Maravi

Making a career out of propaganda

Making a career out of propaganda
Philip Murombedzi
Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:19:00 +0000

AS if the ethics of the mainstream media aren’t questionable enough in the first place, I’m noticing a disturbing trend in Zimbabwean journalism: The use of blogs, Facebook, web forums, and other social networking sites as sources of information.

There are blogs on Zimbabwe many of them purporting to be news sites. Others are mere propaganda sites that use the catchphrase, "And here's today's news bulletin!" and then go on to broadcasting anti-Government propaganda and hate messages.

This is the calibre of journalism that Harare Polytechnic has produced; journalists who create news and make a career out of propaganda.

It’s laziness in journalism, pure and simple. This is one of the reasons why many of these 'journalists' have remained on those blogs for years on end and failed to make it to the mainstream news organisations.

They simply spend hours trawling Google News or the internet for news; news they can twist to suit partisan ends.

Two well-known online websites reported that US$28 million was spent by the Zimbabwean government in 2008 on foreign travel; but failed short of highlighting what a reasonable amount of foreign travel should be and who was actually travelling and to where, and for what.

These are the sorts of questions journalists should ask.

Finance Minister Tendai Biti in his Budget Statement this week did not expand on the nature of those trips. The blanks were filled by a highly speculative, anti-Government website that claims to be the only source of 'independent and credible news on Zimbabwe'.

The website reported, "The chief culprit of these trips is obviously Mugabe, although Biti did not single him out. In November for example the Zanu PF leader traveled to Italy for a United Nations World Summit on Food Security and was accompanied by a delegation of at least 60 officials."

That website failed to say how many people should have gone to that U.N. trip, or verify that the number 60 was indeed the correct one. We are supposed to believe these sweeping statements by journalists who make a living off denigrating their own country.

This is pathetic.

One wonders how much the globetrotting Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his party have spent on non-UN trips.

Note, also, the citation of unnamed members by many of our Zimbabwean websites and blogs. This frees the journalists from obtaining permission to quote or verifying what they call 'credible news'.

Since they are already lazy enough to only bother surfing Facebook or Google for sources, it is not much of a leap for readers to imagine complete falsification of quotes.

Obviously, it is entirely possible to do that with ‘real’ sources and quotes as well, but it’s more difficult when you use anonymity sparingly.

Unnamed sources should be used infrequently and only when absolutely necessary.

This may seem like a small nit to pick, but it is not – if reporting on Zimbabwe is to be credible.

My concern is that this practice is going to become more and more common, more and more mainstream, and thus even more Zimbabwean journalistic integrity will be lost.

The BBC, CNN and many other global news agencies that relied on Zimbabwean journalists for news, do not bother now. They have simply started regurgitating their own propaganda and inviting non-Zimbabweans to comment on the country.

PM Tsvangirai won a human rights award for his "dedication to democracy" and earned an Oscar nomination. WOZA won US human rights awards. Biti won the "Best Finance Minister in Africa".

No one in Africa believes they are worthy of these accolades. They have to cross the seas for recognition.

Interesting that all these awards are conferred by those people and countries who imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe; and who champion propaganda on the country.

They are actually rewarded for doing the dirty work for the British and U.S. governments. It makes it easier for these governments to criticise President Mugabe and Zanu PF if Zimbabweans do it first. This is the U.K. and U.S. public diplomatic approach on Zimbabwe.

The likes of Dambudzo Marechera are no longer important. To win a prize these days, you simply have to criticize President Mugabe in a novel or in the news. Many Zimbabweans have won U.K. and U.S. awards in the last few weeks - a move meant to discredit the country as it makes progress.

Reporting on Zimbabwe has simply become poisoned and even Zimbabweans are making a career out of this poisoned space.

Let's hope history will not judge them harshly.

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* Philip Murombedzi is the editor of the Zimbabwe Guardian. He can be contacted via philipmurombedzi *** yahoo.com

Labels: COLOUR REVOLUTIONS, NEOCOLONIALISM, PROPAGANDA

posted by MrK @ 4:31 AM