The ethical standards drawn up by the Zimbabwe Election Support Network for the 2000 parliamentary elections were a result, in part, of the experience of the referendum earlier in the year, with the extremely poor standards of coverage in the government-controlled media. Since legal control over the editorial content of newspapers and broadcasting stations was neither possible nor desirable, a code of conduct provided a useful alternative. It could have provided the basis for complaints against journalists to their professional bodies. It also provided a standard against which the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe - one the drafters of the code - could measure the media's performance. (See http://mmpz.icon.co.zw/)
A number of elements in the code are common to such documents the world over: the obligation to report accurately, not to suppress essential information, to protect confidential sources etc. But it also had a number of provisions specific to elections:
- A journalist shall report in a balanced manner. If a candidate makes an allegation against another candidate, the journalist should seek comment from both sides wherever possible.
- As far as possible, a journalist shall report the views of candidates and political parties directly and in their own words, rather than as they are described by others.
- A journalist shall avoid using language or expressing sentiments that may further discrimination or violence on any grounds, including race, sex, sexual orientation, language, religion, political or other opinions, and national or social origins.
- When reporting the opinions of those who do advocate discrimination or violence, a journalist shall do the utmost to put such views in a clear context and to report the opinions of those against whom such sentiments are directed.
- A journalist shall not accept any inducement from a politician or candidate.
- A journalist shall not make any promise to a politician about the content of a news report.
- A journalist shall take care in reporting the findings of opinion polls. Any report should wherever possible include the following information:
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- who commissioned and carried out the poll and when
- how many people were interviewed, where and how were they interviewed and what is the margin of error
- what was the exact wording of the questions
- In all media, there shall be a clear separation between fact and comment. News reporting should reflect the facts as honestly perceived by journalists. Comment may reflect the editorial line of the publication.
See Zimbabwe: Code of Conduct and Reporting Handbook for the full code.
