Tarcey Munaku



April 28, 2001

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Getting sources to talk on the record; obtaining sensitive documents; getting political big-wigs to return a phone call--: practicing journalism in the United States has its hurdles, but consider the challenges Tarcey Munaku faces. He's the political editor of Zimbabwe's largest daily newspaper, The Daily News. In the last year, the offices of the daily news have been bombed twice, and its editor has received a death threat. Through it all, the paper has kept on publishing. For the past 8 weeks, Tarcey Munaku has been in New York to learn what it's like to cover politics here in the United States prompting reporter Amy Eddings to ask what can the American media offer a journalist in his situation?



WOMAN: That would be [...?...] - what kind of story you want to report?

AMY EDDINGS: The newsroom of the New York Daily News is vast and inhospitable. White walls, gray carpeting and monotonous rows of desks. Tarcey Munaku stands out in a sea of journalists. He wears two jackets to ward off a chill he's developed since coming to a damp and chilly New York in March. The size of the newsroom and its clockwork operations impress Munaku.

TARCEY MUNAKU: When they identify a story for the day [...?...] they don't spare any resources. That's one thing. And secondly, they exhaust all angles of the story, all angles of the story, even if it means phoning-- somebody in Austria just to get that story balanced.

AMY EDDINGS: Munaku's visit to the Daily News is not intended to be Journalism 101. Munaku's a seasoned reporter and the political editor of Zimbabwe's Daily News. Since its launch two years ago with the slogan "Telling It Like It Is," it's become the most outspoken and most read newspaper in the country, and it's the only daily that's not owned by the government. What Munaku is getting a chance to see during his U.S. visit is a best case scenario -- what it's like to work as a journalist where our free and independent press is protected by law.

TARCEY MUNAKU: Oh this is the ideal situation. One would hope that such a, a situation existed in our country. But let me say this -- every country, every nation, every society goes through a process of -- it's like metamorphosis. One would like to think that what we are going through will not last forever but that as we go through that process we learn quite a lot.

DAVE GOLDINGER: The same rules apply to covering a, a fire in Brooklyn as it does to covering the future of the nation of Zimbabwe.

AMY EDDINGS: Dave Goldinger is a Daily News reporter and Munaku's mentor during his time at the paper.

DAVE GOLDINGER: If you implement those rules well, then that's, you know, all you can do as a journalist. So you're hoping that when someone like him comes to, comes to a place like this that they see the - that side of American journalism and use it to dig out a little more information, do a little better job of doing what they do for the people there.

AMY EDDINGS: Tarcey Munaku's 8 week visit is sponsored by the U.S. State Department's Partners for African Leadership progress. It brings African journalists and other professionals to visit their counterparts in the States as a way of fostering goodwill and democracy in their countries. Munaku has shadowed reporters and sat in on editorial meetings at the Daily News and two other New York newspapers learning new skills and reinforcing old ideas.

TARCEY MUNAKU: Politicians the world over are the same. They would like only what they see as positive on their side highlighted in the newspapers. They get very offended when their negative side is highlighted.

AMY EDDINGS: In Zimbabwe the government of President Robert Mugabe and its allies are in the midst of a unprecedented crackdown on any organization or journalist that speaks out against them. In 1999 two reporters were kidnapped and tortured by Army officials. Many others have been beaten or threatened. Last year two private radio stations were silenced, and in February two foreign journalists were expelled from the country. BBC correspondent Joseph Winter now works for the Beebe's [sp?] African Service in London. He recounts a middle of the night raid by what he believes were government security forces.

JOSEPH WINTER: We didn't switch on the lights because then the people knew that we were in -- would know that we were inside. So we were in the pitch black -- myself and my wife. My daughter was, thankfully, still fast asleep. She's just 2 years old. And they were banging on the door trying to break in. We were extremely scared. We just had no idea what was going on.

AMY EDDINGS: Winter and his family escaped to safety with the help of the British government, but he and other observers say that's not an option for local journalists who are often characterized as traitors by President Mugabe. Jonathan Moyo, minister of information and one of the most powerful figures in Zimbabwe's government told National Public Radio's Kenneth Walker that he's preparing a strict new system of licensing journalists and media organizations. It would allow the government to rescind the credentials if reports are deemed inaccurate and offensive.

JONATHAN MOYO: We are not going to allow people to twist the meaning of freedom of the press; in fact we don't believe that this is a - one of the most important rights anyway. It is an outdated right.

AMY EDDINGS: Freedom of the press -- the very thing that Tarcey Munaku has come to the United States to observe -- may get him into trouble in Zimbabwe. But he downplays the threat -- at least when the tape recorder's on. Others fear for his safety. President Mugabe has accused the foreign press of siding with his political opponents and several journalists and observers say Munaku's visit may be viewed by authorities as a collaboration with Western, foreign, Imperialist interests. Munaku bristled at such an idea and refused to comment, and he dismissed as pessimistic and unpatriotic the view of many familiar with the current state of affairs in Zimbabwe who believe President Mugabe will tighten the screws on journalists and citizens as the election draws near.

TARCEY MUNAKU: I don't know if I would say-- I am operating in an, an atmosphere where a cloud or, you know, physical threat is hanging on me. I will be going back to my country in a, in a few days. I'm quite anxious to go there. I don't -- and to my job as a journalist. And--I don't feel-- like I'm walking into the lion's den as it were; not at all!

AMY EDDINGS: Tarcey Munaku will spend one more week at the Daily News in New York before returning to his Daily News in Harare. For On the Media, I'm Amy Eddings.