Newsday editor Chimakure suspended Mbeki, Tsvangirai stories

Alpha Media Holdings (AMH), the publishers of Newsday, have suspended editor Constantine Chimakure with immediate effect following the publication this week of two stories which the paper said did not conform to set ethical standards.

The Newsday on Wednesday and Thursday carried stories under headlines, 'Mbeki speaks on Zim polls', 'Chaotic land reform', and 'Mugabe offers Tsvangirai VP post.'

However, both MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai and former South Africa President Thabo Mbeki, have denied the stories.

Mbeki's office on Thursday issued a statement setting the record straight following the publication of the article.

The statement said quotes attributed to Mbeki were intended to communicate falsehoods to achieve particular political outcomes.

According to the Newsday website, AMH editor-in-chief Vincent Kahiya said the stories fell short of the basic journalistic standards set in the publication's ethics and guidelines.

Kahiya added that AMH will appoint an investigator to probe the acts of misconduct and in the event that he/she concludes Chimakure has a case to answer, the editor will be charged in terms of the AMH code.

Efforts to get a comment from Chimakure were fruitless as his mobile phone was not reachable.