Reporting Elections, Safety and Security of Journalists Reporting Elections and Safety Guidelines Introduction This handbook is dedicated to professional journalists working in the media in Zimbabwe, whose watchdog role and skills to fair, accurate and balanced reporting is severely tested during national elections. Besides looking at the professional demands around reporting elections, this guide also focuses on the safety and security of journalists, mental health support and the need for fact-checking and information verification in a world struggling with “fake news”. MISA Zimbabwe subscribes to the notion that ‘elections define democracy while the media enlightens and sustains it.’ For journalists, covering general elections is one of the most exciting experiences, but very demanding professionally. While the stakes might be high for the candidates and the competing parties, and the welfare and future of countries and could be in court, the media will be under serious spotlight on how it covers the elections. The media’s traditional role is to inform the public on issues of the day accurately and fairly, and to do so while respecting a professional code of ethics. 4 https://zimbabwe.misa.org