This week's issues
| Journalists barred from going on face book |
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| Written by Joel Mhizha |
| Wednesday, 13 January 2010 07:17 |
 Harare-The state controlled Zimbabwe News paper Group has banned the use of face book by journalists during working hours citing internet congestion.
Journalists who declined to be named at the Herald house told this publication that they were being restricted from logging on to face book during working hours. "We were told that because of internet congestion during the day we should not go on face book. They said face book can only be accessed after 5pm of which everyone would have gone home. This is a way of banning the uses of face book because at around 5pm there will be no one left in the news room,” said one Herald journalist. "Its unfair given that most of people no longer use e-mails to communicate. As journalists we need to research and its through the face book and other sites that we get back ground information for our stories. This is the reason why we end up writing half baked stories because we would have nor reaserched,"said another journalist. Zimbabwe Union of Journalists Secretary General Foster Dongozi said it unprofessional to restrict journalists from accessing any website while in the newsroom. "There are big stories that have been written with ideas having been taken from Face book and twiter,and besides that most people now use these new technologies of communication. It’s silly to make such restrictions in this era of modern information technology. As a Union we feel journalists should be liberated and have the freedom to view any site so that they become informed communicators. "The other reason we know for the restriction by the state media is that of a phobia of fearing that if journalists visit other websites they become uncontrollable. This a clear denial of freedom of press and access to information to journalists by the state and as a union we condemn that action,” said Dongozi. Face book has overtaken the use of emails in Zimbabwe and is used as social forum. |
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