Speaking on SFM today morning the Minister of Tourism, Cde Walter Mzembi, said “the media in this country is very poisonous”. Whilst I am sure the honorable minister was speaking in relation to the media’s contribution to the generally negative perception of Zimbabwe by the international community, the statement is also equally true when applied to the quality of information that we receive from our media houses- especially the state run ‘The Herald’.
Because it is election season the hypocrisy and deception is at an all time high and is expected to get higher as we approach the election day.
As a public broadcaster The Herald should try to operate in a non-partisan manner, give the people truthful information and fair and equal representation to all political parties. Whilst this is not strictly possible, it is expected that The Herald should behave reasonably, in a way that is consistent with journalistic ethics.
The Herald has dismally failed at this.
In an article in today’s edition, the chaos of the special vote that left thousands of police officers without voting and thereby exposed the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s (ZEC) unpreparedness was attributed to a secret plan by MDC to sabotage the electoral process. The article claims that the MDC had five strategies to sabotage the voting. Predictably all the “sources” are anonymous and no doubt the creation of a very imaginative mind.
The truth of the matter is that ZEC is trying to hold a rushed election without adequate money and preparation. Concerns have been raised before but they were ignored.
In another article titled “Drama as MDC-T supporters disown party candidate”, one Herald correspondent Noah Pito claims that at the MDC-T rally held in Mucheke stadium on Sunday Tsvangirai was left stunned after supporters booed him for imposing candidates and “Less than five out of the 26 House of Assembly candidates that were introduced to party MDC-T supporters before Mr Tsvangirai at Mucheke were applauded, while the crowd remained indifferent to the other candidates.”
This infuriates me because I was there. All the candidates for parliament – those who will actually be voted for- were loudly applauded though the loudest applause was for the Masvingo Urban, Central and West candidates – understandably so because they are the constituencies around Masvingo town.
To be fair there were some shouts of disgruntlement, but only for the six candidates for the women’s quota. These were not voted for, and to my knowledge no party held primary elections for the women’s quota.
All this in one edition.
The Herald seeks to deliberately misinform the people of Zimbabwe and therefore influence their choices as we approach this month’s elections.
The lies and distortions about opposition political leaders in particular Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai are malicious and divisive.
However those who seek to lie to and misinform the people of Zimbabwe should remember that in this age the internet makes it very difficult. Ordinary people will report on rallies, meetings and other events in real time. Pictures and videos can be captured and shared by mobile devices.
There are also other alternative newspapers which, though they may be biased, try to be objective.
Too much propaganda works adversely. People quickly tire of lies and outlandish claims and seek alternative sources.
Few will drink from Herald’s poisoned chalice.
Reflections Of An African Youth 
As scholars we are very aware of these propaganda tactics. My wish would be to get this kind of mindset and mentality to the many young people and misguided elders who have been made to believe the MDC president is a shadowy white man living somewhere in the West. Such is the thinking of some guys who have never mastered the art of careful assessment of information to distinguish between an obvious lie and truth. I was angered by some guys in Lowveld resettlement areas in Nuanetsi
Word Nyajena. Deliberate misinformation will not work this time, we have technology, truth and the people on our side!
The Herald seeks to undermine the efforts being made by the opposition parties in a dogmatic presentation of what only the gullible would think are facts. This is the kind of journalism that Zimbabweans should treat with contempt and totally shun as it is retrogressive and very partisan. Mr Moyo you are right about the creation of fictional characters disguised as sources that spoke on the condition of anonimity . Its a pity that ” The Herald ” has been very incompetent in as much as truthful and accurate reporting is concerned, we all know how it blew the figures of people attending zanu-pf rallies way out of reality. Zec’s failure to be prepared is being attributed to another party ?? It defies all logic and is contrary to sound reasoning.
“Hundreds of thousands” attended the Highfields ZANU PF rally according to The Herald. Interestingly the much bigger crowd at the MDC was said to be tens of thousands.
The comrades at The Herald mock our intelligence.
So unfortunate that the Herald blames everything on the MDC. Even when their printing press is down due to a technical fault I am sure they will always blame Tsvangirai. When a lie becomes monotonous fools are bound to take it as truth …..but WE ARE NOT FOOLS
Exactly Ngoni, some of the stories are recycled and repeated so much that they become a bore.
though not directly related to the Herald, this makes me remember this one news bulletin when the equally appalling Ztv blamed our recurrent droughts on the United Kingdom using scientific methods to prevent rain in Zimbabwe.
Ah the conspiracy theories these comrades cook up. They forget themselves too in the process- one moment they praise Zimbabweans for being educated courtesy of Pres Mugabe and then give us the most ridiculous stories and expect us to believe them.
Yes Herald is Good at spinning stories though it might be the truth sometimes they way the write it sometimes its unprofessional but other private media house are catching the drift and doing exactly that .newspapers in Zimbabwe you read it once and you immediately know this one is zanu pf and the other mdc.all non-state media houses also spin their stories in favor of the opposition and both the estate and private should move aways from this practice
I agree that the private media is also equally guilty but The Herald takes it to new proportions. As far as I know there has never been a single article critical of President Mugabe. None