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Human rights abuses
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2003-40
Monday October 6th - Sunday October 12th 2003

After closing The Daily News under the guise of upholding the rule of law, the government proved it still had not outgrown its violent nature in suppressing dissent when the police crushed the ZCTU labour demonstrations against the country's economic chaos. The labour body was also protesting against the continued violations of human rights.

Although all media reported on the issue, it was only through The Financial Gazette (9/10), Studio 7, SW Radio Africa and the international media (9/10) that the public got to know of the alleged police brutality in crushing the protests. They reported that about 200 people, who included union leaders, were arrested countrywide during the protests. They also reported that some unionists and members of the public were assaulted, injured and admitted to hospital in Bulawayo, while others were denied medication. Studio 7 also highlighted that the police had actually picked up some union leaders from their homes the night before the demonstrations.

This kind of detail, exposing the heavy-handedness of the police was conveniently ignored in the government-controlled media, which sought to present the protests as a non-event and incident free. For example, the Chronicle (9/10), Workers ignore ZCTU demos, claimed that apart from the arrest of "two men" in Bulawayo, "the situation in the city was calm throughout the day, with business operating as usual". This account differed from that of The Financial Gazette, which reported that the protesters had "running battles with the police" in Bulawayo.

Besides suffocating detail on the excesses of the police, The Herald (9/10) and its sister paper the Chronicle (9/10) also gave the impression that the demonstrations were only confined to Harare and Bulawayo and therefore downplayed the protest in other towns such as Mutare, Chiredzi and Chegutu. It is not surprising therefore that the papers and indeed ZTV (8/9, 8pm) only reported the arrest of 55 unionists in Harare and Bulawayo. ZTV even relegated news of this to the middle of its bulletin and merely allocated it a minute.

In fact, the unprofessional manner with which government-controlled media handled the issue was aptly demonstrated by The Herald (10/10) comment, Police action over demo laudable. Instead of viewing the police's actions as epitomising the on-going gross violation of human rights perpetrated regularly on the citizenry through repressive laws such as POSA, the paper said, "thanks to quick thinking and swift action by police, dozens of people, including senior ZCTU officials, were arrested in Bulawayo and Harare… We commend the police for acting quickly and decisively to ensure public order and security and urge them to keep up the good work." The comment dismissed the ZCTU's concerns, including heavy taxation, and described reports of rights abuses as "generalisations". It also made the ludicrous claim that the protests were staged to attract attention from the forthcoming Commonwealth summit.

It emerged that while The Herald was commending the police for upholding the rule of law, the police were themselves not clear what piece of legislation they were enforcing. For example, the police initially arrested 55 unionists in Harare and Bulawayo for violating POSA, but revised this a day later, reporting that they had been charged under the colonial Miscellaneous Offences Act, before releasing them (The Herald, 10/10). Although the paper reported the alteration of the charges, it did not see anything curious with such developments.

Further, the paper and its stable-mates ignored statements issued by both regional and international organisations condemning police actions. These were only accessed by the private media. For example, Studio 7 and SW Radio Africa (9/10) reported that regional and international labour groups such as the Confederation of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) had criticised the arrests of labour leaders and threatened to take action against the move.

Meanwhile, government claims that reports of anarchy and violence on farms were fabrications of the international media, received a knock following the harassment of the South African High Commissioner by overzealous beneficiaries of the chaotic land reform programme. This followed revelations by ZBC, (ZTV, 9/10) and 3FM (10/10, 6am) that South African High Commissioner to Zimbabwe Jeremiah Ndou had fallen victim to such lawlessness when resettled farmers held him hostage at a farm in Mashonaland West province.

The government-controlled broadcaster reported that Ndou was released after the intervention of the provincial governor, Peter Chanetsa. Without fully explaining the circumstances surrounding the issue, the station then tried to give excuses for the incident by claiming that Ndou had "arrived at the farm with an SABC crew which the farmers objected to as there have been a number of stage managed situations in Mashonaland West to portray lawlessness." The station added that Ndou had not sought permission from the foreign affairs ministry to visit the area, as required by law.

The Herald (11/10) echoed this kind of justification in its follow-up report on the issue. Like ZBC, it also tried to downplay the incident saying the envoy was "briefly held" by resettled farmers at a formerly white-owned farm in Mashonaland West and "released without incident." The paper merely said this happened after a "misunderstanding", without elaborating.

The Standard (12/10), quoting SABC correspondent in Zimbabwe, Brian Hungwe, said Ndou and the news crew were held for two hours. It also reported that Ndou had gone to visit the farm as a result of an appeal by its owner, a South African national.

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