Open Letter To Mnangagwa
Dear President Mnangagwa,
We hope we find you well and that you are enjoying your trip to Beijing for the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (Focac) summit.
We would like to believe you and your officials used the trip fruitfully to learn something to elevate our national discourse, ideation and policy formulation, as well as ensure development and prosperity, although we saw in videos and photos your ministers sitting idly, staring blankly in a crucial meeting with serious-looking and focused Chinese officials.
While the Chinese looked businesslike, focused and taking down notes, your ministers looked like tourists chilling in a briefing in which they didn’t have much interest, just waiting for Sino snacks and drinks probably.
The optics were not good for you and your delegation, especially on a state visit.
Yet there was nothing new at all as we have now become accustomed to their relative cluelessness and, yes, let it be said without fear or favour, laziness of your officials.
The Chinese have previously told us that you and your team are not serious as you do not implement agreed development projects and other important programmes.
They think you need some revolutionary reorientation to change your mindset and work ethic.
When you visited China after becoming President in 2018 for a state visit, President Xi Jinping elevated Harare and Beijing’s relations to a “strategic level” – which he also did yesterday at Focac for the continent – to work closely with Zimbabwe on game changing projects and modernisation, but the Chinese were frustrated with lack of seriousness by your officials whom they consider lazy, incompetent and corrupt.
But, well, that’s a story for another day.
Your interview with a Chinese journalist during your current visit to Beijing for Focac refers.
In the interview, you complain that African journalists, and clearly you meant specifically Zimbabwean, do not support their countries and their own governments’ visions in their work.
They end up supporting foreign concepts and ideas, you opine, of course without providing evidence.
In the process, you express admiration for Chinese journalism and frown upon media work back home, or in Africa in general, which was ironic.
Instead of criticising you for showing a lack of appreciation and understanding of the role of the media in society and in a constitutional democracy like ours, which China is not, to put it mildly, we have chosen to engage you in a friendly way.
Let’s go back to the basics.
In journalism 101, the role of the media is to inform, educate and entertain in the public interest.
Of course in reality, it is more complex than that, but that is the normative function of media no matter what its history, context, structural arrangements, political economy and ownership might be.
Banal as it maybe, this captures the basics well.
Despite the current technological revolution and advent of digital publishing, including social media, the hackneyed role of conventional media has not changed.
What has changed is journalism practice, not its role.
Media plays a vital role in society and development, serving several key functions such information gathering and dissemination, agenda-setting and socialisation.
Media informs the public about news, current events and issues.
In the process, it educates people on various subject matters, raising awareness about social, economic, and political issues.
Media also has an important accountability function.
It holds those in power in its various manifestations or positions of influence in different spheres of life accountable for their actions, exposing abuse of office, corruption and wrongdoing.
This is what public media in Zimbabwe ought or should be doing left to its own devices.
But that is not happening due to political interference which has reached crisis levels at the state media.
We now hear that your officials even decree that your pictures must always be on the front page, Vice-Presidents on page two and your wife, the First Lady, on page three of a state-run daily – something like which is grossly unprofessional and ridiculous.
A state daily editor was fired previously for putting pictures of buses from Belarus instead of yours on the front page.
We hear you had influence on that, which is incredible and shocking.
That’s not how it works, even in an authoritarian media model and environment like we have in Zimbabwe.
Even Stalinist media managers and gatekeepers might find that way over the top.
Furthermore, media provides entertainment in different ways.
It also has a social and cultural function. It connects different people across cultures, fostering understanding and cohesion; integration.
Through influence and agenda-setting, it shapes public opinion, influencing the national agenda and policy decisions.
That way, it contributes to debate, economic growth and development, that is over and above its marketing and advertising functions, providing employment and paying taxes.
Another key issue is that media mobilises people for social causes, promoting activism and community engagement, which are critical in a democracy like ours.
Nevermind that Zimbabwe is more of a democracy in form than in substance.
In reality, it is an authoritarian state. The evidence is there for all to see.
Media represents and presents diverse voices, perspectives, and experiences, promoting inclusivity and diversity.
It also promotes democratic values and processes; facilitating informed decision-making and citizen participation.
Naturally, there is a downside of media.
Unprofessional, unethical and irresponsible media can be harmful to society and people.
There are many examples to support that.
That is why media has ethics and accountability mechanisms.
Journalists should be responsible in their reporting, but that doesn’t mean they must bootlick politicians and engage in sunshine journalism; painting a rosy picture of the situation, while misleading the public.
But overall, the media plays a crucial role in shaping society, promoting development, and fostering positive change.
It is not inherently the function of media to support a country or government as you seem to think and advocate for.
Journalists are part of countries and societies, hence they love their own countries and people to leave them at the mercy of corrupt and incompetent politicians.
There is no better way to serve a country and a people than exposing corrupt and inept leaders destroying the country and its people’s future, especially under the guise of patriotism.
Journalists know that in some countries, patriotism is the refugee of scoundrels who must be exposed and flushed out to save the nation and its people.
Otherwise, journalists are not a threat government, but to inefficient officials and looters.
The media is there to serve the public interest by informing them, holding those in power accountable, challenging authority – not kowtowing to authority as happens in China – playing a watchdog role over government, tracking important governance issues, public spending, budgets, policies and decisions of those elected to govern, exposing corruption, human rights abuses and electoral theft, advocating justice and fairness in society, especially on behalf of the poor, and promoting transparency and accountability in the process.
If a country is properly run and government is performing well, naturally the media finds it easy to report positively on that.
People also want to read good and positive stories about themselves, but journalists are guided by facts and truth, not make-believe imaginations or fiction.
Countries and governments hire public relations officers to do their publicity work, not media.
Hope these basics help you to appreciate the role of media and journalists much better.
Otherwise, enjoy your day and bring good ideas and projects from China, a modern-day development miracle, which changed under Deng due to competent leadership, good governance and serious work ethic, which is what Zimbabwe badly lacks even now under you after Mugabe’s disastrous rule.
Goodbye and keep well.
Yours truly,
HawkEye.
