‌Report Objectively Without British or Eurocentric Bias – Muswere

By Ross Moyo
The Media has been encouraged to report objectively without fear or favor and stop pandering on British or Eurocentric biases that do not reflect the history of Zimbabwe’s once dispossessed black majority.

Dr Jenfan Muswere, the Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister, was addressing editors at a breakfast meeting the Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) hosted to discuss media conduct in line with media laws and ethics in Harare this week, and said the media plays a vital role in the achievement of the country’s vision.

“If the media of Zimbabwe plays around Eurocentric views, for example, in the coverage of the land reform programme, my analysis is that the coverage did not take into cognisance and context the historical and legal issues around the land reform programme. In the majority of cases members of the Fourth Estate pander to the British or Eurocentric perception to say white farmers’ land had been grabbed by the bloodthirsty war veterans,” the Information government’s Czar argued his point.

Minister Muswere said the media failed to make an objective analysis as is required in ethical journalism, to report what had come first, the title deeds that whites claimed to hold or the land which indigenous persons were dispossessed of at the height of colonialism.

“We have also introduced the post Cabinet media briefings. So, in terms of the New Dispensation, there are a number of policy and legal interventions that we have done in order to align with the Constitution of Zimbabwe which allow journalists to contribute to Vision 2030. Of key importance is the reality that whatever you write, positive or negative, will have a contribution towards macro-economic growth or it will destroy the future of our country and at the same time it will also destroy the media in Zimbabwe.

Dr Muswere added that the media should be careful of wolves in sheep’s clothing masquerading as journalists when in essence they are activists with a Eurocentric agenda with a predisposition towards name dropping and braggadocio, thereby exaggerating their importance.