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Political developments
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted fromWeekly Media Update 2005-3
Monday January 17^th – Sunday 23^rd January 2005

AS the parliamentary election draws closer, the country’s political developments, particularly those involving ZANU PF, continued to hog the limelight in the media.

For example, the Press carried 85 reports on political issues. Sixty-seven of these (79%) were on ZANU PF and 18 (21%) on the opposition MDC.

Although the government Press carried 40 of the 67 stories on ZANU PF activities, their stories lacked critical analysis of the internal strife that is rocking the party, especially the controversies surrounding the conduct and outcome of the party’s primary elections, including the public spat between Information Minister Jonathan Moyo and his seniors in the party, John Nkomo and Dumiso Dabengwa, over the Tsholotsho debacle.

Instead, 35 of the 40 stories the government Press carried merely glossed over the electoral irregularities that dogged ZANU PF’s internal selection of candidates who will stand in the March election. For example, none of these stories attempted to give a holistic explanation as to the reasons or implications surrounding the re-runs of the party’s primaries in at least 17 constituencies.

ZBH was equally uncritical. None of the 38 stories it carried on the ruling party primaries fully discussed the problems that characterised them. Instead, in ZTV’s 16 stories (42% of ZBH reports) it quoted nine (53%) ZANU PF officials and six (35%) reporters’ narrations, all of which glossed over the anomalies that characterized the elections.

Although it sought comment from two alternative sources, these were ZANU PF apologists, such as Tafataona Mahoso, who claimed that the primaries demonstrated that Zimbabwe is now a "…mature democracy" and "showed the violence free nature of Zimbabweans." The tone was similar in all the 22 stories Radio Zimbabwe carried on ZANU PF’s primaries.

Interestingly, there was no consensus in the government media’s coverage of the harsh exchanges between Minister Moyo and Nkomo and Dabengwa. Whereas the Chronicle gave the matter greater publicity by carrying four of the five stories in the government media, the rest of its stable mates, except for The Herald (once), ignored it.

But notable was the one-sided manner in which the Chronicle (17/1 and 18/1) reported on the row. The paper accorded Moyo the right to argue his case without giving his opponents the right of reply.

The private radio stations were also guilty of the same professional crime in the three stories they carried. They only highlighted Moyo’s grievances at the expense of those he was criticising.

A more balanced presentation of the case came from the private Press, which sourced comments from both Moyo (four times) and Nkomo (three times) on the matter.

In the same vein, the private Press, particularly the Zimbabwe Independent (21/1), fully captured the confusion, chaos and irregularities that characterised the ZANU PF primary elections in the 27 stories these media devoted to the topic.

Moreover, they did not report on these issues as mere events, but in a wider context of the electoral problems that have always dogged elections in the country.

Although the private radio stations also exposed anomalies that marred the primaries, SW Radio Africa failed to seek comments from ZANU PF.

Fig 4 Voice distribution on SW Radio Africa and Studio 7

Notably, the two ZANU PF sources that Studio 7 quoted were disgruntled party candidates whose concerns over the conduct of the primaries were not balanced with the official corroboration from the party’s electoral body.

Meanwhile, the government broadcaster continued to ignore the activities of the MDC. The only time that it featured an MDC official was when ZTV (21/01, 8pm) quoted the party’s Foreign Affairs Shadow Minister Priscilla Misihairambwi’s welcoming the appointment of members of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission saying her party only had reservations with the commission chair, Justice George Chiweshe.

In contrast, private stations gave favourable coverage to the MDC in three stories they carried on the party while both the government and private papers accorded the MDC publicity nine times apiece. However, all the government media’s stories dwelt on the negative aspects of the MDC such as the in-house fighting in the party.

The private press reported on both the positive and negative features of the opposition.

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