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A contest of narratives..
ZNBC News :
And most motorists on Friday shunned the honking which was called by the civil society. A random survey by ZNBC news in Lusaka on Friday evening revealed that motorists do not want to be part of the honking because they respect the court's decision.
AFP :
Thousands of Zambians are wearing black to protest the acquittal of corruption charges of former President Frederick Chiluba. A fifth of those in the capital were seen in the funeral color on Friday.
AP reporters in Zambia are freelance journalists that get paid by the piece. The quality of their reports vary from excellent to abominable.
ReplyDeleteIn this case, I would have to say that the AP article you link to is ridiculous. It says, "a fifth of those in the capital were seen in the funereal color on Friday."
I'll ignore the misspelling of 'funereal'. The article suggests that one fifth of the thousands of people were wearing black, and one fifth of those thousands were seen in Lusaka.
Either the freelancer is the most gifted statistician of our times, or he is grossly embellishing his story with false exaggerations.
As an non-biased economist in Lusaka, my own anecdotal experience was that there was very little or no honking on the main roads that I was traveling at 1700.
The main highlight of your post should not be the contrasting news stories, but the sad state of media affairs in Zambia. Neither side is willing to report the truth as it happens. Everyone (including AP and Reuters freelancers) feels the need to embellish, exaggerate, or downright lie.
How sad.
All,
ReplyDeleteI would remind everyone to read the 'comments policy' of this website.
A number of comments on this thread have been deleted because they contain offensive language. Let us learn to discuss without violating our good nature.
Thanks.
Cho,
ReplyDeleteA number of comments on this thread have been deleted because they contain offensive language.
Maybe a lot of MDC/Chiluba cadres decided to earn their supper by attacking the critic, or what not. :)
Mrk,
ReplyDeleteIndeed.
I think a lot of them simply miss the point of this website.
They visit Lusaka Times and Watchdog...and then come here, but they forget to change the mindset!