Informanté fires sub-editor, reporter resigns

TWO senior staff members of Informanté have left the weekly tabloid under a cloud of controversy following a report about Trustco’s dispute with Econet, its mobile partner in Zimbabwe.

The Namibian has it on good authority that sub-editor Elizabeth M’ule has been fired and that senior reporter Brigitte Weidlich resigned.Trustco yesterday confirmed Weidlich’s resignation, but refused to comment on whether M’ule, also the co-ordinator of the Namibia Editors’ Forum, was dismissed or not. Neither journalist was available for comment.Informanté recently suspended both without pay after Weidlich reported on Trustco’s mobile deal with Econet Wireless going sour, and M’ule allowed the story to be printed.The paper’s action drew fire from the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa), who accused Trustco of censorship and said there was nothing unethical about Weidlich’s reporting.By the time of going to press last night, Trustco had not answered any of the questions The Namibian sent to its new head of media, John van Heerden.These include why M’ule was fired when she was apparently found guilty on only one of three disciplinary charges. Also why Weidlich got a final warning when she too was only found guilty on one of three charges and had never received any warning before.Trustco also refused to comment on speculation that its executive committee was upset about Misa’s public statements on the matter and that they wanted a personal apology from the journalists.