US embassy cable - 02HARARE1071

UNCLAS HARARE 001071 
 
SIPDIS 
 
AF/PD FOR COX AND ROBERTSON, AF/S FOR KRAFT AND 
SCHLACHTER, AF/RA FOR DIPALMA, INR/R/MR, NSC FOR 
JENDAYI FRAZER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ZI, PREL, PHUM 
SUBJECT: EDITORIAL MARKS PRESS FREEDOM DAY 
 
 
1.   Under headline "Facts are sacred, comment is free" 
   the independent weekly "The Financial Gazette" 
   dedicated its May 3 editorial to encouraging the media 
   in Zimbabwe, especially the privately owned press, to 
   "start showing zero tolerance to perverted journalism." 
   The editorial, appearing on World Press Freedom Day, 
   comes as the Government of Zimbabwe is actively 
   threatening the independent press. Editorial excerpts 
   follow: 
 
2.   ". . .Journalists anywhere in the world walk a 
   minefield of truths, half-truths, deceit and lies 
   and yet it is their absolute professional duty at 
   all times to check and counter-check the 
   information given to them by whomever before they 
   cobble up a story.  Although mistakes may occur if 
   only because journalists are human, these must be 
   rare and defensible - morally and legally - not 
   that this makes them any better.  The bigger the 
   story, the greater the need for any journalist to 
   take extraordinary measures to verify it with all 
   possible sources before rushing to be the first 
   with the news.  In Zimbabwe, journalists face a 
   particularly harsh operating climate.  They have to 
   contend with an unpopular government which loathes 
   the media's prying eyes and has enacted draconian 
   laws specifically targeting the independent media. 
   . . .But the forces ranged against Zimbabwe's 
   independent media are not just overzealous state 
   mandarins eager to protect their jobs, but many 
   other equally powerful organized interest groups 
   which similarly feel uncomfortable with the 
   coverage of what they regard as negative news.  It 
   thus becomes imperative that all journalists get 
   their act together by ensuring that all their news 
   dispatches are as accurate, balanced and fair as is 
   humanly possible. . .  Any news report which fails 
   this test can only play into the hands of the 
   forces which seek to muzzle the media for whatever 
   reason under the guise of the public or national 
   interest, or of national security, or of national 
   defense. . ." 
 
SULLIVAN