SHANNISE DZOBO
MASVINGO –The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zimbabwe Chapter is in the process of reviewing progress on engagements held with the Police earlier in the year which were spearheaded by Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi throughout the country.
The engagement review in Masvingo was held recently with Chief Superintendent Blessmore Chishaka standing in for Asscom Nyathi while Masvingo advocacy committee chairperson Passmore Kuzipa led the journalists in the discussions.
The engagement was to review the working relationship of journalists and the Police in Masvingo as compared to previous years.
Kuzipa said that the Police and the journalists in Masvingo have become tolerant of each other’s professions because unlike before when the relationship was that of cat and mouse.
Chishaka said that the Police started engaging with the members of the Fourth Estate for the purpose of finding each other because of previous clashes due to misunderstanding of roles.
“We engaged with MISA Zimabwe, Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ), Zimbabwe Editor’s Forum and Freelance Journalists and came up with an awareness program for both the media and police so that we close the gap on issues that we seem not to understand each other in as far as our roles are concerned”, said Chishaka.
“The safety and security of journalists has taken a centre stage in the ZRP engagements since last year”.
Golden Maunganidze, the MISA Southern Africa regional chairperson and also the current chairperson of MISA Zimbabwe Chapter said the relationship between the two parties has greatly improved as compared to yesteryears.
“As MISA Zimbabwe we are very happy and relieved that the relationship between the journalists and the police in Masvingo in particular has improved tremendously especially after the engagement we had with Ass Comm Nyathi earlier this year,” said Maunganidze.
