News / National
Grace Mugabe shames 'media liars'
04 Apr 2015 at 08:02hrs | Views
A fit and strong First Lady Grace Mugabe attended Wednesday's Zanu-PF Politburo meeting shaming "media liars" speculating on her health to an extent of creating and circulating partly obscure images of her claiming that she was gravely ill.
Contrary to the reports in the media, the First Lady, looking as fit as a fiddle attended the Zanu-PF Politburo meeting, pouring cold water on weeks of speculation by a number of newspapers on her health.
Information Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo yesterday posted the First Lady's picture on Twitter exposing the lies reported by some sections of the media claiming that the First Lady was in a comma.
"Dr Grace Mugabe's attendance of Politburo meeting yesterday shamed media liars whose reports lied she was gravely ill," said Prof Moyo on Twitter.
He went on: "It's just unbelievable that somehow we have learnt to live with this madness to the point of normalising it. How can anyone be gravely ill to the point of a coma one day only to fully recover to attend Politburo the next day?"
This comes a few days after NewsDay was forced to retract a story published in the paper claiming that Cabinet had last met on January 27 due to President Robert Mugabe's foreign trips.
This was despite the fact that Cabinet had not missed a meeting.
Political analyst Qhubani Moyo yesterday said the media houses were doing themselves a great disservice by publishing falsehoods.
He said the media should understand that sensationalising stories all the time is not good for the consumer of news as such practice impacts negatively on the publication's credibility.
"It's important for the media to stick to the tenets of journalism and write credible stories about development and not just about causing alarm and despondency," said Moyo.
He said both stories on the cabinet and on the First Lady had been proven to be false which should be embarrassing to the publications that ran the stories.
Responding to the News Day false reports on cabinet, Zimbabwe Media Commission chairperson Godfrey Majonga said the organisation was dismayed that the journalist were writing stories without verifying facts.
He urged journalists and media houses to be truthful when writing their stories otherwise they would lose their credibility.
Majonga said ZMC was ready to take action on any injurious story as long as there was a complainant in the matter.
ZMC chief executive officer, Tafataona Mahoso said in as much as the media was calling for free regulation, journalists in Zimbabwe did not take their jobs and responsibilities seriously.
He said the Zimbabwe Union of Journalist was also doing the profession injustice by not condemning such behaviour.
Midlands State University lecturer, Professor Nhamo Mhiripiri said the NewsDay story was a deliberate ploy to incite public anger against the leadership. He said such practice should be condemned.
Contrary to the reports in the media, the First Lady, looking as fit as a fiddle attended the Zanu-PF Politburo meeting, pouring cold water on weeks of speculation by a number of newspapers on her health.
Information Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo yesterday posted the First Lady's picture on Twitter exposing the lies reported by some sections of the media claiming that the First Lady was in a comma.
"Dr Grace Mugabe's attendance of Politburo meeting yesterday shamed media liars whose reports lied she was gravely ill," said Prof Moyo on Twitter.
He went on: "It's just unbelievable that somehow we have learnt to live with this madness to the point of normalising it. How can anyone be gravely ill to the point of a coma one day only to fully recover to attend Politburo the next day?"
This comes a few days after NewsDay was forced to retract a story published in the paper claiming that Cabinet had last met on January 27 due to President Robert Mugabe's foreign trips.
This was despite the fact that Cabinet had not missed a meeting.
Political analyst Qhubani Moyo yesterday said the media houses were doing themselves a great disservice by publishing falsehoods.
He said the media should understand that sensationalising stories all the time is not good for the consumer of news as such practice impacts negatively on the publication's credibility.
"It's important for the media to stick to the tenets of journalism and write credible stories about development and not just about causing alarm and despondency," said Moyo.
He said both stories on the cabinet and on the First Lady had been proven to be false which should be embarrassing to the publications that ran the stories.
Responding to the News Day false reports on cabinet, Zimbabwe Media Commission chairperson Godfrey Majonga said the organisation was dismayed that the journalist were writing stories without verifying facts.
He urged journalists and media houses to be truthful when writing their stories otherwise they would lose their credibility.
Majonga said ZMC was ready to take action on any injurious story as long as there was a complainant in the matter.
ZMC chief executive officer, Tafataona Mahoso said in as much as the media was calling for free regulation, journalists in Zimbabwe did not take their jobs and responsibilities seriously.
He said the Zimbabwe Union of Journalist was also doing the profession injustice by not condemning such behaviour.
Midlands State University lecturer, Professor Nhamo Mhiripiri said the NewsDay story was a deliberate ploy to incite public anger against the leadership. He said such practice should be condemned.
Source - chronicle
