Chris Chinaka
Cris Chinaka has over two decades of work at Reuters International News Service where he has been the agency’s chief correspondent in Zimbabwe since 1995. He also has over 30 years experience in journalism and is one of Reuters’ most experienced reporters in Africa. Mr Chinaka is also involved in journalism mentoring and media training projects in Zimbabwe and in the Southern African region. He has been a board member of the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe (VMCZ) since its formation in 2007 and has served on its training committee since. He also chairs the board of trustees of the Media Centre (of Zimbabwe) and the board of trustees of The Source, an independent business and financial news agency project in Zimbabwe.
Education
Cris holds a post-graduate diploma in journalism and is a journalism trainer, mentor and coach.
Career
Cris Chinaka worked for Reuters in Harare from 1990 to 2015. Before that he reported on Zimbabwe for the Zimbabwe Inter-Africa News Agency (ZIANA) news agency and MOTO, a weekly newspaper. He is a journalism veteran who spent a quarter of a century at Reuters News International Agency until his retirement. He worked as a reporter largely around Southern Africa and was Chief Correspondent for the Reuters Zimbabwe Bureau for 20 years.
Cris retired in 2015 to go mostly into journalism, media training and consultancy and sits on several boards of Zimbabwean Media Organisations.[1]
Life Threats
The Reuters bureau chief in Zimbabwe, Chris Chinaka, says he was warned that he would be killed if he continued to “write reports critical of President Mugabe.” Chinaka says he was attending a government reception on 27 March 1996, when he was called over by Enoch Kamushinda, the Secretary-General of the Indigenous Business Development Centre (IBDC, created in 1991 by the ruling Zimbabwe African Union-Patriotic Front, or ZANU-PF, party to support black business people). “You should have been killed for writing reports critical of President Robert Mugabe,” Chinaka reports Kamushinda as saying. “I am warning you to stop writing reports against President Mugabe. Stop everything you are writing on Mugabe.”
Chinaka says he argued that his reports about the President were no more critical than those written by other journalists, but Kamushinda apparently continued: “‘You think you are a white man. Take it seriously….this (plot to kill journalists) has been discussed and you and other reporters are wanted.'” Another journalist who works for the state-owned media but who wished not to be named, confirms Chinaka’s story. The journalist says he too was approached by Kamushinda at the same function and was told that he (the journalist) was on the hit list. Explaining why he wished to remain anonymous, the government journalist told MISA, “Kamushinda has strong connections with the (ruling ZANU-PF) party cadres working for the state-controlled media, and if they know I discussed this, I will be in problems. I am also said to be on the list of bad reporters who were wanted.” The journalist said he told his bosses of the plot, but says they have ignored the matter.
When asked by Chinaka to explain for whom he was speaking and whether he was a state security agent, Kamushinda reportedly said, “You can make your own conclusions but I am speaking for those who love the President.'” Kamushinda then reportedly left the room.
Chinaka says this was the second time he had been threatened. Last year, the state-controlled daily newspaper “The Herald” ran an editorial castigating media reports critical of Mugabe’s government. Chinaka’s name was mentioned in the editorial. “Last year’s threat was not as nerve-racking as this year’s,” says Chinaka. “This is the first time I have been told directly that they want to kill me.” Since talking to Kamushinda, Chinaka says he has been receiving anonymous telephone calls, “sometimes every five minutes.”
The Press Officer in the office of the President in Harare, Laurence Kamwe, confirmed receiving a letter from Reuters in London in which the news organisation asked the government to protect Chinaka and to investigate the threats made against him. However, Kamwe denies that Kamushinda is a government employee. “Kamushinda is not working in government and he is not a government spokesperson,” said Kamwe, adding that Kamushinda was “expressing his personal opinion and was not speaking for the President.”
Asked what the government was doing about the threats, the Press Officer said, “There is nothing we can do about it. You had better follow up the issue with Kamushinda.” Director of Information Posts and Telecommunications, Bornwell Chakaodza, told MISA, “I have heard of the threats. But the IBDC is a private company with no connections to the government. Besides, President Mugabe has always and unfairly been severely criticised, but he has not taken action against anyone of them (critical journalists). That should speak about the volume of press freedom in Zimbabwe.” Attempts by MISA to contact Kamushinda have so far proved unsuccessful.[2]
