Maravi

(TALKZIMBABWE) Online media should be regulated

Online media should be regulated
Samson Tengende - Opinion
Thu, 16 Apr 2009 02:18:00 +0000

DEAR EDITOR - I would like to challenge your publication and other publications that report on Zimbabwe to try and get accreditation to publish freely and openly about Zimbabwean issues.

There should be an online publishers' association which should be run on a self-regulatory basis. I think one of the biggest problems we have in Zimbabwe today is the existence of a multitude of online news outlets that do not care to verify the stories they publish.

Most of the publications wait for the print papers in Zimbabwe to publish something and then simply regurgitate the news and put commentaries, rebuttals, etc.

Some of us are tired of opinions that are passed off as news. There are many reporters who have completely discredited themselves, working for the so-called independent media, by publishing half-baked stories.

I urge all Zimbabwean online sources to verify, verify, verify before they publish stories. This is a very simple and basic journalistic principle.

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Samson Tengende
Pretoria, SA

Labels: MEDIA, REGULATION

posted by MrK @ 8:29 PM