Corruption destroys journalism ethics: Zim editor

Published May 5, 2016

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Harare - A veteran Zimbabwean journalist has lamented viability problems dogging media houses in the country and the poor remuneration and delayed salaries for journalists which he said were largely responsible for the unprecedented levels of corruption in the media that has led to a decline in ethical and professional standards.

In a speech at the annual Bornwell Chakaodza Memorial Lecture in Harare, Dumisani Muleya, Editor of the weekly Zimbabwe Independent newspaper, said corruption had not only destroyed journalism standards in the country but had become like a government policy.

“Corruption is creeping in the media. The media never used to be very corrupt in this country, but it is now corrupt. It is a fact that journalists take money to stop writing certain stories. It is a serious problem in the media now. We have to battle this one because it is almost like an official policy in government. If you are not corrupt, you are seen as a stupid person, people think that you are a danger to them because you will expose them,” he said.

Muleya attributed the high rise in corruption to the current economic environment, where the majority of the people, journalists included, were living in poverty.

The environment, the problem is we are living in an environment where the economy is not performing, it is actually collapsing and people don’t have money.

“In the media it was not like that. People used to do their job, that is why journalists actually remain your poor lot in society as well, because they were not corrupt. But now they are suffering, there are a lot of social problems and quite a hell lot of them are corrupt. Very corrupt.

“They take money to avoid writing stories. Even when there is evidence to the story, the story is not written and when you approach the guy to ask why he has not written the story, they have their explanation. They will tell you they doubt the authenticity of the documents,” he said.

Muleya, however, said economic challenges should not be used as an excuse for journalists to engage in corrupt activities, saying if the scourge was left to take root in the media, it would virtually become second to nature as there would be no one to play the watchdog role.

“Corruption is bad, it is an evil in society that must be fought. Journalists must never entertain this idea that because we are poor and we don’t have money, so we resort to corruption because it means we are destroying ourselves, we are destroying the whole country, the very institutions that we are working for that should help us move forward, that is the media organisations,” he said.

He urged reporters to take advantage of available news outlets to publish their stories should they suspect that editors were not publishing their stories because they would have been bribed.

“The good thing is that these days there are alternatives, if the editor refuses to publish your story, it must always come out somewhere, there are other platforms on the social media and online publications,” he said.

– African News Agency

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