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MECOZ criticises media for using words like jackals, hyenas, idiot

MECOZ criticises media for using words like jackals, hyenas, idiot
By Chibaula Silwamba
Thursday July 17, 2008 [04:00]

MEDIA Council of Zambia (MECOZ) chairperson Sister Rose Nyondo has said it is unethical for media institutions to call people jackals, hyenas, stupid or idiot. Responding to a caller during a MECOZ-sponsored programme Regulating the Media on Radio Phoenix yesterday, Sr Nyondo said words such as stupid or idiot were insulting and should not be used in the media.

A caller, who identified himself as Nchimunya Simoonga sought Sr Nyondo's comment on some media institutions' usage of words, which he described as unpalatable.

"First and foremost, I want to find out how do your ethics take the following words I am going to mention here; one is jackals, imbecile, stupid, idiot and hyenas, referring to somebody when somebody is wrong. How do you take these words?" Simoonga asked.

He further observed that some newspapers were biased in their coverage and did not give the public the correct information.

"It's like other media institutions are afraid of the unknown. Why do I say so? These other media institutions or newspapers have failed to give us information where the country is concerned.

We rely on one newspaper, other newspapers have failed. Had it not been for this one private newspaper, I don't know where Zambia would have been. I see them other newspapers to be irrelevant in a country like Zambia.

A private newspaper only reports about corruption in a very detailed manner while these other media bodies have failed to give us what we need," Simoonga said. "In terms of information that we are given these other papers are totally biased. We don't expect that. I think you need to control that, surely, we need to do something where the country is concerned."

In response, Sr Nyondo said the use of certain words in the newspapers was unacceptable.
"First of all, he the caller talked about the ethical issues of calling somebody jackals, hyenas whatever and so on. Even in our own tradition as Zambians, if I call you a mbuzi goat, I have insulted you. It's an issue. We cannot accept that. That is against our morality, it's against our ethical issues, it's libel, it's defilement defamation and it's everything negative that you can think about," Sr Nyondo said. "Those words are not allowed on any radio station or any newspaper."

MECOZ executive secretary Beenwell Mwale said the words mentioned by Simoonga had no place in the media profession.
"Names like jackals, imbecile, hyenas, stupid and so forth have no place in the journalism language," he said.

Mwale also cited a South African radio station 702 Talk radio of being unethical when it announced that President Levy Mwanawasa had died without verifying the information.
"Can you imagine the impact that story had, not only in Zambia but internationally? That radio station did not even care to check the facts even with the Zambian embassy High Commission in South Africa...a story regarding a national leader.

Here in Zambia on that particular day you could even see the kind of atmosphere that was on the ground that day," Mwale said. "I could see people kneeling by taxis to hear from the radios in the taxis the latest information regarding that President Mwanawasa's health."
Mwale said the media needed to reflect on the reality that their power could either build or destroy.

"Like that Mwanawasa story, we have only been given the aspect on the Forex movement but there could have been more effects that we don't know. For example, the man-hours that might have been lost in the process of trying to get the correct information, even the emotional feelings. Generally that story about Mwanawasa's death was unprofessional," observed Mwale.

Meanwhile, Sr Nyondo said the media rejected the government's intention to regulate them because that would have hampered their operation.
"Some of the issues the government wanted to regulate the media were that every journalist and media house would have to apply for a licence. The minimum qualification for every journalist was a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication and very few journalists in Zambia have a BA in Mass Communication qualification.

“The journalists also had to pay a fee and accreditation process was not automatic, they government needed to investigate you. These were a lot of things that the government wanted to put in place for us as journalists to practice," Sr Nyondo said.
She therefore urged journalists to regulate themselves.

Sr Nyondo also said most of the cases that MECOZ had handled did not reach the adjudication stage because most concerned parties opted to reconcile.

Labels: MECOZ, MEDIA

posted by MrK @ 3:59 AM