By Nyasha N Mukapiko

Access to information by freelance journalist remain a major concern in the Zimbabwean media industry with  many official sources always reluctant to give information to journalist not attached to any media houses for fear of being misquoted. This has given rise to independent journalist resorting to use of anonymous sources and giving them a leeway to falsify facts.

The poor remuneration and economic situation currently prevailing in the country forced some media houses to retrench their employees in order to cut costs like salaries thereby relying more on freelance writers.

Despite being enshrined in chapter 4 of the new constitution of Zimbabwe, under Part 2 Fundamental Human Rights and Freedoms in S (62) where it clearly states that every Zimbabwean media, has the right to any information held by the state or by any institution or agency of government at every level, in so as the information is required in the interest of public accountability.

A freelance journalist is just the same as a professional journalist employed by a media house which can be state owned or privately owned, but  an in independent journalist is free to  write for several publications.In most cases they are equally qualified with their counterparts formerly employed by the few media houses operating in the country.

A freelance journalist Samuel Takawira said the way freelance journalists were portrayed in the Zimbabwean media context was worrisome.

“I think the ministers are not forthcoming when it comes to the issue of freelance journalist, especially those affiliated to the current government. The moment you identify yourself as freelance you will be told to send your questions via email which are sometimes not responded in time. At the same time you will be chasing  deadlines”, Takawira highlighted.

Takawira further went on to elaborate that the snubbing of independent journalists by ministers was responsible for biased, half-baked unbalanced stories currently being produced.

The Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) is the only board in the country which has a mandate to accredit journalist but it is very sad to note that some sources were failing to recognize the press cards, giving first priority and first hand information to pro-government media houses.

Zimbabwe Union of Journalist (ZUJ) Secretary General Mr. Foster Dongozi said the union had received such report of intimidation of freelance journalist but however said they were working with relevant authorities to ensure that access to information was not compromised.

“If there are any minister doing that I think that’s very stupid. The other time I engaged some ministers and they indicated that there was lack of professionalism among solo journalists which would then make them fear to release crucial information”, ZUJ Secretary General noted.

Journalism as a profession operates on ethics and code of conducts which a journalist is forced to follow as guidelines. However some of these ethics have been ignored especially by freelance journalist who do not have a qualifications in  media.

Accreditation of journalist exclude the vetting of qualifications while it only demands and rely on stories written before and published in the mainstream media accompanied by a stamp from the editor of the intended publication.

Pressuring for academic qualifications would have hindered independent good writers who are pundits in their areas of study without any media background hence if qualifications were to be considered this could have left the media industry producing half-baked stories without in-depth analysis.

Although freelance journalist has been widely criticized because of their way of conduct, some audiences have given them more credibility since they are the only journalist who are not guided by biased and pro-government editorial policies in some sections of the media.

The ever-changing environment  through the use of technology and Internet should signal something to many governments with many platforms such blogs, social media now being widely used by journalist to tell stories hence the norm to give official comment journalists only from the mainstream media should cease.