(TALKZIMBABWE) Oppose Mugabe, make a living
Oppose Mugabe, make a livingBy: Alfred Munangatire
Posted: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 4:26 am
"Mugabe in Malaysia for surgery!" was a statement published on one news website that reports on Zimbabwe.
This headline was inspired by an unsubstantiated report in the British Telegraph by journalist Peta Thornycroft that President Mugabe was in Malaysia for prostate cancer treatment.
Somehow Thornycroft always has these "exclusives" on President Mugabe and Zimbabwe that are never followed up.
Here's a list of some of the "exclusives" she has reported on recently:
- Robert Mugabe 'ready to bury the opposition' ;
- Offering hope to Zimbabwe's most desperate;
- Zimbabwe charity appeal: 'We can help this family pull through';
- Secret airstrip built at Zimbabwe diamond field;
- Robert Mugabe loses political ally as younger sister Sabina dies.
These are just a cross-section of the large volume on articles on Zimbabwe that are written by Thornycroft.
We have come to accept that international media never reports on anything positive in Zimbabwe. One would almost think that the country has no more sanity left.
You can sense some disgruntlement in such reportage; unbeknown to us is what inspires that.
Journalists, I always thought, are meant to substantiate their claims by naming credible sources; especially on issues of public interest.
Unfortunately, many journalists now make their careers out of the crisis they invent on Zimbabwe
Most of them have to do this to survive.
It is really fashionable to be anti-Mugabe if you are a journalist, it seems.
Maybe that's what sells newspapers and makes one popular; but it is never honourable to quote unnamed sources and still want people to view you as a credible reporter.
We hope Thornycroft will give us some flesh next time she has another "exclusive" story on President Mugabe - the man she seems to love "reporting" on.
*Alfred Munangatire is a civil engineer based in Bristol, United Kingdom. He can be contacted via alfredmuna@gmail.com
Labels: MDC, PETA THORNYCROFT, PROPAGANDA
posted by MrK @ 5:56 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home