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Conrad Mupesa Mashonaland West Bureau

JOURNALISTS across the media industry have been challenged to be professional in their duties as they play their pivotal role of informing the nation.

Addressing members of the media during the belated World Press Freedom Day provincial commemorations in Chinhoyi over the weekend, Information,  Publicity and Broadcasting Services Deputy Minister Kindness Paradza deplored the deteriorating standards in journalism.

“This is a noble profession that we all belong to but, when we are now deviating from the tenets of this profession and want to be activists, we should leave the profession and let others continue with the profession,” he said.

Deputy Minister Paradza who re-lived his experiences as a journalist during his days at the now defunct Tribune, said he had the chance to interview the then President Robert Mugabe five times.

“During my time as a journalist, I interviewed former President Mugabe five times on a one-on-one basis. If I was focusing only on negative stories about him, would I have gotten those chances?”

He called on journalists to be always objective.

Government, through the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe, he said, had issued six television licences.

Three of these have so far paid up their licence fees while the others have been given an extension of up to the end of June to do so.