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Forthcoming Insiza parliamentary by-election
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
Extract from Weekly Media Update No. 2002-38
October 14th - October 20th, 2002

The forthcoming Insiza parliamentary by-election further exposed the media's manifest failure to cover elections adequately. All media were enmeshed in reporting the violent political rivalry between ZANU-PF and the MDC at the expense of covering important electoral processes. In any election, for example, the media should provide its audiences with relevant information on such matters as the voters' roll, polling stations, how to vote and even profiles of the contesting candidates for the electorate to make informed decisions.

This was not done.

However, ZBC should be blamed most for abandoning its public service mandate. Despite holding a greater percentage of the rural media market than all other media, the public broadcaster failed to lead other media in providing voter education for the benefit of Insiza's voters - and the nation at large. Instead, ZBC and the public Press echoed their performance in previous elections by allowing themselves to be used exclusively as the messengers of ZANU-PF campaign propaganda.

For example, ZTV carried six pro-ZANU PF campaign stories and none for the MDC. Two incidents of violence were reported and both were attributed to the MDC. ZTV allocated 42 minutes 35seconds (23,6%) of the total time allocated to its 8pm news (excluding business and sport) to the forthcoming election. These were either used to campaign for ZANU-PF or to malign the MDC and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which were depicted as the backbone of the MDC's campaign team.

ZBC radio stations were no different. 3FM carried four stories for ZANU PF (in the bulletins monitored), while Radio Zimbabwe had three. There were no MDC campaign stories. Both radio stations reported three incidents of violence and all were allegedly perpetrated by the MDC. To authenticate claims that MDC was violent, ZTV (18/10, 8pm) reported: "The police have no record of any complaint of any ZANU PF member or official who has disturbed peace including the Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC). ZANU PF has continued campaigning peacefully to date." In contrast, SW Radio Africa reported two incidents of violence, both allegedly committed by ZANU-PF. Similarly, the private Press blamed ZANU-PF for the violence.

Consequently, the public was left confused as to which party was to blame for the violence. While ZANU-PF benefited from the generosity of the public media, no media covered MDC's campaign activities thus depriving the electorate of information on the alternative choice.

If media coverage of the Insiza by-election was incomplete, so was its coverage of the current labour unrest, especially the teachers' strike called by the Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ). Most reports on the issue were piece-meal, one-off events, which lacked either sound background or correlation with the current economic climate. The reports also lacked any sense of scale on the success or failure of the industrial action.

Previous reports can be accessed at http://www.mmpz.org.zw

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