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Election campaigns
Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2005-07
Monday 14^th February – Sunday 20^th February 2005

AS preparations for the forthcoming poll intensify, the government-controlled media continued to violate their public mandate by giving slavish coverage to the ruling party almost to the exclusion of other parties. For example, out of 33 campaign stories carried by the national public broadcaster, ZBH, 24 (73%) were on ZANU PF, six (18%) were on the MDC, one (3%) was a neutral report on the Liberty Party of Zimbabwe’s campaign launch and the remainder were announcements by the Zimbabwe National Congress that it was withdrawing from the election.

The six reports on the MDC carried on ZTV, Spot FM, Power FM and Radio Zimbabwe were on the party’s launch of its election campaign and a rally held by the party’s candidate for St. Mary’s, Job Sikhala.

Although the reports steered clear of the usual vilification of the party as a stooge of the West, they were however tainted by the reporter’s own prejudice. For example ZTV (20/2, 8pm) reported that the launch of the MDC’s manifesto attracted "scores" of people when its own footage and other media put the figure at about 5,000. In addition, Sikhala’s rally (ZTV 19/2 8pm) was only covered in the context of President Mugabe’s calls for peaceful campaigns. It only quoted Sikhala hailing Mugabe’s call for a peaceful election and suffocated his promises to the electorate.

Although ZTV devoted 2 minutes 35 seconds to the MDC’s campaign launch and 1 minute 50 seconds to the Liberty Party (17/2, 8pm), this contrasted sharply with the time allocated to the launch of ZANU PF’s campaign on February 11. The event was allocated 18 minutes on that day’s 8pm bulletin. In addition, the ruling party’s four-hour launch was all covered live with ZTV’s presenters wearing ZANU PF T-shirts!

The pro-ZANU PF coverage was also apparent in the government Press. Of the 28 stories it carried on the topic, 19 (68/%) reported positively on ZANU PF activities, while the remaining nine stories (32/%) were used to malign MDC’s activities.

The campaign activities of the other opposition parties were completely ignored.

Notably, of the 19 reports the government Press devoted to ZANU PF, 13 of them either passively endorsed or amplified the ruling party’s election manifesto while the rest reported on President Mugabe’s computer donations to selected rural schools. The fact that Mugabe ultimately turned these events into campaign platforms for the ruling party were not questioned by these newspapers or indeed ZBH.

The official Press’ blind support for the ruling party at the expense of professional journalism was clearly illustrated by The Herald (14/2), which brazenly misrepresented ZANU PF’s candidate for Chimanimani, Samuel Undenge, by disguising him as a "political analyst" when he was quoted hailing the virtues of the party’s manifesto.

A more balanced presentation of the campaign activities of the political parties was apparent in the private Press, which carried 29 stories on the matter, 17 of them on ZANU PF and 11 on the MDC. However, coverage on the activities of the other opposition parties remained thin, with the Mirror stable being the only one to accord them publicity twice.

Not only did the private Press give the MDC greater and more positive coverage of its activities – including non-spiteful previews of its election campaign launch in Masvingo – they also critically examined some of the ruling party claims contained in its manifesto that it had made great strides in education and the economy.

For example, The Zimbabwe Independent (18/2) alone carried four stories, which doubted the capacity of the ruling party to deliver on its promises.

Unlike the official Press, the private Press also categorically criticised some of ZANU PF’s unorthodox campaign tactics, such as that reported by The Standard (20/2), which equated demands by ZANU PF to have Chitungwiza town council surrender 1 000 stands to the ruling party’s Zengeza candidate, Christopher Chigumba, as vote buying.

Notably, the private radio stations largely ignored the parties’ campaign activities this week.

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