Complaint to the BBC about Hard Talk Programme where MDC Alliance President Hon Nelson Chamisa was guest

Dear Sir/ Madam

We are members of the MDC -T, Oxford Branch, based in the United Kingdom. We wish to express our concern and register a formal complaint with the BBC over the manner in which our President Nelson Chamisa was recently treated by one of your journalists Mr Stephen Sucker during the Hard Talk Programme aired on the 10th of May 2018.
It is our sincere belief that journalists should be allowed to do their work without fear or favour but we also equally believe that in doing so they should be fair, transparent and free of bias.

We strongly believe that Mr Sucker departed from the realms of fair journalistic practice whilst he was interviewing Mr Chamisa and displayed a biased and condescending attitude which was meant to belittle our President. Our views are premised on the below:

1. Right from the onset it appeared Mr Sucker was bent on belittling Mr Chamisa by adopting an overbearing posture and insinuating that he was lacking in basic human decency and compassion by “seizing” the interim leadership of the MDC even before its late leader Morgan Tsvangirai had been buried. As far as we are concerned this issue had been dealt with within the party structures.

2. Mr Sucker was at pains to paint our President as immature, irresponsible and unwise to be a leader. He insisted that incumbent President of Zimbabwe Emmerson Mnangagwa was already displaying these attributes since he took power in November 2017 but that our President was not. He then cited proceeded to cite several promises which our President had made at his campaign rallies and referred to them as “fantasy” At one stage he referred to Mr Chamisa’s reference to his desire to see bullet trains in Zimbabwe as “ beyond nonsense”. We believe that the use of such an adjective is grossly disrespectful to any political leader irrespective of their origin and stature. We doubt that Mr Sucker would have said the same to a person like for instance US President Donald Trump.

3. We were also appalled to hear Mr Sucker describe some of our President’s policy statement as “silly”, an adjective which we again believe is reflective of a condescending and disrespectful disposition. Further to this Mr Sucker latched on to our President’s statement that the MDC would not accept the results of a rigged election to erroneously imply that Mr Chamisa would resort to unorthodox means to challenge the result which may include violence or some such. This was a misinterpretation of a demonstration which was called to call for electoral reforms in Zimbabwe and at no point has our President ever advocated for a violent takeover of the power. Mr Sucker’s stance portrays our President as undemocratic with a predilection or penchant for violence. This image potentially tarnishes the image of our president.

4. Mr Sucker seemed to rely on a lot of hearsay and opinion instead of hard, cogent facts to bolster his attacks on our President. We will cite his reference to a political analyst one Eldred Masunugure who was expressing his own views not facts on whether elections in Zimbabwe were going to be free and fair.

5. It is our strong opinion that Mr Sucker came to the interview with ill-conceived views which were biased in favour of the current regime in Zimbabwe and did not give our President a fair, balanced and respectful interview.

6. Instead of openly displaying his bias towards the current ZANU-PF regime in Zimbabwe on a global channel like the BBC we strongly urge Mr Stephen Sucker to let the people of Zimbabwe decide whom they want to vote for in the impending elections.

It is therefore our wish that the BBC should rectify this as a matter of urgency by apologising to the whole wide MDC membership and call for another fair and open interview with our President based on facts not hearsay, gossip and conjecture . This is so that the organisation’s image is not seen in an unfavourable view by the general membership of our party and all right thinking Zimbabweans who have suffered under the ZANU-PF regime with poor governance and service delivery and currently struggling with acute cash shortages, poor health delivery, corruption and other ills associated with poor governance.

Yours Sincerely

For and behalf of Oxford Branch
Tafadzwa Chigwende (MDC-T Oxford Branch Youth Chairman)

Email – ta*******@hotmail.co.uk