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By Elvis Dumba
Media practitioners in Mashonaland West had a belated hybrid commemoration of the World Press Freedom Dy held in Chinhoyi yesterday.
A Mashonaland West National Peace and Reconciliation Commission representative, Tendai Musonza, urged journalists to remain professional in their duties and remain politically neutral as the country moves towards the harmonized general elections slated for later this year.
Musonza told journalists that they are a very important constituency with the power to foster peace in the country or the potential to disturb it.
“I urge you as journalists to be professional and carry out your duties for informing society, especially as we approach elections. I urge you to remain professional and avoid becoming political activists in your profession,” he said.
Musonza said that journalists should strive to write stories that promote development and take community leaders to account.
“I still believe that the pen is mightier than the sword. I urge you as the media fraternity to write stories that impact society’s development. As we approach elections, do not be captured by politicians and avoid being political activists to remain fair to both political players,” he said.
Crisis Coalition of Zimbabwe Board member, Peter Luwande, said the media fraternity should assist communities with access to information.
“As you carry out your duties to help communities to have access to information, we are worried about the issue of stories that affect communities sometimes getting “killed ” in the newsrooms. That may affect access to all other human rights,” he said.
Conrad Mpesa, Chairperson of Media Institute of Southern Africa, Chinhoyi Advocacy Chapter, said the commemorations come at a time when the industry is advocating for the realization of the attainment of human rights and media freedom as a getaway to all other fundamental human rights.
An explosive plenary session held as part of the commemoration brought out the issues of poor remuneration of journalists as a barrier to upholding journalist ethics as they end up taking “brown envelopes”.
Nunurai Jena said that as the country moves towards harmonized elections, the issue of ethics in the industry will continue to be a challenge if the welfare of journalists is not addressed.
“We have been talking about the poor remuneration of journalists for a long time and nothing has changed yet. I challenge media practitioners’ unions such as the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists and Media Institute of South Africa to continuously engage media employers over journalists’ welfare. If that is not addressed, we will continue to have challenges on brown envelopes,” he said.
Walter Nyamukondiwa urged the establishment of a National Employment Council for the sector.
“We have been talking about the National Employment Council for the media industry for a long time now, and we are still yet to achieve anything that will improve the welfare of journalists,” he said.
James Muonwa, Zimbabwe Union of Journalists’ Mashonaland West Chapter Chairperson said the creation of an NEC will help to have a standardized level of remuneration for media practitioners
“The challenge we have is that we do not have a standardized level for remuneration for journalists, especially from community newspapers. The establishment of a National Employment Council will go a long way in creating standards for the industry’s remuneration,” he said.
Journalists hailed the national media police engagements to improve the security of journalists during the election period.
“We appreciate efforts currently being carried out by the police in engaging the media to find common ground for the safety of journalists as we approach the elections. We hope these engagements will help journalists as they carry out their duties in pursuit of assisting in the achievement of fundamental rights access.”