*Not Everything Sparkles* Journalism in Zimbabwe- A question of truth or betrayal?

Since Mugabe placed media restrictions in Zimbabwe, it has become almost impossible for Journalists to report there. Zimbabwe, is in total devastation, so reporting the truth is now needed more than ever. Correspondent, Emily Batty explores the dangers involved for Journalists and others, as well as the ethics of reporting undercover.

Picture a place where your neighbours are dying all around you. Each day your prime minister sits down to luxury meals but you struggle to feed your children and then go hungry yourself. Where the government is corrupt and the rest of the world is made blind by banning Journalists from around the globe. It’s not an imaginary place. This is Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe was once known as the ‘Gem of Africa’ but now it tells a very different story. Today it is a country crying out for help under Mugabe’s ‘Reign of terror.’ Some say it is the greatest humanitarian disaster the world has ever seen. Eighty percent of adults are unemployed, over half the population is facing starvation and the life expectancy has decreased to thirty five.

Here in the UK we turn on our televisions and see images of starving children in Africa, depicting the scenes of famine in Zimbabwe. We read an Article concerning the political corruption of Robert Mugabe from an inside source. It is this information that we as an audience take for granted. The lengths people go to produce these stories are unimaginable. Journalists are risking their lives every day to report the ‘truth’ so the rest of the world might open their eyes a little wider.

Musa Vendi is a Zimbabwean living illegally in South Africa. She is working as a maid to earn money for her two small children who are living with her mother in Zimbabwe. As she fled the country illegally she must travel back through a river when she visits her family as she is not allowed over the border. In a deeply emotional interview Musa said: ‘‘It is so difficult for me, when I cross the river I am very scared, there are crocodiles and peoples that are killing peoples on the other side but I must go or my children will have no food.’’

Severe restrictions have been placed upon press freedom within Zimbabwe in an effort by Mugabe to block the truth. Newspapers such as the ‘Daily News’ in Harare have been closed down since the ‘Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Bill’ was passed in 2001. This has made it illegal for a Journalist to report from Zimbabwe without a license (which is impossible to obtain unless you support the ZANU-PF.) Clause 16 of the act made it illegal to publish or say anything that could be seen as ‘undermining the authority or insulting’ the President. This law has meant Journalists are being forced to report ‘undercover’ in order to get stories from Zimbabwe.

When asked about Mugabe, Musa said: ‘‘he is a bad ruler, he kills many of the peoples, and if I was in my country now I would not speak to you because his men will hurt you, they do very bad things they do not want people to know the truth. They should know the truth.’’

This would therefore mean that Journalists are placing themselves and others in danger, breaking laws in order to report the ‘truth.’ Some may see this as brave or courageous, a Journalist’s duty. Others would say that this is highly hypocritical.

How can a Journalist report the ‘truth’ and their words be trusted when they are prepared to deceive people and put their lives in danger to do this?

Musa Vendi has made it very clear in her interview that if she was in Zimbabwe at the time she would never have spoken to a Journalist. She said: ‘‘I cannot tell the truth there because they find out and will hurt my family I would not do that.’’

So if Journalists in Zimbabwe are operating in disguise people like Musa could be deceived into giving information. If they were found doing this by one of Mugabe’s soldiers, they could face torture, imprisonment and even death.

Is this morally and ethically right, does exposing the truth have more worth than the loss of a single life and so, is world ignorance or world awareness more important?

One man with an answer to these questions and a strong opinion is David Coltart is a MDC (movement for democratic change) member of parliament and a human rights lawyer. He was first elected to represent the Bulawayo South constituency in June 2000, and was re-elected in March 2005 with a 76% majority. Coltart is seen as a major threat to Mugabe’s ZANU-PF. Moven Maachi, Mugabe’s late defence minister once said in an interview ‘‘Coltart is the one behind everything…he is the one causing our problems.’’ (Quote from ‘Degrees in Violence)

Being such an influential figure in the movement against Mugabe’s regime, Coltart has some strong opinions especially over Journalism in Zimbabwe.

