Zimbabwean journalists have been urged to report the forthcoming elections objectively to help voters to make informed choices.
Nokuthaba Dlamini
The call was made by the Elections Resource Centre (ERC) training and outreach technical head Solomon Bobosibunu on the sidelines of an election reporting workshop attended by 38 journalists in Gweru last week.
Bobosibunu said both the Sadc and African Union election observer teams during the last polls raised concern about lack of professionalism in the media.
“As ERC, looking from the previous experience, we noted that the coverage of elections has been largely biased in both the state and private media,” he said.
“So we take this opportunity to capacitate both full-time and freelance journalists to be able to cover elections in a way that provides oversight, accountability on the process and then improve transparency in the electoral process.
“We expect journalists to provide valid information to citizens to be able to make informed decisions in terms of who do they vote for and what type of an election they are getting into.”
Zimbabwe will hold harmornised elections between July and August.
