Thomas Jafferson once argued that were it left to him to choose between a gov
ernment with the media or the media without a government he would choose the latter.
Even though it is not possible to be governed by the media, no argument may be compelling enough as to dismiss the media from issues of governance. The media are custodians of democracy in any given society.
In the Zimbabwean context the media are supposed to be actively involved in the politics of democracy in society. The proliferation and the promise of more private radio station is a positive development in Zimbabwe, but this still begs us to look into our media systems and gauge if they serve the public interest.
Of course the polarisation of our media is something to worry about especially if one is concerned about the well-being of the country and its citizens.
The media is supposed to be the guarding dogs of democracy and where it does not exist they are compelled to be the war veterans of the same, fighting for it. Most media organisations have been complicit to the political activities that have led to the vandalisation of the economy and the people’s psyche.
Not only is the media supposed to fight for democracy, but it is supposed to be public spaces where citizens engage each other and the political leaders in society.
What does it mean to our education system the moment we start debating the awarding of PhDs? What does it mean to our country when members of the vaPostori sect thoroughly beat up some members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police?
Supa Mandiwanzira, Media and Information deputy minister once argued on one of the local radio stations that people must not beat up policemen because this reflects badly on the country’s image especially at a time when the economy is performing under capacity.
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It drives away investors, he said.
I was shocked by such an assessment from a whole minister. But then he might be forgiven because the way he spoke showed what he thought of Zimbabweans. These and some others are issues that are at the core of the country and silencing or keeping silent about them is very dangerous.
When things like this happen it’s time to pose and debate certain salient issues that seem to be going wrong with our country.
However, it seems someone has done a good job in silencing public debate or censoring some of the mainstream media.
It would be interesting to take a peek into how vibrant public debate is in South Africa-a country that, by all fairness, must be learning democracy from us. Our neighbours down south debate anything from Inkandla to Economic Freedom Fighters being kicked out of Parliament, to Marikana disaster and back to Inkandla.
This is discussed in public lectures at university halls, radios, newspapers and even in taxis. Any attempt to discuss politically-salient and trending issues in Zimbabwe is sometimes met with empty stares.
These stares do not mean we are dumb or have no opinion, but we are so afraid of the system and the next person that we cannot freely express our thoughts.
We would rather talk about how taxi drivers give school girls free lifts and later sleep with them and laugh about it. The media on the other hand are either selective or outrightly elect to misrepresent some issues to serve their partisan views.
Our media have robbed Zimbabwe and future generations of a bright future. At this rate, future generations are likely not going to find even the basket case that this country is at the moment.
We are slowly but surely condemning future generations into a pit where they would not only fail to retrieve the country, but themselves too. The media have a role of protecting future generations.
The multiplicity of media in this country is something worth taking note of.
We have an assortment of media in Zimbabwe, some pink, blue, black and white, and all. Some quality, some tabloid and yet some queer.
The queer ones are yet to come out of the closet as they seem to be trying to strike a balance between seriousness and tablodising but it seems their leanings in terms of coverage is clear. We also have different types of journalists who have served and related with politicians differently.
We may categorise our journalists into five groups: Hunter, the activist, the buddy, the possession and the real journalist. A brief description of these is in order.
Hunters relentlessly pursues their target, especially politicians until they catch them. They are not driven by the need to inform citizens, but they are driven by suspicious motives of which citizens’ interests is not one of them.
The activist, as the name suggests is one who stands for certain views and fights any political ideologies that rail against his or hers. The activist lacks objectivity; one ideal we teach and expect our journalism school students to uphold.
The other type is the buddy journalist and so friendly with politicians to an extent that he fails to question them regardless of the evidence against them. The possession is literally owned by the politician and angles his stories according to instructions from the politicians. He becomes part of the public relations crew of the politician even though not on the pay roll.
They enjoy the politicians’ company and name-dropping about his associations to these powerful and yet feared members of society.
In Zimbabwe we have been cultured into fearing public servants. We tremble in government offices as the officers speak to us anyhow.
That we have been reduced to children is beyond debate. We find it common to encounter roadblocks on our way to work and do not complain.
What’s worse, we have found it natural to be detained by Zimra at the borders as we try to make our way back home from South Africa, Botswana or whatever place we go to buy some of the better and cheaper necessities. We are probably the only country that does that to its citizens. I digress.
The real journalist is missing in action in Zimbabwe. If any, there are very few. We have come across some well-meaning “real journalists” in Zimbabwe. A real journalist serves and sides with the public.
These real journalists hold the government and public servants accountable. This journalist always questions the motives of the politicians and would refuse to participate in any undemocratic project of destroying political rivals for instance.
Probably together with the pentecostal churches which have come to be refuge places for the increasingly disillusioned and hopeless masses, journalists find themselves having an important role in the current sociopolitical and economic crisis.
Of course some media give an impression of economic stability. We cannot claim sovereignty and national pride without our own national currency for example. We cannot claim national pride when we have reduced ourselves to hunters and gatherers flocking to neighbouring countries for shopping and coming back home bent double like beggars under sacks.
Our dignity as a people goes down the drain in the process.
That is why most of Zimbabweans are treated by the South African police and Home Affairs officials in a dehumanising manner to say they least.
But we cow to these kinds of treatment because, together with our media, we have let political systems abuse us without us strategising on how we could reclaim our humanity.
There is fear in the hearts of many as questioning power is criminalised. We need a media in society that debates issues and challenges authority on matters of democracy.
Democracy is not about voting every five years. Democracy has to do with politicians respecting the power that citizens hold.
Democracy is all about having a free and functional media that questions power regardless where they stand in terms of the political divide.
Most probably the State-controlled media have let Zimbabweans down by blindly being in service of Zanu PF.
It is abuse of power and trust to use State-controlled media to serve a political party’s agenda. It is difficult not to see that certain stories are angled in service of a certain faction and not another. As if that was not enough, our media have been influential in the Zanu PF factional tensions.
The private-owned media are the culprits too. It seems certain private newspapers prefer certain opposition political parties and have reconciled themselves into being adversarial to Zanu PF without being critical.
Of-course Zanu PF has presided over the country over the years and successfully killing hope in the people. Maybe they deserve acknowledgement where they have done better. The MDC has almost been treated as a party of saints, but they too are not innocent.
They occupied an important space in 2000 and people invested so much hope in them, but over the years we have come to realise that they built a house of sand.
Ours is a case of a man who goes to the bar and gets beaten by his peers. When he gets home he beats up the mother who later beats up the children who beat up the dog which then vents anger on the cat.
There is so much we owe to ourselves and future generations than silence and our media have an important role to play in this regard.
Shepherd Mpofu is a media studies and journalism lecturer at Nust. He writes in his personal capacity.
