Editorial Charter Preamble

• Zimbabwe Newspapers (1980) Limited is a public limited company. It bears responsibilities to all its shareholders, its customers, the readers of its newspapers and its employees. To fulfill these multiple responsibilities there is an editorial charter.

The Charter

1. The Board of Directors and its appointed management affirm their commitment to the principle of editorial independence.
2. The Board of Directors, the management, the editors and members of staff of The Herald, The Sunday Mail, Chronicle, The Sunday News, Manica Post, Business Weekly, Kwayedza, UMthunywa, H Metro, B Metro, Suburban, Star FM, Diamond FM, Capitalk FM, Nyaminyami FM and Zimpapers Television Network, under the Zimbabwe Newspapers (1980) Ltd group, agree to uphold the code of ethics and principles of journalism as espoused in the country’s laws and statutes
3. The Board of Directors acknowledges the responsibility of journalists, artists and photographers to report and comment on the affairs of the city, state, nation and the world fairly and accurately and regardless of any commercial, personal or political interests including those of any shareholder, director, manager, editor or staff member.
4. The right to appoint or dismiss the editors resides with the Board of Directors and its appointed management. Subject to this, full editorial control of the newspapers within agreed budgets shall be vested in the editors. They alone shall determine editorial content. All editorial content (text, audio, video, pictures, graphics) belongs to the Zimpapers group and not individual titles, and, or platforms and shall be shared following the Breaking News policy and in keeping with the Group’s convergence strategy.
5. In exercising editorial control editors shall take into consideration the need to carry advertorials or native advertising in their publications/platforms but this should be clearly marked as such. The editors shall be directly responsible to the appointed management and shall at all times carry out their duties in a way that will preserve and ensure the independence and integrity of all the platforms, be it print, digital or broadcasting, under the Zimbabwe Newspapers stable in accordance with this charter.
6. In exercising their judgment, editors shall take into account:
   – National Interest.
   – Public Benefit;
   – That Zimpapers publications and stations are family platforms; and
   – That Zimbabwean societies have their own mores and values which have to be recognised.