George Charamba
Takes a dig at Herald, ZBC
Staff Reporter
KARIBA – The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services, George Charamba last week praised independent community newspapers from Masvingo province saying they were performing far much better than national daily newspapers that reach the area.
Speaking to journalists and media stakeholders at a meeting last week, Charamba said it was high time that national newspapers respected their audiences in order to remain relevant.
TellZim News and The Mirror are the only two privately-owned community newspapers in Masvingo.
“I can tell you that Masvingo community newspapers are performing far better than the Herald. I have been there several times and I was impressed. If media organisations are not careful, they can easily become irrelevant since news makers are now directly talk to their targeted audience,” said Charamba.
He accused the state-controlled media for being unprofessional by leaving critical stories from opposition political parties.
“It is not the government position that opposition political parties are not given coverage by either ZBC or Herald. We want all political parties to get a fair coverage but it is unfortunate that some managers are playing some gate-keeping and thus unprofessional,” he added.
Charamba took the opportunity to encourage journalists to improve their studies saying lack of requisite qualifications was a major cause for unethical standards in the journalism industry.local
