By Staff Reporter
HARARE — Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ) secretary-general Perfect Hlongwani has waded into the deplorable conditions confronting journalists, saying economic insecurity is threatening the survival, independence and credibility of the country’s news industry.
Hlongwani warned that the crisis went far beyond poor salaries, arguing that the collapse of sustainable media business models was fuelling a chain reaction that was eroding journalism itself.
“It’s a crisis of sustainability, and we have been engaging and discussing issues of sustainability.
“We have engaged multiple stakeholders on this matter, including the employers themselves,” he said.
“To try and find a way of making sure that the sector is sustainable once again, because as long as that is the challenge, it means poor remuneration will persist.
“It means our journalists will continue to lose jobs,” Hlongwani added.
In recent years, Zimbabwe’s media industry has been battling shrinking advertising revenues, declining purchasing power, newsroom downsizing and growing uncertainty over the future of journalism.
Privately owned Alpha Media Holdings, which runs The Standard, NewsDay and Zimbabwe Independent, has also faced serious salary challenges, with reporters reportedly going for more than a year without pay.
Recent research found that publishers are struggling to monetise content through paywalls and platforms such as Facebook, X, YouTube, WhatsApp, TikTok and Instagram, while traditional revenue streams such as advertising, subscriptions and licensing remain unstable.
Those pressures have created a brutal reality for journalists, forcing some to leave the profession altogether and others to turn to different professions and the informal sector to survive.
“It means poor remuneration will persist.
It means our journalists will continue to lose jobs,” Hlongwani said.
Hlongwani went on to say that economic insecurity was also creating fertile ground for unethical journalism, warning that journalists struggling to survive could become increasingly vulnerable to improper payments and other forms of professional misconduct.
“It means vices such as brown envelopism will continue to creep in, and people will continue to disregard ethical considerations.
“When newsrooms are shrinking, where experienced reporters are leaving for other professions, this really does have an effect on public interest journalism,” Hlongwani said.
Hlongwani said journalists facing economic insecurity were being placed in an impossible position, expected to hold powerful institutions to account while struggling to secure their own livelihoods.
“We cannot expect journalists to hold politicians, to hold businesses, to hold the corporate world and public institutions even to account while leaving them economically vulnerable and professionally insecure.
“You don’t know whether you have a salary.
“You don’t know whether you have a job tomorrow,” he said.
That uncertainty is particularly dangerous in a profession whose public value depends on journalists being able to challenge powerful interests without fearing for their livelihoods.
Zimbabwe’s wider media sustainability debate has increasingly focused on the failure of traditional business models.
Industry stakeholders have identified declining audiences, falling advertising revenues, operational downsizing and delayed or non-payment of journalists as major threats to the sector.
Hlongwani also pointed to another disruptive force that the explosion of social media influencers and partisan content creators who compete with professional newsrooms for audiences and advertising.
“You have people who are not trained as journalists publishing, people who are not trained as communicators publishing and pushing information.
“Some are partisan about it,” he said.
Unlike trained journalists, he argued, many content creators do not operate under comparable professional and ethical constraints, leaving legitimate newsrooms competing in an environment where accuracy, verification and impartiality can appear commercially disadvantageous.
“You can’t compete with someone who doesn’t care what the law says, who doesn’t care what ethical considerations are,” Hlongwani said.
His argument highlights a growing tension in Zimbabwe’s digital information space: professional journalism is expected to meet legal and ethical standards, while social media has lowered the barriers to publishing information, commentary and political propaganda.
Hlongwani called for a policy response that establishes clearer standards for anyone publishing information, although such regulation would need to balance accountability with constitutional protections for freedom of expression and media freedom.
Beyond regulation, he said the immediate priority should be rebuilding the economic foundations of journalism.
“What is urgently required is that we have a collective response, a response where we have fair and enforceable remuneration standards,” he said.
Hlongwani renewed calls for the creation of a National Employment Council for the media, arguing that a single sector-wide structure could establish stronger minimum employment standards and collective bargaining mechanisms.
“At the moment we have two employment councils that remotely have interests on journalism and or journalists.
“We have been talking about the creation of a National Employment Council, but also employers are dragging their feet with regards to this,” he said.
Such a structure, he argued, should be complemented by clear freelance payment guidelines, investment in journalists’ skills and stronger welfare mechanisms.
The demand for sustainable freelance rates is particularly significant as newsroom contraction pushes more journalists into freelance work.
Hlongwani also criticised the failure to open the media sector more widely to investment.
“We were so disappointed, let me say, by the amendment to the Broadcasting Services Act, because one of the things that we wanted or we were pushing.
“We had been pushing for, was to say, let’s have an amendment that allows investment, especially foreign investment, in the media,” he said.
The Broadcasting Services Amendment Act was enacted in 2025 and introduced changes to Zimbabwe’s broadcasting regulatory framework, including provisions concerning internet-based broadcasting.
Hlongwani said greater investment could help tackle the financial weaknesses suffocating media organisations.
“We need stronger legal protection and innovative revenue models for media organisations,” he said.
Recent industry initiatives have similarly focused on unlocking local capital, strengthening commercial skills and developing new revenue models as donor funding tightens and advertising migrates towards digital platforms.
Hlongwani said media organisations could no longer depend exclusively on traditional advertising and donor support.
“Sometimes it is very critical that we think, as they say, outside the box and look at other ways of making sure that we have revenue as media organisations.
“If we remain stagnant, if we remain with the nostalgia of yesteryear, we may not be able to come out of the doldrums that we are facing at the moment,” he said.
Potential alternatives include membership models, subscriptions, professional services, events, digital products and other commercial ventures that do not compromise editorial independence.
Research into Zimbabwean digital media startups has already identified professional services, membership subscriptions and social media monetisation among strategies being explored, although economic conditions, political interference and inadequate training remain significant obstacles.
Hlongwani, however, argues that sustainability cannot simply mean keeping media companies alive.
It must mean creating conditions in which journalists can remain independent enough to perform their public watchdog role.
“If we want to improve journalism, if we want independent journalism, there is need for a collective creation of conditions that allow journalists to remain that, to remain independent, to practise without any challenge.
“Because journalism is a public service and a profession that deserves to be treated with dignity,” he said.
Hlongwani said the challenges bedevilling the media industry pointed beyond newsrooms to a broader national problem.
A profession unable to guarantee its workers predictable incomes, job security and basic dignity will struggle to maintain the independence expected of it.
Hlongwani said the crisis was not unique to journalism, pointing to similarly poor remuneration across other professions.
“It is now a national challenge that we need to deal with and deal with from a sober point of view where we actually engage and discuss around these things to have a lasting solution,” he said.