LONDON - The Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ) has described working as a journalist in Zimbabwe as a tough experience and has appealed to British journalists for help. "Working as a journalist in Zimbabwe is a horrendous and horrible experience in terms of the fact that many journalists in Zimbabwe have been trained by the state using tax payer's moneNobody has claimed or acknowledged bombing all newspapers that were deemed to be anti-government,” said ZUJ Secretary General Forster Dongozi who was speaking at an event organised by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) United Kingdom last week in London.
He told his audience that a journalist was last year murdered but no investigations have been done up to now.
“One of our colleagues was abducted from outside his house and his body later found mutilated. Suspicions have further confirmed that up to now we are not aware of any investigations that have taken place as regards the issue of abductions and subsequent murder of Edward Chikomba,” said Dongozi through a video of the event posted on You Tube.
He also took the opportunity to take out his begging bowl.
“We ask our colleagues in NUJ UK to assist us with equipment such as laptops, computers, cameras and whatever it is that they can lay their hands on because most of the journalists in Zimbabwe can not afford to pay the expensive internet cafe fees,” said Dongozi. “As a union we are building up resource centres in major parts of the country so that colleagues can make sure that the Zimbabwe story is heard.”
He also pleaded with the British journalists to help Zimbabwean journalists with training.
“It has been eight years since Zimbabwe journalism has been on a down turn – which is eight years of doing things badly. It will be difficult to recover that lost ground, where possible we need to get into some form of partnership with our colleagues in the UK to ensure quality and professionalism,” said Dongozi.