24/04/2020
One Journalist writes;
I've gone through the whole thread on COVID-19 on this platform.. And here is my take..
1. If Dr. Namarika and Hon. Jappie Mhango are lying about the cases on COVID-19, then we the journalists are to blame because we took those lies and fed them to the nation.. these people don't move around the country with a megaphone, and neither do they call for a public rally to announce the 'test results,' but rather they call us to relay the information to the public;
2. I can challenge you that none of the journalists that have written stories about COVID-19 have so far challenged Dr. Namarika or Hon. Mhango to take them to the health facilities where these tests are being conducted and see for themselves how the negative or positive tests look like, just as how it's done with HIV tests. And none of these journalists have visited the COVID-19 patients, wherever they are being treated. If at all journalists are being denied access to these health facilities, then why write stories about something which is as good as non-existent?
3. We the journalists have taken the role of parrots, and have thrown investigative journalism through the window;
4. All this is happening because media managers are not willing to invest in investigative journalism, hence the publishing of *he said/ she said* type of stories on COVID-19..and not *we have established* type of stories which are now dead and burried;
5. So, let's accept that we the journalists in this country have miserably failed in our duties, and have now joined the bandwagon of peddling rumours on social media, thereby turning ourselves into citizen journalists;
*I cry for my beloved profession!!*
