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The government media's compulsive disinformation campaign
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2004-45
Monday November 7^th – Sunday November 14^th 2004

THIS week The Herald provided more evidence of the government media’s compulsive disinformation campaign aimed at sprucing up President Mugabe’s international stature when it misrepresented details of the meeting between the Zimbabwean leader and Moroccan Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammed Benaissa.

The paper’s (9/11) report claimed that Morocco had, via Benaissa, "extended an invitation to President Mugabe to help mediate in the conflict over the Saharawi".

No hard evidence was provided to substantiate this claim. But the paper used the opportunity to project President Mugabe as an experienced peace-broker by chronicling a number of African conflicts which Mugabe has played a role in solving.

Only the Zimbabwe Independent three days later (12/11) reported that The Herald story was false. The private weekly reported Moroccan authorities as having denied that they had asked President Mugabe to mediate in the Saharawi conflict, saying Benaissa’s visit was only an "affirmation of Morocco’s willingness to promote bilateral relations with Zimbabwe" adding that similar gestures have been made to other SADC, East and Central African countries. Despite this clarification, The Herald did not correct its story.

In another matter, The Herald (10/11) blatantly misrepresented parliamentary proceedings when it unprofessionally presented the Parliamentary Legal Committee (PLC)’s adverse report on the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Bill as reflecting the views of the MDC in its lead story, headlined ‘MDC Opposes Poll Reforms’.

The Daily Mirror (11/11) revealed that the MDC had raised concerns over the story saying The Herald should be charged with contempt of Parliament for misrepresenting proceedings in the House.

Although The Herald carried the opposition’s sentiments the following day (11/11), it openly displayed its disdain for their concerns when it continued presenting the PLC report as the opinion of the MDC in its comment, MDC wants to score points with supporters.

Notably, the government-appointed Media and Information Commission was conspicuous by its deafening silence on such distortions, which are offences under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, a repressive law the commission has used selectively to silence the private media.

Its failure to reprimand the paper for such offences clearly exposes the partisan nature of the commission and vindicates independent media institutions’ call for its dissolution and its replacement with a truly independent and self-regulatory body.

Meanwhile, those who rely on the dominant government media as sources of information, remained in the dark of the fact that the Supreme Court has upheld the nullification of two parliamentary elections results for Gokwe North and Gokwe South constituencies held by ZANU-PF.

This followed the failure by the ZANU PF MPs’ lawyers to file their appeal papers with the court within the specified time.

While The Daily Mirror (12/11) and The Standard (11/11) reported this pertinent development, the government media simply censored the news. Similarly, they also censored all detail of the Parliamentary Legal Committee’s adverse report on the controversial NGO Bill, reporting instead, that it was ‘thrown out’ after a record sitting of parliament (18/11).

These blatant efforts to prevent such news from reaching the public domain clearly portrays their partisanship and justifies calls for the repeal of the repressive media laws that have stifled the establishment of additional, more reliable sources of information.

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