When asked whether he feels that the price of a single life had more value over the exposing of the truth he said: ‘Firstly if people do not report at all, people will continue to die in their thousands, only through vigorous reporting will the world be made aware, so even if you save one life by not reporting you will actually commit thousands to a certain death.’ He then went on to talk about the working practice of a Journalist and said: ‘Good Journalists such as David Blair who reported intensively in Zimbabwe are able to protect their sources and in doing so protect themselves and others from danger…Zimbabwe is in desperate times and reports are essential now.’

The future for Zimbabwe is an uncertain one but undercover reporting seems unavoidable. The Zimbabwe crisis is more than public interest. It has become public duty. The need for exposing the truth speaks for itself. Although there may be a price to pay for obtaining this information, world ignorance would be a much greater cost and there would be even greater repercussions

TAKING DATING BACK TO BASICS!

So we’re living in the 21^st century- you can communicate with others through hundreds of methods, yet with all this technology people are finding it harder than ever to break the virtual boundaries and make real contact! Have our lives become so caught up in the world of blackberry, facebook and twitter that we have actually forgotten to have a REAL conversation? Has hiding behind the screens of our laptops become more important than socialising?

Once upon a time a guy would meet a girl at a party. They would catch each other’s eye, converse in a little friendly conversation and exchange landline numbers. Providing there had been some initial chemistry, it is fairly safe to say that the next day she would receive a phone call inviting her out

For coffee or perhaps dinner. The landline is the crucial part of the equation you see. You must have made quite an impression to make him pick up the phone and call your house, even running the risk of your dad answering! Calling someone’s home phone is a lot more personal than sending a text message or an inbox on facebook.

To most forty something’s this would have always seemed like the normal thing to do but in 2010 to a whole new generation of technology crazed daters this is far from obvious. Why meet so soon when we could engage in text talk for several weeks and maybe even some ‘facebook stalking’ to decide whether he’s worth meeting at all?

We all know that men love the chase, and there are many of us girls that enjoy that period of uncertainty too. For normal few, ‘the chase’ goes as far as not being available for every date and perhaps ‘forgetting’ to return the odd phone call in the early days. Now there’s a whole new rule book. Thanks to the laws of text flirtation you must refrain from putting a kiss at the end of your message or run the risk of looking too keen! Replying straight away is also a no-no and as for over-analysing his messages, this is bound to happen. After all, you’re putting that much thought into what you’re saying to him that surely the message back is full of all sort of hidden meanings? He just said ‘speak to you later.’ That’s it, he mustn’t be keen! When in fact he literally meant what he said! He will talk to you in a little while. So much confusion from so little conversation! If women are from Venus and men are from Mars then we really should keep things as simple as possible...

Having so many ways of communicating with each others also comes with a whole new territory and multitude of problems. Tabloid papers are riddled with kiss and tell stories, most of which involving a footballer, glamour model and pages of saucy texts and photo messages. The most recent scandal being the Vernon Kaye’s text scandal. He is what it seems as a happily married man with a beautiful wife and 2 lovely children, one of which a new born! Their perfect life was shattered when it was revealed that Vernon had been sending a string of saucy texts to glamour model, Rhian Sugden. Not only would this have been a devastating revelation for his wife, Tess, but it must also have been very humiliating!

There's this young footballer I know who regularly attends my events, absolute idiot! He has over 200 girls stored on his phone’s instant chat! When I asked him about how he plays the field with women he said ‘it’s simple really, I speak to girls on facebook and if they’re fit I will add them on my blackberry chat. If I’m bored one night I’ll just message a load of them to see who fancies going out.’ You see, Ben like’s to keep his options open and his mobile allows him to do just that! He told me that even if he was to have a girlfriend he could easily message other girls without getting caught!

It just wasn’t like this 25 years ago, obviously there were affairs and people still cheated but surely not on the scale it is today? Relationships can be challenging even with just the basics and now technology is tearing more apart than ever before…some would argue that it isn’t the fault of technology and that the people who are using it to cheat would do this with or without it’s evil ways. Before, affairs would be something much harder to instigate. You would only be able to meet someone through going out; with no mobile phones you would have limited methods of contact making it extremely difficult! Today men (and women) find it a lot easier to stray!

