SECTOR 4 4.1 The standard of reporting follows the basic principles of accuracy and fairness Standards of reporting are generally low, with many young journalists lacking experience and not possessing the background to handle political stories in particular. There is also a lack of specialisation, especially in the field of gender, and a general lack of training. “We lack the basic principles of journalism.” Stories are published without the required balance of giving the ‘for’ and ‘against’ arguments or a story is either totally untrue or published without the relevant context. Sometimes an editor runs a story without balance, not even trying to get hold of the other party. They will even publish a paragraph stating (incorrectly) that 'the person failed to respond', just to protect themselves. There is also sometimes a conflict of interest, with journalists “being paid to kill a story or paid to create a story. Simple rules in reporting are not being followed”. On the other hand, the mainstream journalists are generally accurate and will check the stories and there are more trained journalists in the field than five years ago. But practice and training are two different things. Also, private media such as News Diggers and The Mast do attempt to cover both angles in a balanced manner. They also strive to adhere to accuracy and fairness in court reporting. There are cases of those quoted in a story changing their minds after realising that publication could be detrimental to them. To protect themselves, they will later claim the report was inaccurate. It is therefore vital for all journalists to record such interviews for legal purposes. In fact, the print media in particular follows a strict process, with a story going through editor/sub-editor/proofreader, etc. Thus, it would be unfair to claim that reporters are ‘cooking up news’. Journalists are also faced with plagiarism, with stories blatantly reproduced on various cross-cutting platforms from online to newspaper to radio, without any attribution. There remain many untrained journalists in the industry. People are ‘posing’ as journalists who have never been to school nor trained. Even radio presenters (‘disk jockeys’) now call themselves journalists. “You don’t know who to trust anymore.” There are also ethical issues. Some journalists will call without informing you that they are recording the phone call. The story comes out and what is in the story is not accurate – sometimes they will even change it to the angle they want. As a result, some sources are now demanding e-mailed questions before they are willing to respond. There was a feeling that journalists were now operating in a different political/ social/economic environment that has overpowered the practice and where the political/economic situation influenced the values of accuracy and fairness. 40 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER ZAMBIA 2021