Back to Index

Distortions
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2004-03
Monday January 19th - Sunday January 25th 2004

Claims by government opponents, especially the opposition MDC, that the government Press frequently falsifies or distorts their viewpoints were vindicated this week when High Court judge Justice Paddington Garwe ordered The Herald to retract a story in which the paper (22/01) blatantly distorted MDC leader Tsvangirai's testimony in his long- running treason trial. Garwe made the ruling after Tsvangirai's lawyer, Advocate George Bizos, submitted that the newspaper should be found in contempt of court for misrepresenting the court proceedings, Studio 7 (22/01), ZTV (22/01, 8pm) The Business Tribune, The Zimbabwe Independent, The Sunday Mirror, The Standard and The Daily News (23/01).

The High Court judge concurred and noted that the headline, Tsvangirai implicates US Govt in coup plot, including the first part of the article implied that Tsvangirai was admitting to the treason charge to which he had pleaded not guilty.

The private Press quoted Garwe as saying: "For the avoidance of doubt, the accused denied the existence of such a plot. The reporter should ensure that a suitable correction of the report is made and the Attorney General should liaise with the editor of the paper to correct the misrepresentation."

While the paper carried a retraction the next day (23/1) it did not carry it with the same page one prominence as the original distortion - and nor did it tell its readers that the correction was made as a result of a court order.

Visit the MMPZ fact sheet

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP