The passing of senior journalist Lucy Yasini will undoubtedly create a void in the number of female journalists who report from the ‘frontlines’ in the otherwise male-dominated Zimbabwean media landscape.
Yasini was always in the thick of things, toe-to-toe with her male colleagues, at times covering violent demonstrations in Harare’s central business district—a feat that belied her otherwise calm demeanour.
She steadfastly endured the challenges of her courageous journalism and the perils that accompany the profession, yet she never wavered in her mission to report truthfully, without bias or fear.
A longstanding member of MISA Zimbabwe, Yasini was also a leader in her own right and once served as a member of the organisation’s Harare Advocacy Committee in defence of media freedom and citizens’ right to access information.
For Yasini, despite her calmness, journalism was her lifetime call to which she responded with that inner resolve to get the story in a male-dominated environment that at times is hostile to female journalists.
She distinguished herself with integrity and great distinction.
MISA Zimbabwe, and the entire media community in Zimbabwe, has thus been robbed of a cadre who breathed and lived journalism with unparalleled calmness and courage through and through.
Our sincere condolences to her family, colleagues and friends.
Golden Maunganidze
Chairperson
MISA Zimbabwe
