ZimDaily Editor Munamato Muiswa

29 October 2007

By Brilliant Pongo

Speculation is rife as to why one of the most controversial online news publications Zimdaily.com has disappeared from the Internet. Zimdaily.com had generated a great following with thousands of Zimbabweans desperate to see change in the Southern African nation and those wanting to spew vitriolic abuse at the Mugabe regime and taking the chance to comment on every story that was published concerning the Zimbabwean government.

Sources close to Zimdaily.com say the online publication ran into problems after the company hosting their site pulled the plug on them. Zimdaily.com had been running a campaign to get all those linked to the Mugabe government, but based in the West to be sent back to Zimbabwe under what they called the “fair deal campaign”.

It is alleged that many Zimbabweans questioned the journalistic style employed by Zimdaily.com and most worrying was the lack of depth in the many stories that they published without verifying facts. One Zimbabwean journalist that this reporter spoke to accused Zimdaily.com of sensationalizing stories just to get website hits and traffic.

He cited the report on the alleged failed coup d'état in Zimbabwe as an example, “Zimdaily.com reported that the 15 soldiers involved had all been executed mafia style by a single shot to the head. One strange thing about this Zimdaily.com 'scoop' was that no other news organisations picked up the story.

Months later it turned out that there was a failed coup, however those involved had not been executed as was reported by Zimdaily.com. They are currently being tried in court. Zimdaily.com did not bother to retract the falsehood and this is just but one of many examples that I can give, these guys brought shame to the journalism industry, they dug their own grave sooner or later this was bound to happen” said the journalist.

Other sources linked to the story surrounding the shutting down of Zimdaily.com say one of the persons named in the 'fair deal campaign' took legal action against the online publication for slandering his name and his person, it is alleged that this is what resulted in the service provider pulling the plug on the online publisher. Efforts to get comment from Zimdaily.com proved fruitless. Despite their many shortcomings ZimDaily.com has managed on occassion to publish good stories that exposed the crisis in Zimbabwe.

Nehanda Radio: Zimbabwe's first 24 hour internet radio news channel.

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