benefit of Zimbabweans”.

While the practice of ethical journalism for the benefit of Zimbabweans is listed as one of the concerns of the statutory ZMC, the commission hardly, if ever, issues any pronouncements to challenge the ethical transgressions that have become part and parcel of many of Zimbabwe’s newspapers.

Neither does the ZMC’s voluntary counterpart, Loughty Dube’s Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe (VMCZ), concern itself with challenging newspaper publishers or editors who routinely act in brazen defiance of media ethics that they claim to uphold.

These two rival bodies, one statutory and the other voluntary, are supposed to be the watchdogs or custodians of ethical media practice in Zimbabwe yet they have become routinely conspicuous by their perpetual silence on matters of ethical disobedience in the Press.

The VMCZ will explain as usual that its Complaints Committee is kept on its toes attending to complaints coming in from members of the public.

But I am referring here to the total absence on its part of spontaneous intervention in response to the myriads of cases of ethical malpractice.

Throughout the years, the partisan handling of issues to do with the MDC-T by newspapers owned by the Zimpapers stable, on the one hand, to compete with the equally prejudiced coverage of news concerning the ruling Zanu-PF party on the part of the privately-owned newspapers, on the other hand, have become legendary.

As a journalist, I uphold at all times the principle of media freedom, the right of freedom of expression and the right of the public to be informed.

But in my practice of my profession, I try my best to be always guided by the ethics of journalism.

Journalism ethics and standards comprise principles of ethics and of good practice as applicable to the specific challenges faced by journalists in discharging their onerous duties.

On Monday night, I appeared on the television programme Media Watch which is presented by ZTV’s inimitable Oscar Pambuka.

He asked questions to do with the preponderance of coverage of the political activities concerning First Lady Dr Grace Mugabe in the privately-owned Press.

I addressed his questions with what I believed was the required sincerity, pointing out that I believed that the coverage in question reeked of gross misrepresentation, which is ethically unacceptable.

I also described as totally unethical a new practice whereby the private Press has, with no explanation offered, departed from normal practice and reduced the name of the First Lady of Zimbabwe to plain Grace in their headlines, as in the headline “Grace parades her power again”, which was the banner headline in The Daily News of Wednesday, October 14.

The correct treatment in all circumstances would be to refer to her by her surname as Grace Mugabe, Dr Mugabe, to distinguish her from her equally news-making husband, or just as the First Lady.

United States newspapers normally refer to their First Lady in headlines as either Michelle Obama, or as Barack Obama’s wife, Michelle, as in “Michelle Obama responds to Kanye West’s racist comments.”

The British are normally more reticent than the Americans.

But their newspaper headlines also depict their Prime Minister’s wife mostly as either Samantha Cameron or David Cameron’s wife, Samantha, as in “Samantha Cameron shows off her bikini body with PM David in Ibiza”.

I doubt that if Samantha Cameron started to display political aspirations of her own, the British Press would suddenly reduce her to plain Samantha in their headlines, such as in “Samantha to address rally in Leeds tomorrow”.

Early on Tuesday morning, I received a call from a long lost relative, but one who appears to possess a mind now clearly poisoned by political polarisation. First she announced that she had seen me on TV.

“I see you are now a Zanu-PF supporter,” she pronounced with what sounded like finality

Of course, I protested vehemently at this very narrow-minded and simplistic reduction of all Zimbabwean political issues to either strictly Zanu-PF or MDC-T.

I explained that, far from expressing support or otherwise for Zanu-PF or any other political party, I had spent 30 minutes on Media Watch while delving into matters to do with the ethics of my profession, which I sincerely believe I am entitled to, given that it is from ethically practiced journalism that hordes of other journalists and I earn our living.

I pointed out that I had every right to protest when the unethical behaviour of a few bad apples in the media basket threatened to undermine our collective professional well‐being, even when the victims of unethical journalism were politicians deemed by some to be the cause of the suffering of the people.

Codes of journalism ethics throughout the world highlight misrepresentation as one of the ethical transgressions.

Under the heading Accuracy and Fairness, Clause 4(e), of the VMCZ’s Revised Code of Conduct for Zimbabwean Media Practitioners states: “Media institutions must endeavour to provide full, fair, and balanced reports of events and not suppress or exaggerate essential information pertaining to those events, whether subjects are male or female.

“They must not distort information by exaggerating, by giving only one side of the story, by placing improper emphasis on one aspect of a story, by reporting the facts out of context in which they occurred or by suppressing relevant available facts on the basis of the gender of those being covered. They must avoid misleading headlines (my emphasis), billboard postings and perpetuation of stereotypes.”

On Monday, October Newsday 19 published the banner headline “Mnangagwa fears Zanu-PF HQ office” over an article attributed to party insiders that alleges that Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa had reportedly avoided using his official VP’s office at Zanu PF headquarters “on security grounds following a suspected cyanide poisoning attack last December which left his secretary hospitalised for months”.

Fearing that the cyanide was targeted at him Mnangagwa allegedly now hardly visited the party headquarters and when doing so he headed straight to President Mugabe’s office for briefings.

In adherence to ethical journalistic practice the reporter Xolisani Ncube approached VP Mnangagwa for comment.

The VP promptly dismissed this allegation out of hand. He explained that this particular office was currently under renovation.

First to be renovated had been VP Phelekezela Mphoko’s office and he had just moved back in.

“Now they are working on mine’” he explained. “Whoever told you is misleading.”

