Journalists urged to Report Accurately

Patient Sibanda
Journalists should exercise a watchdog role through data analysis of the voter’s roll, this election period, said Election Resource Centre Executive Director, Tawanda Chimhini.
Chimhini reiterated that the value of data journalism is to help journalists instil public confidence in the available voters roll.
He said journalists must accurately observe the election process with an understanding of how elections should be carried out.
“Journalists are in a position to provide accurate information to the public. They should watch the election process through testing what must happen against what is happening,” said Chimhini.
He added “As Election Resource Centre we have asked for names of officials running these elections, but Zimbabwe Election Council has not yet provided the names.
“Journalists need to interact with regulations and procedures as a way of working towards providing accurate and credible information to the public.”
Media Centre Executive Director, Mudzengi advised journalists not to take bribes- better known as brown envelopes saying it has trivialised the profession.
Tinashe Chirinda, a student at Midlands State University, expressed gratitude saying he is now capable of getting stories from media data and analyse it into verifiable stories.
“I will apply the skills learnt during this training in my studies and to my work before I get into the field. I’ll focus more on statistical data. This workshop has been beneficiary, and it opened areas I didn’t learn at school, ” he said
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