Herald retracts false story about MDC

July 30, 2009

30 July 2009
The Herald

HARARE -The Herald newspaper was at the weekend forced to eat humble pie and retract a story in which it accused MDC ministers of absconding from official duty during the COMESA summit held early this month in Victoria Falls.

Nelson Chamisa: “We call for facts to be thoroughly checked.”

The paper carried an anonymously written retraction on Saturday apologising to the MDC for the falsehoods it published. The withdrawal served to fuel long-held suspicion that the paper is used by Zanu-PF officials to tarnish the image of the party led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

The Herald had carried the story under the headline “MDC-T snubs Summit delegates”.

The retraction read: “We retract the story we published on June 8, 2009 under the headline ‘MDC-T snubs Summit delegates. It has since emerged that there was a communication breakdown with Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials.

“Any inconvenience caused is sincerely regretted.”

The withdrawal statement which was written by an unidentified person at the paper was tucked away on the second page of the paper’s Saturday issue, where it was much less prominent than the original story.
The MDC responded by saying the paper should henceforth desist from the practice of seeking to besmirch the character of it officials and carry out its public mandate in a professional manner.

“The retraction is consistent with the circumstances which were present when the summit took place.

Yes, there are some MDC officials who failed to attend the summit for various personal reasons but their failure was not a collective MDC position, therefore, we view the Herald story as a deliberate attempt to besmirch and tarnish the image of MDC officials in various positions in government,“ said Nelson Chamisa, MDC party spokesperson.

“We call for facts to be thoroughly checked before stories are published.”

In the story carried by The Herald, the impression was created that all MDC officials had absconded from performing their assigned duties at the COMESA (Common Market for East and Southern Africa) summit. According to the procedures of the COMESA summit, selected ministers were asked to act as guides for the heads of state who attended the summit. For example Zanu-PF’s Youth Secretary and Minister of Youth Saviour Kasukuwere was attached to the Sudanese leader Omar Hassan al Bashir.

Kasukuwere travelled with the International Criminal Court-blacklisted leader on his chartered Air Zimbabwe flight to Victoria Falls and back to Harare.

Despite Herald’s accusations, there were several MDC ministers at the summit in Victoria Falls. Ministers such as Henry Madzorera, Health and Child Welfare Minister, Jameson Timba, Deputy Minister of Information and Publicity, Evelyn Masaiti, Deputy Minister of Women and Gender Affairs and David Coltart of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture were a permanent feature at the Victoria Falls Airport as they ushered the numerous heads of state who attended the COMESA summit in Victoria Falls.

The MDC has since the formation of the all-inclusive government complained about shoddy coverage of its activities by The Herald.

The most recent example of the negative coverage was the treatment of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s visit to Europe and the United States of America. The Herald routinely published articles aimed at tarnishing his image under headlines such as “Obama-Tsvangirai head for a clash’’, “Dutch snub Tsvangirai” and “Political goblins in driving seat.”