The Behaviour of Zimbo Journo’s At Press Conferences
No Questions To Ask Gono!!!!
What do you think, what would you have asked Gono???
Ray Mawerera
A Harare-based public relations consultant and the current President of the Zimbabwe Institute of Public Relations in this week’s Financial Gazette.

RESERVE Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono exchanged some light banter with journalists following his interim review report on "Project Sunrise" recently.Earlier, during the discussion session of the presentation, the Governor had repeatedly challenged the journalists present to ask questions to avoid speculative reporting.

"Ask the questions now," he said several times. "Aika, bvunzai, ask, so that when you write, you do so with all the facts..."
There were no takers. Most of the contributions had come from representatives of different sector stakeholders, mainly throwing bouquets at Dr Gono and his team for managing the process well. Others simply told the Governor about the relative ease with which they had made the transition from the three zeroes. As for the media people there, mum was the word.

One of the many stakeholders at the meeting voiced the opinion that the reason could be that the journalists did not want to be "scooped".
A "scoop" is an exclusive piece of news that every journalist dreams of unearthing or bumping into, news that no one else has. If, for instance, the journalist receives a lead on certain information he or she is unlikely to follow it up while everyone else is listening. They would rather draw the prospective Interviewee aside afterwards, to talk to them away from eavesdroppers.

This is becoming so commonplace these days that some press conferences have been reduced to near-monologues. The person addressing the press conference tells the ladies and gentlemen of the press the news they have been invited to be told and, after speaking for a while, opens the floor to questions. There is silence. Out of politeness, maybe one or two lame questions may be asked. Afterwards, when the journalists are invited to stay on for an informal chat-and-drink, they bombard the person with questions, individually.

This is how Dr Gono found himself exchanging light banter with the media after his Ilanga Seliphumile presentation.
Clients have asked why journalists seem to have taken to operating this way. There are several reasons, the primary one of which could be the issue of the elusive scoop. Another reason could be the challenges faced by reporters on weekly or monthly publications to find a news angle that would not be tackled on the electronic news bulletin that day or the daily paper tomorrow. Yet another could be that the reporter might feel they want to raise a totally different and unrelated issue.

It is, therefore, important at news conferences to know the spread of media attending in order to satisfy their areas of focus and interest. Financial newspapers may not always have the same interests as weekly family newspapers, for instance.

That's one way of handling it. Politicians, who are renowned for their creativity, have mastered the art of leaving immediately after the press conference thus precluding any chance of chat-and-drink ambushes!
Corporate organisations, of course, cannot do this and we do not recommend it because it is simply impolite. Besides, you could be passing up an opportunity to interface informally with the media -- a very important but often underestimated aspect of public relations.

Press conferences, by their very nature, are non-exclusive media events where everyone gets the same news. This is usually done when information is so topical that the likelihood of all media chasing the same story is quite high. Rather than wait to respond to each query as it comes, the organisation takes the proactive step to provide all journalists with the same information. Sometimes press releases can be issued, which serve more or less the same purpose.

The press conference, however, tends to have more impact because of its direct access nature. It provides journalists with the opportunity to follow up issues right there, ask questions, seek clarification, prod further. It can, therefore, be a source of frustration when no questions are forthcoming but a report that is factually incorrect is published. Unfortunately this has happened, creating negative perceptions of some journalists and their media organizations.

Some organisations actually do not even like press conferences. This could be because there is no restriction on what the journalists can ask. In other words, they cannot -- as a general rule -- be expected to confine themselves to questions revolving only around the subject of the press conference.
For instance, Dr Gono's Zuva Rabuda update could have been turned on its head by a journalist asking something totally removed from the issue under discussion - including, even, questions on the Governor's personal life!That is the nature of press conferences. I have seen press officers who try to direct reporters to stick to the subject at hand. Most times they are simply ignored. The journalists simply reason that this may be the only opportunity they have, especially if they are dealing with a usually busy and therefore largely inaccessible figure. They fear being roasted by their editors if they go back without the "real" story.
ZimJournalists Arise Does Not Take Responsibility For The Content Of This Report