LAST week one Zimbabwean newspaper wrote an article entitled: ‘Grace Mugabe donates size 13 shoes to toddlers’.
The heading was followed by a subheading, ‘Grace Mugabe has donated shoes to a local village school in a bid to win support as she prepares to take over presidency after Robert Mugabe.’
To support their false story, they posted two photographs of schoolchildren, not toddlers, but a group of anything between seven to nine-year-olds standing outside a classroom wearing their oversized shoes, while another photograph showed a group of pupils inside a classroom smiling, holding their ‘oversized’ plastic shoes.
It also appears that, coincidentally, a few thousand miles away from Zimbabwe, in East Africa, the same photographs were published by a Kenyan newspaper, under the headline: ‘These are the kind of shoes Matungulu MP Stephen Mule donated to poor school pupils and this is how Kenyans reacted’.
The story read: “Matungulu MP Stephen Mule is clearly one of those people who doesn’t want to be left in the non-performing docket.
“This is after some reports confirmed that he was one of the least performing governors in Kenya.
“He is currently doing the best he can to change the minds of those who put him in office.
“However, his most recent move of donating shoes to stop jigger infestation in schools hasn’t quite gotten the response he anticipated.
“After seeing the kind of plastic shoes which the governor supposedly donated out of goodwill, Kenyans were angered and took to social media to air their views.
“This was clearly something that was done haphazardly and not much thought was put into it.”
Thus the story about the oversized shoes was reported in Kenya on July 15, three months before Amai Dr Grace Mugabe donated shoes and bags to needy children in Zimbabwe.
On July 14 2015, another Kenyan online newspaper, The Informer, had reported the same story under the headline: ‘Shameless: Matungulu MP Stephen Mule donates oversized plastic shoes to pupils. Was he high on second generation liquor?’
“Matungulu MP Stephen Mule has left many wondering if all his faculties are up to date.”
“The good legislator donated oversized plastic shoes to pupils at his constituency.” (The Informer)
The same photographs were also published to accompany the story.
These are Kenyan children (in the photograph), and not Zimbabwean children.
But my social media friends have been sending me those photos via WhatsApp, trying to convince me that they were Zimbabwean children.
When I tell them that those are Kenyan children, they don’t believe me.
The argument is that if they were Kenyan children, why would many newspapers in Zimbabwe report it?
Such is the power of negative media.
Zimbabwean journalism has deteriorated badly over the past few years. Journalists no longer check their stories for facts before rushing to print and once one newspaper has published a false story, within a few hours (or minutes), the story would be duplicated on most online newspapers so that by the end of the day, the falsehood would appear like a genuine story.
Once social media picks it up, it spreads to the whole population like a veld-fire.
This is the risk that Zimbabwean media is bringing to the people.
Last year there was another false story reported in Zimbabwean media, of a snake purported to have been found taking money from a cash machine in Angwa Street, Harare.
To validate their story, they published a photograph of a three-foot snake found on a cash machine in Dorset, UK, in August 2014.
But the story had made headlines in Zimbabwe, both in print and social media, because someone just saw a picture of a snake and believed the story before validating the facts.
When I visited Zimbabwe in August this year, I was warned by some concerned relatives, that I should be careful who I see or exchange money with because of growing Satanism or witchcraft.
I was told about the story of a snake that had been filmed last year taking money from a cash machine in Angwa Street.
“Nyika ino yaipa mainini,” said one of my relatives.
“Hamuna kunzwa here kuti kune shato yakaonekwa paATM munaAngwa umo ichitora mari paATM?”
“But, vakoma, nyoka yamurikutaura iyoyo ndeyekuUK,” I said.
“Inga ndakatombonyora wani nyaya yacho mubepa rePatriot?
“Inyoka yakaonekwa pacash machine yekuUK iyo.”
“Kubva nyoka yacho ndeyemunhu wekuZimbabwe,” she said.
“Zvichida inotora mari ikoko nekuno zvese.
“Ngwarirai vanhu mainini.”
I resigned, realising that I would never convince my relative because as far as she was concerned, anything published in a newspaper represents the truth.
However, not all Zimbabweans are gullible to false media stories.
Commenting on the false story (on Amai Mugabe’s donation of shoes), Black Technocrat, a Zimbabwean living in the US, posted on his facebook page (October 31 2015): “I had no idea that Grace Mugabe doubles as Mrs Mugabe and Kenyan MP Steven Mule for Mantugulu Constituency.
“These embarrassing pictures are being used to publicly flog Grace Mugabe.
“Her detractors are saying she donated these shoes thus making her a butt of their jokes.
“It turns out that these shoes were donated to Kenyan pupils by some deranged member of the Kenyan Parliament a few months ago.
“Who is the joker now, I must ask?”
Emmanuel Madzivire commented, “Don’t take it too seriously.
“How many silly things have been attributed to Cde Joseph Chinotimba?
“That’s part of the package of being a public figure.”
Maybe it’s time to revisit journalism ethics on power and responsibility.
On professional journalism ethics, Straubhaar, LaRose and Davenport, (2010, page 477 and 478) state that: “Whoever enjoys a special measure of freedom, like a professional journalist, has an obligation to society to use their freedoms and powers responsibly
“Seek truth and report it!
“Journalists should be honest, fair and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information.”
Lastly: “Identify sources whenever feasible.
“The public is entitled to as much information as possible on sources’ reliability.”