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International criticism suffocated
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2004-32
Monday August 9th - Sunday August 15th 2004

The government media's reluctance to cover criticism of the authorities' human rights violations manifested itself in the manner in which they tried to stifle reports on renewed international pressure on President Mugabe's government to restore civic and political liberties ahead of the March 2005 elections.

These media avoided a full discussion on the concerns of the international community. Instead, they accused Western "imperialists" led by Britain of conspiring with civic organisations and the MDC to oust the ruling party from power. As a result, the substance of the critical views on the country's poor governance remained elusive.

In fact, the official media's claims that Zimbabwe was under siege from the West were reinforced by President Mugabe's Heroes Day rhetoric. He was quoted on ZBC (9/8, 6 & 8pm), The Herald and Chronicle (10/8) calling on Zimbabweans "to defend and protect" the country's independence from "imperialists", adding that "the country was prepared to go back to the trenches to defend the gains of independence if the need arose".

However, the private media cited regional and international bodies noting that it was actually Zimbabweans who were under threat from their own government, which, among other deprivations, had stripped its citizens of their basic freedoms through authoritarian laws.

The Financial Gazette (12/8) and The Zimbabwe Independent (13/8), pointed out that the international community's intervention was aimed at forcing government to adopt fundamental democratic reforms.

However, the government media was reluctant to accurately identify the source of Zimbabwe's problems. This was illustrated by their failure to fully explain the reasons behind Greece's decision to bar Education Minister Aeneas Chigwedere from attending the 2004 Olympics. The move is in line with the European Union's (EU) targeted sanctions against the Zimbabwean leadership, which stands accused of gross human rights violations.

Instead of fairly explaining the reasons for Greece's decision, ZTV (11/08,7am) attributed the ban to the EU's attempt to "extend its focus from politics to sports."

The Herald and Chronicle (12&13/8) followed suit.

They also censored the full reasons behind Chigwedere's ban thereby giving the impression that Greece's move was malicious. Neither did the papers acknowledge that besides Chigwedere, Brigadier Thura Aye Myint of Myanmar had also been barred from attending as part of the EU's sanctions against leaders it accuses of human rights abuses (The Daily Mirror 12/8).

Instead, the papers passively quoted Chigwedere vilifying government's favourite punch bag, Britain, of having influenced Greece to bar him from the Olympics.

The Daily Mirror (12/8) quoted him as saying government would object to the ban, while the Chronicle's comment (13/8) claimed that "Zimbabweans will never miss the so-called glamorous cities built using stolen resources such as Athens".

A sober coverage of the matter only appeared in the private media.

They reported the public condemnation of the human suffering in Zimbabwe.

For example, SW Radio Africa (12/8) reported that about 30 Roman Catholic Bishops "from four different countries in Southern Africa" who recently met in South Africa had "condemned the suffering in Zimbabwe and called on various organisations to impose targeted sanctions on the Mugabe regime."

Studio 7 (12/8), SW Radio Africa (13/8), the Zimbabwe Independent and The Standard cited the Human Rights Watch (HRW) report which criticised government's "lack of transparency" on the food situation in the country. HRW noted that this threatened "citizens' access to food".

SW Radio Africa (11/8) also reported that an international human rights organisation, Redress, had accused government of "a widespread, systematic and planned campaign of organised violence and torture to suppress normal and democratic activities . . . " Redress revealed that, "almost 9,000 human rights violations (occurred) between 2001 and 2003."

In an effort to counter these reports, the Chronicle (13/8) accused the MDC, the Southern Africa Catholic Bishops' Conference and NGOs of issuing "damning statements" about Zimbabwe "in a co-ordinated effort tailored" to "foist the Zimbabwean issue onto the agenda" of the annual SADC summit in Mauritius. The paper dismissed Redress' torture claims as "a regurgitation of numerous old 'torture' reports" but did not explain how these civic calls for a democratic Zimbabwe translated into an "anti-Zimbabwe" campaign.

The Standard (15/8) reported US Secretary of State Collin Powell attributing Zimbabwe's problems to government's political intolerance, which had seen the country become "a drain on the region and a calamity-in-the-making for the international community". Powell reportedly noted that solutions to Zimbabwe's problems included the restoration of the rule of law, a free Press and Zimbabwe's former pluralistic political life.

The Financial Gazette also revealed that growing concerns over government's "gross human rights abuses" was likely to see the intervention of the United Nations (UN) "amid revelations the world policing body is on the verge of tightening its stance against Harare". The Gazette reported that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan was expected in Harare before the end of the year to "gauge the political temperature" in the country and "hear it from the horse's mouth (the Zimbabwean government)"and other major stakeholders, including the MDC.

The paper also reported that government's non-reformist culture might be put to the test after an electoral commissioner from Namibia, a key ally of Zimbabwe, made "a surprise call" for the establishment of a tribunal to punish errant SADC states that fail to conform to regional electoral standards during a SADC electoral reforms conference in Victoria Falls recently.

The Zimbabwe Independent meanwhile, reported on the MDC's efforts to lobby SADC leaders at their regional summit in Mauritius to step up pressure on Mugabe's government to accept regional electoral standards. And it quoted the party's deputy secretary-general Gift Chimanikire saying it was "too simplistic and indeed deeply misleading to assume Mugabe has the support of all African leaders."

In fact, claims of a shift in African opinion on the Zimbabwean situation appeared to have compelled the Sunday News (15/8) to bemoan the death of SADC "brotherhood that we had grown accustomed to".

The paper accused "some African countries" that were now vocal against government's human rights record as being "manipulated" by the West against the "interest of fellow Africans".

A more vitriolic attack however, was reserved for Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, whom The Sunday Mail (15/8) accused of being used by the British to clandestinely fund the MDC's campaign ahead of the 2005 parliamentary election.

The attacks, carried in two stories written by the paper's columnist William Nhara and its political editor, Munyaradzi Huni, were conspicuous by their coarse language rather than facts.

The Sunday Mirror, (15/08) reported that a "diplomatic row" had erupted between (the) erstwhile buddies" over the matter. The paper cited unnamed diplomatic sources dismissing earlier Sunday Mail allegations (8/8) that Britain was funding the MDC through Nigeria as based "on faulty intelligence, which the paper and relevant state organs did not bother to check".

The Sunday Mirror claimed that the Nigerians had been infuriated by the report, which resulted in their foreign minister Olu Adeniji, summoning Zimbabwe's Charge d'Affairs in Abuja to explain the government paper's onslaught against their country.

Adeniji was also reportedly sent to the SADC summit in Mauritius to meet with his counterpart, Stan Mudenge, over the matter.

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