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(TALKZIMBABWE) Zim journalists warned over publishing falsehoods

Zim journalists warned over publishing falsehoods
Posted by By Our reporter at 19 July, at 08 : 36 AM

MEDIA analysts have urged Zimbabwe and other African countries to take a valuable lesson about the concept of western views on the free media from the News of the World telephone hacking scandal which has rocked Britain.

Europe and the rest of the world is shaking after revelations that News of the World, a subsidiary of News Cooperation, which is one of the globe’s most influential news conglomerates, has been hacking into people’s private telephone conversations all in a bid to get news scoops.

Media expert, Dr Tafataona Mahoso said the News of the World telephone hacking scandal shows that media practitioners in any country need some limits and guidelines as a way to deal with journalists who go out of their way committing crimes in the name of investigative journalism.

Media freedom comes with responsibility and should be within the limits of the law of the land, said Dr Mahoso.

Some journalists in Zimbabwe have committed crimes publishing personal details of individuals and alleging crimes that have not been proved in a court of law. They have also published stories alleging crimes that have not been proved in a court of law.

Dr Mahoso said such journalists should realise that the day will come when they have to answer for all allegations made in the name of free speech.

A pirate radio station based in the United Kingdom and illegally broadcasting in Zimbabwe, SW Radio Africa, has come under fire for publishing personal details of people they say work for Zimbabwe’s Central Intelligence Organisation, equating it to the Wikileaks expose by Australian journalist Julian Assange.

The unsubstantiated list said to be from 2002, when it was originally published on SW Radio, had physical addresses of those operatives who were said to work for the CIO.

It is not a crime to work for the CIO and workers within the department include clerks, cleaners, receptionists, etc. Not everyone is directly involved in state security work.

In various other stories, the radio station has also alleged killings that are said to have been committed by Zanu-PF members. These allegations have not been proved in a court of law and some of them have not been reported to the police in Zimbabwe.

Many other reports on the website of that radio station make unproved claims about abductions and killings supposed to be committed by what they call elements within President Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party.

Many of these claims are unsubstantiated and yet to be reported formally to the police.

A media analyst, Mr Alexander Rusero said the hacking scandal should serve as a lesson to the Third World that the concept of free media is a myth, saying people should judge from the way the British government has reacted to the scandal that even the West can not practice what they preach.

He said some of the vigilante justice practiced my media organisations who try to act like courts of law will in future see many journalists brought before the law to prove some allegations they make in the media.

He said such sensationalism in the media should be discouraged and while journalists are encouraged to expose cases of wrongdoing, they should do so in a professional manner and not act like “judge and jury”.

The British government has responded to the phone hacking scandal by closing the News of the World, and the scrapping of News Corporation’s proposed takeover of BskyB while a proposal to impose stiffer media restrictions is on the cards.

This has been interpreted as a clear indication that Britain can no longer afford the concept of a total free media.

News Cooperation was founded by media mogul, Rupert Murdoch, who enjoys the biggest stake in the conglomerate and has media interests across the world.

Labels: JOURNALISM, PROPAGANDA, TAFATAONA MAHOSO

posted by MrK @ 5:09 PM