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Electoral countdown
Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2005-08
Monday February 21st - Sunday February 27th 2005

1. Campaigns
THE government media's partisan coverage of ZANU PF campaign activities at the expense of other political parties continued unabated in the week. Out of the 66 stories they carried on election campaign-related activities of political parties, 57 (86%) were on ZANU PF, eight (12%) were on the MDC and one (2%) on the independent candidate for Masvingo Central, Silas Mangono. Smaller opposition parties and other independent candidates continued to be ignored.

The government media's disproportionately pro-ZANU stance was best captured by the way the stations belonging to the national public broadcaster, ZBH, covered the election campaigns of the parties as illustrated in Fig

Fig 1 ZBH's coverage of political parties' campaign activities

Notably, the only story carried by the ZBH on Mangono was when the former MDC legislator reportedly blasted his former party for allegedly failing "to live up to the democratic tradition that was the lifeblood of the party at its formation" (Radio Zimbabwe, 25/2, 1pm). Otherwise the other two stories on opposition activities carried by ZBH comprised an announcement on the launch of the MDC election campaign in Masvingo (Power FM 21/2, 6am) and ZTV's coverage (27/2, 8pm) of the opposition party's candidate for St Mary's, Job Sikhala, reiterating "his call for non-violence during the run-up to the March Parliamentary elections". The same bulletin also made a passing reference to a rally held in Zengeza 4 by the MDC candidate in the area, Goodrich Chimbaira.

Notwithstanding the general under-coverage of MDC activities in the government media, the government Press also resorted to bias against the MDC in all its six reports on the opposition party's campaign activities. For example, although The Herald (21/2) gave front page status to the MDC's campaign launch, the article was replete with intrusive editorial comment which maligned the opposition's manifesto and its promises to the electorate. This anti-MDC stance was also evident in all 11 editorial comments and opinion pieces the government Press carried, as exemplified by The Sunday Mail's Lowani Ndlovu column (27/2).

In comparison, the government Press carried 28 glowing, uncritical pieces on ZANU PF campaigns. ZBH even swamped its audiences with reports on President Mugabe's 81st birthday on February 21, allowing it to be converted into a campaign platform for the ruling party. For example, on Saturday (22/2) ZTV inundated its viewers with a step-by-step live coverage of the 21st February Movement celebrations in Marondera, which devoured at least four hours of ZTV's programming. In fact, the negative coverage of the opposition and the suffocation of the activities of independent candidates were exacerbated by the fact that the private Press hardly gave them publicity either.

For example, of the six reports the Mirror stable carried on campaign-related issues of the MDC, half of them were negative portrayals of the party. Only one report was on the campaign activities of independent candidate Margaret Dongo, which simplistically focussed on her failure to attract a large crowd during a rally. In contrast, the stable gave neutral coverage to ZANU PF in all four stories it carried on the party. Besides the Mirror reports and a Zimbabwe Independent story on plans by independents to form a coalition, no other private newspaper reported on the campaign activities of the contesting parties. As a result, it remained unclear whether the lack of coverage of the opposition and independent candidates was a reflection of their inactivity, the media's failure to professionally execute their role, or the parties' failure to publicise their activities.

However, Studio 7 and SW Radio Africa were more representative in their coverage of the campaign activities of the political parties in the four stories they carried on the topic. For example, Studio 7 alone devoted all three of its stories on the political parties campaigns to profiling ZANU PF, MDC and independent candidates featuring in Mpopoma, Chirumhanzu and St Mary's constituencies.

2. Administrative issues
THERE were 38 reports on administrative issues relating to the electoral framework in the media during the week. Seventeen of them were featured in the government media and 21 in the private ones. All of the government media stories were passive reports on official pronouncements, such as the scheduling of political advertising on ZBH and general assurances by electoral authorities on their preparedness for the March poll. Besides, the stories also superficially sought to depict the country as having fully conformed to the SADC guidelines on holding democratic elections.

But the private media were more critical in their approach by querying some of the administrative electoral set-ups, which included the impartiality of the newly established Electoral Court, the timing and criteria used to invite foreign observers, and the massive publicity ZANU PF continued to enjoy on ZBH compared to the opposition MDC. This critical aspect of reportage was noticeable in most of the 21 stories carried in the private media. Actually, the difference in reporting approach between the official and private media was reflected by the sourcing pattern of ZBH versus that of private radio stations as shown in Fig 2.

Fig 2 Voice distribution on ZBH and private radio stations

Notably, stories carried on ZBH on administrative electoral issues were dominated by official pronouncements compared to those carried by the private radio stations, which were more diversely sourced.

3. Political violence
THE media carried 29 stories on rights abuses and politically motivated violence recording 13 new cases during the week. Private media carried 17 stories and recorded nine incidents while the official media carried 12 stories citing four incidents. All victims of politically motivated violence reported in the government media were either ZANU PF activists (three cases) or supporters of independents (a single incident) while those responsible for the violence were all named as MDC activists.

Three of the cases of politically motivated violence reported in the government media were sourced from the police while the rest were not attributed. The private media on the other hand identified ZANU PF supporters and State security agents as responsible for rights abuses and politically motivated violence against MDC supporters, members of civic organisations and the general public in their stories. Three incidents of politically motivated violence, all carried by SW Radio Africa, relied exclusively on MDC comment.

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