VP Mnangagwa went on to explain that he had use of three official offices, in any case. At the Ministry of Justice he had an office.

At Munhumutapa Building he had moved into the office vacated by Dr Joice Mujuru when she ceased to be Vice President.

Then he also had a third office at Zanu-PF headquarters.

“Don’t listen to your drunken friends,” was his instructive parting shot.

The Vice President had most effectively quashed this pesky rumour. But the reporter refused to allow the facts to stand in the way of what appeared to be his scoop.

Completely undeterred by Mnangagwa’s seemingly satisfactory explanation of the circumstances surrounding the alleged none-use of his party headquarters office, the reporter proceeded to seek further comment on the same issue from Zanu-PF’s official spokesman, Simon Khaya Moyo, Home Affairs Minister, Ignatius Chombo, and, for good measure, from Kembo Mohadi in his capacity as Minister of State Security in the President’s Office.

While Mohadi was reported to be unavailable for comment, both Khaya Moyo and Chombo, not surprisingly, professed total ignorance of the fact that VP Mnangagwa was not using his party headquarters office.

Chombo was quoted as having contributed a pure gem that should have been the final nail in the coffin of this supposedly earth-shattering story.

“Even I usually use my ministerial office to do party work,” he said.

Yet the banner headline “Mnangagwa fears Zanu-PF HQ office” was still printed for public consumption, accompanied by an article that ran over two pages.

An even more serious example of gross misrepresentation through a misleading banner headline in total defiance of the tenets of the Code of Ethics was “Mujuru’s ghost haunts VP”, which appeared in The Standard newspaper of October 11, 2015.

Given the horrific death of the late Retired General Solomon Tapfumaneyi Mujuru in an inferno on his Beatrice Farm in August 2011 amid still unsubstantiated allegations that his death was planned and executed by Zanu-PF, any reader must have, on seeing this particular poster, rushed to the easy conclusion that it was the ghost of the former Zanla commander that was now haunting VP Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Perusal of the accompanying article revealed, however, that three top allies of Mnangagwa in Mashonaland Central had lost their Zanu PF posts for allegedly inviting the Vice President to a function organised by an apostolic church sect.

“The purge, similar to the one that targeted ousted Vice-President Mujuru, has been linked to the vicious battle to succeed President Robert Mugabe,” the story informed.

On this presumably logical note the newspaper’s sub-editors decided “Mujuru’s Ghost haunts VP” was the most appropriate characterisation of these events in Mashonaland Central in the front page banner headline to lure readers to buy that particular issue of their newspaper.

To underscore the total laxity on the part of some editors in their approach to the ethical standard of truth, this clearly false headline has variously appeared as “Mujuru’s ghost haunts Grace” (The Daily News), “Mujuru ghost haunts Grace Mugabe” (thechiefbaboon.com), Mujuru ghost haunts Mugabe (Zimeye.com), Mujuru ghost haunts Zanu-PF (Harare24.com), “Haunted by ghost, Grace Mugabe’s MP” (teamzimmbabwe.org).

God help the poor ghost…and the profession of journalism.

It is unfortunate that Zimbabwe Newspapers, the largest publishers of newspapers in Zimbabwe do not subscribe to the Voluntary Media Council’s Code of Ethics.

They, therefore, do not abide by its tenets.

Most privately-owned newspapers — Newsday, The Daily News, The Standard, The Financial Gazette and The Zimbabwe Independent, are subscribers.

NewsDay carries the following proclamation by the VCMZ on Page 2 of its every issue: “NewsDay newspaper subscribes to a Code of Conduct that promotes truthful, accurate, fair and balanced news reporting. If we do not meet these standards, register your complaints with the Voluntary Media Council at No 34, Colenbrander Road, Milton Park, Harare.”

A 24 hour complaints telephone line is listed as 0772 125 659.

Every issue of The Daily News publishes the same decree on its Op-Ed page.

Zimpapers and the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation both operate outside the VMCZ’s area of jurisdiction.

Meanwhile, even though the privately owned newspapers are members, they routinely disregard the ethics of journalism, as dutifully preached by VMCZ and they do so with total impunity.

The voluntary council has no power of enforcement.

It is for this reason that the IMPI report includes among its recommendations the proposal for dual regulation to address the inability of the Voluntary Media Council to enforce its Code of Ethics on the media by exploiting the power of enforcement vested in the statutory ZMC,

Meanwhile, tiri kumbwa tiri kutsuro (we run with the dogs as well as with the rabbit) in the public and the national interest.

The First Lady of Zimbabwe, Dr Amai Grace Mugabe, having made a deliberate decision to enter the political fray and offer her services to Zimbabweans as a politician in her own right ought to desist, therefore, from taking umbrage each time she is targeted by the press for criticism on the basis of any of her actions or utterances.

Being criticised by the media or by rival politicians in the media is the stock-in-trade of politics in a democratic environment.

The element of protection that she enjoys as First Lady cannot be extended to cover her in her new endeavours as a fully-fledged politician.

Her advisors should, therefore, create strategies for her to successfully manage the transformation from First Lady to politician.

A key strategy would be to develop a very thick skin, an asset that is exceedingly vital in the career of any aspiring politician.

Gore rino tichadzidza zvakawanda.

• Geoffrey Nyarota is a veteran journalist and former editor of the Chronicle and Daily News. He is hairman of the Information and Media Panel of Inquiry.