Uwazi

Zimbabwe
story and get the people’s views. It seems that three quarters of
the stories in the independent press are opinion pieces. Editors of
state media tend to give political stories written by their reporters a slant that suits the political masters. Sometimes the reporter
would have done his/her best to balance the article only to find a
different story printed. Many reporters now keep two separate files,
one for their original news items and one for published stories with
their name as the by-line. Other stories, such as on health or social
issues, are published in a balanced manner. The regular lack of bylines and the use of unnamed sources or unofficial sources reduce
the credibility of articles.Too often, the rights of children, women
and other vulnerable groups are overridden. There have been cases
where the right to confidentiality was broken when papers published
addresses of victims of violence. There are also cases of judgemental statements especially when it comes to sexual abuse.
SCORES:
Individual scores:
Average score:
4.3

2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2, 3
2.3

The media cover the full spectrum of events, issues and
cultures, including business / economics, cultural, local and
investigative stories.

ANALYSIS:
Business and political reporting are taken seriously while other issues receive superficial treatment. There are very few investigative
stories and there is little or no interest in social and cultural issues.
Coverage of rural stories and social issues is extremely poor. The
Herald is predominantly political in nature while some independent
papers try to give a total package by covering business and politics,
as well as special interests among a broad range of issues.
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African Media Barometer - Zimbabwe 2006