Zimbabwean forth estate in distaste

Journalism, the so-called Fourth Estate, has been and still is an extension of Zimbabwe’s problems either by misinforming the people or misleading the government.

It’s a fact that even today media in Zimbabwe is polarised. One can safely say there are four distinct media groupings in the country today.

The first group is made up of state media journalists; that is the Zimpapers stable while the second group consists of the so-called independent media with the third group being those who use the new media – internet journalists. The fourth group is the journalist-cum-civic worker.

The situations the three groups of journalists create reminds me of the Biblical books Mathew, John, Luke and Mark who all wrote about Jesus Christ’s life as eye witnesses but give varying versions of what happened or did not happen.

But before delving deeper into what and how each of these groups have done to our country, I will dissect them.

The state media journalist has been the laughing stock. 

They are viewed by the other groups as unable, suckers and inept. This, to some extent, is true. 

There is some deadwood  atZimpapers. There are ‘senior journalists’ who have been with the Zimpapers stable for more than 10 years now. Most can’t write a feature or think about any topic except when it comes to reporting events. 

These are the ‘The President said . . .’ type or the ‘The Minister said in a statement . . . ‘

In actual fact, such ‘senior journalists’ haven’t matured professionally but have remained reporters. 

It’s understandable because in their minds they think they have no mandate to think beyond what they are fed.

It is for this reason that the state media journalist is laughed at. I remember when I was at The Herald asking a close journalist friend after MDC-T’s parliamentary majority win why he can’t for once advise Zanu-PF constructively, properly?

He did, for once, write such an article pointing out where and why Zanu-PF had lost and would continue to lose.  

But for the majority, everyday is just another day and years have piled up. Being a journalist has become just a routine. 

There is no creativity and no personal development. What matters to most of them is the pay packet. That’s why at Zimpapers you find journalists who have been there for 20 years or more yet they can’t show why they have been there. These are the nameless and faceless By Herald Reporter type. 

For those who have the chance to accompany the President, staying at Zimpapers has been good for them. Life goes on and they die professionally like babies sleeping during feeding time. 

The second group is the so-called independent media journalist. Most of them walk with confidence and view themselves as masters of the pen. They dominate any discussions and act as if they have sources in high places.

 They boast about their stories and believe that everything the government does is wrong and should be criticised except, of course, Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono.

The most distressing fact is that even where these journalists should be independent to criticise, evaluate, assess and dissect issues, all they do at best is inflate issues by giving unbalanced reports. 

It’s a fact that during the rise of the MDC, these journalists never looked at the other side of the coin and write about the intra-party violence that later led to the party’s first split. It’s not true that they did not know about it but they covered up all this.

They also ignored or did not take former Highfield MDC MP, Munyaradzi Gwisai’s worries when he quit the party citing loss of direction and a deviation from the founding goals and aspirations.

Maybe, the only fair comment one read was Joram Nyathi’s column where he dealt with issues in a mature manner but that made him very unpopular and some quarters called for his head. It was delivered just like King Herod delivered John the Baptist’s head on a platter.

Even here, one finds nothing much except criticism, mostly unfair, unbalanced and unresearched. Even here one would read between the lines what information has been taken out.

The cyber journalist has been and is the most viral type because they operate like flies – nameless, faceless and devoid of any ethics. This type has the entire wide world to lie, scorn, deride and rebuke sometimes innocent people.

Indeed, they get away with it. 

For them anything is news. Get a fake comment here and throw a name there, hey presto the story is ready to go. These have cost the country enormously. Even legislation has not been able to reach and sniff them out. Maybe, such a situation was created by the closure of media houses in Zimbabwe. But it appears this group, with the establishment of newspapers in the country, is facing extinction like the Zim dollar. 

The fourth group is made of those who used the profession as a spring board to achieve their political aspirations. Some are now within party structures where they hold high positions while others have made money as civic leaders or activists.

It is within this group where democracy is a buzz word such that life is nothing but about democracy. For and to them, life starts and ends with democracy. But once some of them get the positions they want, they then turn against democracy.

The fifth groups consists of those who openly declare their allegiance to political parties and vow to write in defence of whatever such parties say regardless of whether it helps the majority or destroys them. These are only found within the Zimpapers stable but across the spectrum.

We have exacerbated the Zimbabwean problem by being dishonesty to the profession. We lie and panel beat issues to suit our needs. In the process, we have become activists. Our duty to inform fairly, to act as the people’s watchdogs has been discarded either for money or self-glory.

While we use the word democracy, our actions do not show any democratic thinking. Yes, the Zimbabwean fourth estate is in distaste.