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Political
violence and persecution of dissent
Media Monitoring
Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2005-07
Monday 14th February – Sunday 20th February
2005
ONLY the private
media recorded fresh cases of political persecution and rights abuses
of the public and opposition activists by ZANU PF officials and
state security agents in the week.
These media
carried 18 stories on this topic. Thirteen appeared on private radio
stations while the rest were in the private Press. Three incidents
of assault were recorded. Two were on SW Radio Africa while one
was recorded in the Zimbabwe Independent, courtesy of a letter
by the victim, Obey Mhondera of Mutare.
SW Radio Africa’s
two reports were based on MDC accounts of the events, which were
not balanced with comments from relevant authorities.
Fifteen of the
reports were stories on the continued political harassment of members
of the opposition, civic society and the general public by security
agents and ZANU PF activists. Of these, 11 were reported by the
private stations while the remainder were in the private Press.
The government
media ignored these issues. Instead, they carried nine general reports
on official calls for violence-free elections. The government Press
stories almost always used the recent outbreak of the MDC’s intra-party
violence in Masvingo to justify the authorities’ pleas for peaceful
elections.
The only exception
was the Chronicle’s coverage (17/2) of the arrest of MDC
activists conducting door-to-door campaigns in Bulawayo. Even then,
the paper did not portray the arrested activists as victims of intolerant
and overzealous police but as public nuisances, justifiably arrested
after the police received "numerous complaints"
from residents about their activities. Notably, the same paper and
its stable-mates remained silent on the ensuing High Court order
restraining the police from interfering further in the MDC’s activity.
This was only
reported in the private media.
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sheet
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