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Unbalanced coverage of contesting parties
Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2005-09
Monday February 28th - Sunday March 6th 2005

THIS week The Herald (3/3) comment feebly tried to justify its unbalanced coverage of the contesting parties by claiming that it was not publicly funded. Responding to the MDC's concerns over its unprofessional coverage of the opposition party, the paper attempted to circumvent its professional obligations by claiming that it was not a "public medium" but a "title in the stable of a public liability company with several hundred shareholders, quoted on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange". And to justify its pro-ZANU PF stance and its apparent reluctance to give space to the opposition, it then argued that, "in common with newspapers around the world", the paper had a "right to endorse or not endorse parties and candidates". Secretary of Information and Publicity in the President's Office George Charamba echoed similar views in The Sunday Mail (6/3).

While both The Herald and Charamba noted that government had the majority shares in ZIMPAPERS, which publishes the paper and four other main titles, they did not fully explain the context under which those public shares were acquired. The newspaper stable was bought with Nigerian government funds from a South African company as a gift to the people of Zimbabwe in 1981 and entrusted to the nominally independent Zimbabwe Mass Media Trust (ZMMT) on behalf of all Zimbabweans. In fact, the authorities and the media they control have failed to clarify the mystery surrounding the status of ZMMT, which was apparently dissolved in December 2001 to pave the way for another organisation called the Multimedia Investment Trust (MIT). Neither have they explained the legal status of MIT, which former Information Minister Jonathan Moyo said (The Herald 2/2/2002) would "act as an investment vehicle for Government, drawing investment dividends from the media and communication industry". Since ZMMT was established, among other issues, to protect the public's shareholding in the newspaper stable, Zimbabweans are entitled to know what has become of their stake in ZMMT, and indeed, the Trust's mandate to protect the papers from political interference. MMPZ would appreciate an urgent explanation on the matter.

Meanwhile, the onslaught against journalists working for the private media continued this week with ZimOnline (4/3) revealing that the authorities were reviving cases against more than 45 journalists of the banned Daily News, accused of having illegally worked for the paper without being registered with the Media and Information Commission (MIC). The online publication, quoted an unnamed official at the Attorney General's office saying the journalists would be dragged to court "anytime after the elections" following "instructions from above...that the journalists should not be let free".

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