UNESCO builds capacity of Zimbabwean media in election reporting

Zimbabwe goes to the poll to select the country’s next President, legislators and councillors on 23 August. Social media is awash with commentaries, news pieces and illustrations about the main incumbents vying for positions in the next government.  Not to be ignored are news outlets, whose mandate of informing, entertaining and educating the public have been taken over mostly by social media, especially during the electioneering period. 

Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp are some of the dominant social media platforms used by the majority of Zimbabweans to churn out political and election messages. The proliferation of social media use is heightened by increased Internet accessibility and a global rise in technology use and falling cellphone prices. China, Dubai and South Africa are key markets of technology devices for Zimbabweans. According to DataReportal, data from GSMA Intelligence shows that there were 14.08 million cellular mobile connections in Zimbabwe at the start of 2023.

With less than a week to go before the watertight election, hate speech, disinformation and misinformation are on a rise in Zimbabwe. Readers must verify and triangulate sources of news just to verify their authenticity. Thanks to Factcheck, a news verification organisation that validates the factual accuracy of questioned reporting and statements. Given the high number of election messages originating on social media from numerous sources, the majority of whom are not journalists, fact checking is helping to set true records of news items reported on social media.

 

Receiving accurate news accounts around election time is important to voters and is an avenue for peace and peaceful elections. 

UNESCO ROSA in partnership with the Zimbabwe Media Commission are implementing the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Capacity Building Project Phase 2 (ZIM ECO 2) in collaboration with UN Women and UNDP Zimbabwe funded by the EU, French Embassy in Zimbabwe and the Japanese Embassy seeking to strengthen media capacity for independent, inclusive and responsible election reporting through ethical and peaceful election reporting, addressing disinformation and hate speech on media platforms and strengthening synergies for elections media monitoring.

The project has so far reached over 300 journalists and media organisations with trainings on election reporting helping them to better understand and appreciate electoral issues. The Zimbabwe Media Commission, a key partner in the project aims to capacitate 1000 journalists in election reporting during the life of the project.