Malawi media in retraction over South African lawyers sneaking in: Times story ‘correct’

April 14, 2020 Nyasa Times Reporter 17 Comments

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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17 replies on “Malawi media in retraction over South African lawyers sneaking in: Times story ‘correct’”

  1. Zodiac we trust you, y so many errors, it’s not first time. Anyway editors are human being also. Be careful Zodiac

  3. 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.

  6. 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.

  9. 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

  10. What happened to cross checking of sources or doing your own investigations? Please don’t slide into fake news brigade category of journalism

  11. hahahahahahahahaha timadziwa kuti opposition works hand in hand with all newspapers and some radio stations koma bodza la mtundu uwu ndi lochita manyazi komanso mantha, inu nthawi zonse nkhani zanu ndizonena zonyoza boma nthawi zonse timadziwa koma musachita kutero .

  13. Maybe all those who comment on this fake news should also withdraw their comments. Kikikiki

  14. This is very sad indeed for such reporters and the media houses. Now, how do we trust their news if this is the case. Where did they get the information for them to publish such a story? Its very surprising!! Reorters must now be answerable to such behaviours and they are the ones who are making people hurt each other because of such fake news. What was he/she looking for in that article? We are eager to hear what the management has done to the so called report!!!

  15. Thanks for all the media which have apologized for the MEC lawyers story that they sneaked in Malawi. Its not a surprise to see people making a mistake. But the maturity comes when you accept the mistake and apologize. I congratulate you and keep it up. We too should apologize for making sharp comments on the issue which was not true.

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