US embassy cable - 03HARARE262

UNCLAS HARARE 000262 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF/PDPA FOR DALTON, MITCHELL AND SIMS 
NSC FOR JENDAYI FRAZER 
LONDON FOR GURNEY 
PARIS FOR NEARY 
NAIROBI FOR PFLAUMER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, PHUM, KPAO, KMDR, ZI 
SUBJECT: GOVERNMENT PAPER REFUSES TO APOLOGIZE FOR 
DISTORTED REPORTING 
 
 
  1.   On January 25, UN WFP Envoy James Morris took the 
      government-owned "Herald" to task for gross distortions 
      in their report of his remarks after a January 24 
      meeting with Robert Mugabe.  Morris characterized the 
      "Herald's" article as "100 percent lies." 
 
  2.   On January 29, Japan's Ambassador to Zimbabwe 
      wrote a letter to the "Herald" complaining bitterly of 
      the paper's "fabrications" and "misrepresentations" in 
      their January 28 report about his meeting with 
      Information Minister Jonathan Moyo. 
 
  3.   On February 4, U.S. Ambassador Sullivan wrote the 
      "Herald" to refute the paper's false account of his 
      effort to be allowed to observe the Morgan Tsvangirai 
      trial. 
 
  4.   On February 6, the "Herald" responded to this 
      string of journalistic mistakes with a defensive 
      editorial entitled  "Mistakes are different from 
      falsehoods."  Excerpts follow. 
 
  5.   "Newspapers throughout the world are not immune to 
      making mistakes and `The Herald' is no exception. 
      However, there is a clear distinction between a mistake 
      and publishing falsehoods.  Any newspaper worth its 
      salt knows that it is a cardinal sin to create 
      fictitious stories, as this is detrimental to its 
      credibility.  It is, indeed, normal for different 
      publications or broadcasters to make divergent 
      interpretations to a news event.  It is in this regard 
      that `The Herald' takes great exception to attempts by 
      the discredited opposition mouthpiece, `The Daily 
      News,' to equate mistakes made by this newspaper to 
      lies published by `The Daily News. . .' 
 
      "It is every newspaper's journalistic right to 
      put into context, rightly or wrongly, statements 
      made by public officials.  There is nothing new 
      in this.  It is only foolishness or malice to 
      say our interpretation was a quote because it 
      clearly was not written as such. . .  So we have 
      no apologies to make to either Ambassador Liyama 
      or Special Envoy Morris for doing our job as 
      journalists but it is their job to be 
      categorical when answering reporters' questions. 
      If either Special Envoy Morris or Ambassador 
      Liyama believe we have contravened any law, we 
      are ready to have that tested and determined in 
      a court of law and not on the pages of an 
      opposition newspaper." 
 
SULLIVAN