Malawi media in retraction over South African lawyers sneaking in: Times story ‘correct’
One of Malawi’s daily newspapers, The Nation and privately-owned Zodiak Broadcasting Station (ZBS) have attracted their stories about two South African lawyers that the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) engaged for the presidential elections appeal case sneaked in the country on Sunday April 12 2020 through Kamuzu International Airport.
Zodiak reported that the lawyers Dumisa Bhule Ntsebenza, SC and Elizabeth Makhanani Mere flew from South Africa but could not proceed from Mozambique because they were denied airspace due to coronavirus travel restrictions.
But Zodiak retracted the false reporting and apologised.
The Nation carried a story that the lawyer sneaked in the country on Sunday and issued a “correction” on its front page of Tuesday April 14 2020 – which was placed on the front gape right foot corner.
“However it has emerged from court that the lawyers did not make the trip due to travel restriction related to Covid-19. We regret the misrepresentation and retract the story-Editor.”
A similar story also appeared on Nyasa Times and the online publication swiftly deleted the article and in its updated court story also posted a correction notice which was placed at the end of the article.
But the retractions still leaves a lot to be desired and the public jury is out there to question the mainstream media on credible reporting . However, the beauty of the professional news organisations such as The Nation, Zodiak and Nyasa Times is that they are held accountable to their news dissemination unlike fake news outlets and social media carpers.
The Daily Times newspaper on the other hand reported “ correctly” that the South African lawyers did not make it in the country.
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Zodiac we trust you, y so many errors, it’s not first time. Anyway editors are human being also. Be careful Zodiac
Totally unprofessional, how can we trust them, last time it was the same and they had apologize.
Thanks Nyasa Times for being the first to retract your story yesterday and setting a record straight in your ‘correction’ notice, that was professional. We trust when something is inaccurate you own it up and you stick your stories when you have unimpeacheable facts. We rely on you.
Mo of the media in Malawi is full of FAKE NEWS.
SAD indeed. But it shows that the media is being used by the opposition.
Its sad. Such kind of reporting. All in the name of” breaking news”. I blame the Editors. They want to sell their paper without verifying the facts. They must be sued big time. Retraction My foot. People dont read retraction because its written in small note.
‘The opposition is very powerful in Malawi. It controls all news media.’ Opposition, let us use our power. NOW.
MBC is the worst
These are reporters fed from opposition pockets and are here to mislead the masses and should be either closed or punished for cheating the nation
It means that 90% of their reports are fake
What happened to cross checking of sources or doing your own investigations? Please don’t slide into fake news brigade category of journalism