Staff Reporter

As the 2023 Harmonized General Elections inch closer, opposition players have upped their smear campaign, roping in the services of international media to naysay against Government.

The Harare Post has it on good authority that quite a number of journalists and media houses have been engaged by western embassies under the guise of workshops to improve reportage on electoral, governance and political issues.

The United States embassy in Zimbabwe has been hosting the youth, female and freelance journalists countrywide through workshops on supposed objective reporting on issues such as politics, corporate governance and electoral issues to ensure that people are well represented and informed.

Meanwhile, a beneficiary of the US journalists outreach program revealed that indications by Al Jazeera do not come as a surprise given calls by the West to hold Government accountable, on media reforms.

"The Al Jazeera documentary is certainly a product of Zimbabwe’s detractors, no doubt about that. It is one of the projects engineered to douse Government’s strides in stabilizing the economy ahead of the elections" said the source.

The same source further informed this publication that the delay in releasing the documentary could be indicative of the fact that the Al Jazeera team does not have enough evidence to air out the documentary. They are sure of the consequences should they throw out unsubstantiated claims against Government.

"Al Jazeera knows that their documentary does not hold water and that it is akin to direct interference into the affairs of a sovereign nation" said the source.

A media and political commentator, Tanaka Kamusoko noted that the delayed release of the four part documentary follows fears of defamation lawsuits by individuals cited in the teasers without proper evidence.

Kamusoko went on to say that the New Dispensation has a zero tolerance to corruption as the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) is doing a sterling job in the fight against corruption. Corruption is a major stumbling block to achieving vision 2030.

"Zimbabwe has its own mechanisms of dealing with corruption, and President Mnangagwa considers corruption a stumbling block to his goals of making Zimbabwe an upper middle income economy by 2030.

“Corruption has an impact on the disadvantaged people of society as it has ripple effects that increase the cost of living, access to services and justice," said Kamusoko.