Access to information in the
Zambezi valley has for so long been the barrier to community development.
Realistically, the Zambezi Valley is more rural than urban, which makes the mainstream
media in both Zimbabwe and Zambia to give the places found in the valley,
minimum coverage due to the distance between the media houses and the expected
places to be covered.
The mainstream media are more
concentrated in urban areas and rural areas near towns and cities when they
operate from.
Ward based Citizen Journalists
therefore come into play to compliment the mainstream media journalists’ work,
who are not always there when things happen. The Citizen Journalists are closer
to the incidents and have a lot to share which is not shared or disseminated by
bona fide journalists who are compelled to abide to the editorial policies of
the media houses they are accredited to.
Basilwizi Trust, a non-profit
making non-governmental organisation saw the loophole in the Binga community in
Zimbabwe and the Sinazongwe community in Zambia. Therefore, it has gone an
extra mile to train the youths in these two communities to practice as citizen
journalists and is giving out airtime to these citizen journalists who send
SMSes to the District’s Zimbabwe Information (ZIS) Officer as well as to the
mainstream media who publish the works.
The Blog, “Let the story be told” compliments the works of citizen
journalists and publishes the news about Binga and Sinazongwe.
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