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Herald Reporter
Zimbabwean journalists have been challenged to give priority to stories that contribute to the development of the country.

Permanent Secretary for Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Mr Nick Mangwana made a call for content creators to focus on key sectors in the country’s economy including agriculture.

Mr Mangwana made these remarks at the 2020 Zimbabwe Agriculture Media Awards which were streamed virtually last Friday.

“We need to know more about agriculture, where are the journalists that inform us about what is happening? In this era of climate change, land degradation and other challenges happening on the topology, where are the journalists?” quizzed Mr Mangwana.

He called on journalists to widen their scope beyond politics, to other issues which have a bearing in people’s day-to-day lives.

“Some of them (journalists) have been chasing politicians and the things they have informed us about are the things that the politicians will be doing, but they did not address the issues that bedevil our agriculture sector.

“I recall last year, we had journalists that came from other countries to write on the drought in Zimbabwe, but we did not see much from our own journalists.

We need to see a shift in that culture. Let us tell our own stories,” Mr Mangwana said.

At the awards, Zimpapers continued its dominance winning a number of gongs.

Leroy Dzenga of The Herald won Best Reporter Agriculture, Finance and Development.

Kwayedza’s Muchaneta Chimuka won Best Reporter in Agriculture Equipment and Sustainable Agriculture categories.

Sunday News Senior Business Reporter Dumisani Nsingo scooped the best reporter accolade in the Dairy Farming category while Chronicle’s Stanford Chiwanga walked away with best reporter award on Small Ruminants.

Zimpapers writers were runners up in six of the 14 categories.