The internet is full of dating sites, even some specifically targeted at attached people looking for affairs! So now people in relationships are actually joining websites full of others wanting to cheat on their partners. One particular website being ‘discreetadventures.com.’ To my horror the homepage says ‘meet other attached women and men seeking discreet romantic affairs.’ The saddest thing is that people are paying to join these kinds of websites.

Many feel that dating websites and facebook have made them become paranoid about what their other half is getting up to online! Sat having a coffee with my friend Sarah and talking about facebook she turned to me and said ‘You know I have always been a little bit insecure in relationships, but when we (Sarah and her boyfriend Paul of 5 years) got facebook it became worse, I always find myself checking his wall, seeing if any girls have commented on his pictures and just seeing who he’s added! I know it’s ridiculous but I can’t help it!.’

If you can relate to these feelings your probably not alone! There are over 400 million users active on facebook and 35 million of those users are updating their statuses everyday! That’s a lot of people actively interacting online for all sorts of reasons, dating, friendship or simply keeping in touch. Walking past the internet café in the airport, every screen looked rather familiar, you guessed it; everyone was on facebook, typing away and browsing through other people’s photos!

There’s no denying that technology has its advantages. Yes, it does provide people with new ways of finding love and romance and we’ve all heard the odd success stories but it just isn’t realistic for the majority. Judging people solely on their profile pictures seems to be the done thing. Have you never considered that the photo could be several years old, completely airbrushed, or worse still, not the person at all? Even if he looks like prince charming on his photos you may find that after meeting you despise his personality- what an utter waste of time!

So perhaps we should all take it right back to basics. If you’re looking for love, then surfing for it online probably isn’t going to help. Neither is adding that bloke you’ve had your eye on for ages on facebook, and then stalking his page for months in the hope he will message you one day. Getting out there and meeting real people is the key. Generations before us never used a mobile phone or an internet site to find love and neither do you! Wouldn’t it be interesting to meet a man on an evening out, and when asking for number giving him your landline and see if he calls? It’s only then that you will know whether he is serious about getting to know the real you and not simply sending you the odd text message when it suits him.

Mobile phones, instant messengers and internet sites will always exist and will keep advancing with the times. It might not be so realistic to cut these things out of your life but what you can do is change the way you use the technology around you in terms of socialising and dating. Don’t let facebook determine your relationship status and don’t rely on lovematch.com to find your soul mate! People never needed them in the past and you will certainly find more happiness from taking a step back from this virtual whirlwind that has consumed us all!

Another desperate attempt for fame!

If you haven't seen Vernon Kay in the news for exchanging saucy texts with glamour model Rhian Sugden then you probably haven't opened a magazine or newspaper all week! It has annoyed me intensely, and again reaffirms my views on men, never satisfied! He has a beautiful wife who only gave birth to their second child nine months ago. On the other hand, Rhian Sugden is just as bad, she clearly knew what she was getting herself into and intended on benefiting from the whole exposure, another glamour model trying to get into the papers...very predictable and embarrassing!

It would seem that Vernon Kay isn't the only celebrity Rhian has her fame hungry eyes on! Whilst working as a door hostess on Saturday night I spotted her leaving hand in hand with Calum Best! Well perhaps she's met her match with this one! Maybe they can exchange tips on how to get famous for doing absolutely nothing! happy days!

Secret Diary Of A Call Girl!!

I don't often stay in to watch a programme on TV but I just find 'Secret Diary of a call girl' totally unmissable. Its based on the real 'belle de jour.' Billie Piper plays the role in a really endearing and charming way. Some say she has glamorised prostitution through her portrayal of a high class escort living in London. I would disagree! She is simply re-enacting a real story. She humanises the person underneath the sexy lingerie and red lipstick. The programme is also really funny and I often find myself laughing out-loud at some of the situations she gets herself into. Billie Piper's version is sexy, intelligent and completely addictive- Catch it every Thursday at 10pm on ITV2! *TIP- Watch with a nice glass of rose wine!