SECTOR 4 minister, Jonathan Moyo that the paper had published a story based on false assertions that smacking of a hidden political agenda. Another panellist highlighted that self-censorship is dependent on stakeholder expectations. “When working for a newspaper, you get to understand what the shareholder expects of you, and that becomes clear in your head – you are told that this is what is expected, and you try to avoid the risks. The shareholder wins.” “You don’t want that phone call.” Marketing departments at the various media houses also place pressure on journalists “to write “feel-good stories about potential advertising clients”, in order to attract additional advertising. When one paper ran an editorial criticising Stanbic for the way it had handled employees going on strike, the bank pulled 16 pages of advertising. Since then, the paper no longer writes negative stories about Stanbic. At another paper, when a journalist had written about the mistreatment of employees at a large company after speaking to people at various levels of leadership, he/she was called to the Editor’s office and told to withdraw the story. In return, the company published its financials in the newspaper. The Daily News decided to censor itself on any news – good or bad – related to Strive Masiwa, after rumours that he owns the media house. Self-censorship also goes hand-in-hand with corrupt practice or the benefits/ freebies received from news sources. “What does it mean when a reporter’s air ticket is paid for and they’re given big allowances by a person (discussion in reference to religious leader, Walter Magaya). In the case of one of his crusades, reporters were saying the rally was attended by upwards of 300,000 people, but Magaya himself note that only 80,000 people attended the rally. Censorship comes into play here also.” Although some panellists noted that their shareholders did not get involved with content, they admitted that depending on who the shareholder(s) is(are), reporters might censor themselves based on what they think the expectation from the shareholder is. AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER ZIMBABWE 2015 59