By Dumisani Ndlovu
The Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) has showered praises to the local media for the professional coverage of the the August 23. harmonised elections.
The country recently held general elections which various election observer missions described as having been “peaceful” and largely calm, but disorderly. Most election observers including Zimbabwe’s all weather friend SADC described local elections as marred by curtailed rights and lack of level playing field compounded by intimidation.
According to results announced by the Zimbabwe Election Commission, President Emmerson Mnangagwa won the polls with 52 percent of the vote while his biggest contender, opposition Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) leader Nelson Chamisa was said to have garnered 44 percent.
“There is no election which was covered by the media in a professional manner than the recently held August 2023 elections. The reason why I am saying this is that the media played its part. Although there were some misgivings, as ZMC we are humbled by the way the media conducted itself in the recently concluded elections,” said Commissioner Aleck Ncube during a discussion which was jointly convened by the Bulawayo Media Centre and Tell Zimbabwe to reflect on the just ended plebiscite.
Ncube said the ZMC tried its best to ensure that the elections were covered professionally through various training of media practitioners across the country. “The Commission did its best in trying to ensure that we have a
professional coverage of the elections. The peace journalism and elections manual which we developed formed the basis of everything,” it said.
“ZMC went a step further by ensuring that journalists were not harassed at work through engaging the security agencies. As ZMC, we stood up for journalists to be recognised as workers who must not be hindered in doing their work. There was a better relationship between media and security agencies in terms of how the media covered elections and how they conducted their work without any hindrance before and after elections,” he said.
He said the commission was working towards improving the journalism manual through learning best practices from other countries such as Kenya, Namibia and Zambia, and incorporating them in the country`s systems.
The commission has also adopted an inclusive approach by ensuring that all stakeholders are consulted, Ncube said, adding that . the ZMC was in the process of decentralising its operations in line with the spirit of devolution.
“We want to build on your good job to ensure that we have a media in the country which fully informs the electorate and citizens about electoral processes,” he said.
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