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Free and fair poll?
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2005-04
Monday January 24^th – Sunday January 30^th 2005

DESPITE government’s repeated claims that its recent electoral reforms would translate into the holding of a democratic election in March, media reports – including those under government control – indicated that conditions for free and fair polls in the country still remain a mirage.

Notable however, was the passive manner in which the government media reported on the matter in 24 (69%) of the 35 stories they carried on election issues and politically related developments. Although their stories highlighted symptoms of the flawed electoral environment, especially the confusion that characterised the just-ended registration and voter inspection exercises, they made no effort to relate them to the overall electoral disarray, which observers and the opposition contend would make a democratic election extremely unlikely. Neither did they view this as government’s continued mismanagement of the electoral process.

Only the private media made concerted efforts unravel some of these sticky electoral issues in 68 stories they carried on the matter. SW Radio Africa led the electoral debate with 16 stories followed by Studio 7’s 14.

These private radio stations particularly discussed the undesirability of some of the provisions in the new electoral laws, which, for example, facilitate the drafting of state security agents into the electoral process. These stations, and indeed the private Press, continued to publicise mounting concerns by civic, opposition, regional and international bodies over the repressive environment under which the ZANU PF government still plans to hold the elections.

On the other hand, the official media muffled these issues, with ZBH going the extra mile in blacking out the reported persecution of the opposition.

Fig. 1 Electronic media’s coverage of political harassment

Four of the 10 stories carried by the two independent stations were on the same two topics, namely the arrest of two MDC MPs, Thokozani Khupe and Nelson Chamisa.

And while ZBH concealed these arrests (and the other incidents) from its audiences, the government Press (The Herald and the Chronicle) only carried three stories on them. Even then, they did not view this development as government’s continued ill-treatment of the opposition. For example, The Herald and Chronicle (27/1) simply portrayed Chamisa as disrespectful of the rule of law, noting simplistically that he had a pending court case arising from organising an unsanctioned party meeting last year.

The government media’s bias against the MDC was further reflected by the fact that out of 37 voices these papers quoted in their political and election-related stories, only one was MDC as shown in Fig 2.

Fig 2 Voice distribution in the government Press

Notably, it was difficult to distinguish the difference between government and ZANU PF voices in the analysis because some government officials were quoted in their capacity as civil servants but promoted ruling party rhetoric.

And although the government Press quoted lawyers of the arrested MDC MPs, they were merely used to confirm the detention of their clients and not to discuss charges preferred against them, as was the case in the private media.

Tangible views of the MDC only found space in the private media in their coverage of election and politically related developments. And, unlike the official media, they tried to balance the opposition’s views with those of the ruling party as shown in Fig.3.

Fig. 3 Voice distribution in the Private Press

While the private media exposed the regional and international community’s growing concerns over the country’s uneven electoral process in at least 15 reports, eight of which appeared in the Zimbabwe Independent, the government media suffocated the matter. For example, ZBH was totally silent on the pending fact-finding visits by SADC and the South African labour union, COSATU, ahead of the elections, while the official Press only covered these matters three times.

Moreover, these stories only emerged in the context of official responses to COSATU’s planned mission, which was discredited on the grounds that government had already conformed to regional election standards.

However, Studio 7 (29/1) revealed that South Africa’s ruling ANC and its alliance partners, the Communist Party and COSATU, had agreed that Zimbabwe’s "conditions do not appear to be conducive to free and fair elections".

But the private radio stations were guilty of failing to give the ruling party the right of reply in their stories, or at least, indicate that they had solicited comments from them.

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