Where are the people's voices?

General observation

With the people of Zimbabwe still to know the results of the March 29 presidential election, the country remains in a momentous state of anxiety and confusion .As the fourth estate, the media is ideally expected to provide information that may help extricate the citizenry from its state of confusion. The media is also expected to be a critical public sphere platform through which the people can air their views on how best the nation can be brought out of the current state of darkness.

Adding to the confusion

Instead of providing light as to the current goings on, some media seem to be adding to the confusion by continuing as extensions of political party propaganda machinery. For instance the Herald and ZTV seem to be embracing the Zanu Pf’s discourse of ostensibly protecting the nation from “imperialists” who wanted to overthrow our independence through the recent elections.

These outlets are however, simply getting it from the mouths of spin doctors like Jabulani Sibanda and Patrick Chinamasa, without exposing them to analytical scrutiny. Where exactly is the imperialist’s hand in what the people of Zimbabwe said through the March 29 elections? We are still to get a clear and logical answer from ZTV and the Herald.


Tsvangirai begs for VP post

This was the headline in the Herald of 9 April 2008 .The story constituted a butchering of journalistic ethics. We were told of Ian Makone, Joe Mtizwa and Elton Mangoma going to beg for the post on behalf of Tsvangirai. But the MDC side of the story was never given the prominence it deserved.

About the run off

The state controlled media continue to bombard us with stories on the run off .what is striking is that journalists from this section of the media continue to ignore the critical question from every other Zimbabwean: why a rerun before the election results is out? By the way is it a rerun or run off? The media must clear us of the confusion.

Where are the people?

In their stories on the current state of affairs ,most media are forgetting the ordinary men and women in the street .In the story headlined,” Accept defeat :Mugabe told” ,the Standard of 6 -12 April 2008 ,mainly quotes analysts and experts .The voices of ordinary Zimbabweans are largely missing .This is the trend in most media .The voices of the commoners are largely ignored .Yet every Zimbabwean has a stake in deciding how we should proceed from the current state of inertia. It is high time that the media be the public sphere that it must be.