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Print and Electronic Daily Media Update #2
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
March 25, 2005

1. Daily Print Update: Thursday March 24th 2005

The Daily Mirror was not publicly available at the time this report was composed.

a. Campaigns
THE government-controlled Press (The Herald and the Chronicle) continued to ignore the election campaign activities of the MDC, smaller parties and independent candidates, as the campaign period entered its final week.

For example, all nine stories these two dailies carried on campaigns were positive reports on ZANU PF. Four of the reports were on rallies addressed by President Mugabe and his two vice-presidents, Joyce Mujuru and Joseph Msika, while the other four were general stories that favoured ZANU PF. The remaining article was a Chronicle comment, which urged "unity among members of the ruling party" saying this was vital because "British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his American cousins are openly calling for regime change". Although campaign activities of the MDC were not covered, almost all the stories on ZANU PF disparaged the party and presented it as unpopular among the electorate.

The Herald and the Chronicle reported at length President Mugabe's attack on former Information Minister and independent candidate for Tsholotsho, Jonathan Moyo, at a rally in the constituency. He accused Moyo of plotting to overthrow his government through a coup, but there was no evidence the papers attempted to get Moyo's thoughts on the allegations. Only the Zimbabwe Independent tried to get his comment.

The government Press' unwillingness to balance its stories was reflected in its sourcing pattern as shown below.

Fig 1. Campaign stories: Voice distribution in The Herald and Chronicle

Both ministers quoted in their stories not surprisingly amplified the ruling party's policies. By comparison, the monitored private Press carried 11 campaign related stories. All these appeared in the Zimbabwe Independent. Four of the stories, which included the editorial comment, were critical of ZANU PF policies while one was a fair report on the ruling party's campaign activity. Three of the reports favoured the MDC, while the remaining three were
general campaign stories.

b. Administrative issues
THE government-controlled Press' reluctance to discuss problems bedevilling the country's electoral framework was reflected in their three reports on administrative issues, all of them in The Herald. The paper failed to go beyond official pronouncements as it tried to buttress the authorities' claims that preparations for the election were smooth. Its passive approach was evident in its report on the briefing of observers by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) and the Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC). The paper merely quoted ESC chairman Theophilus Gambe saying, "there was no evidence to support allegations that some traditional chiefs and headmen were threatening their subjects with expulsion in the event that they would not vote for ZANU PF". No attempt was made to independently verify the allegations.

While, the paper tried to give the impression that the allegations were only coming from local observer Paddington Japajapa, The Financial Gazette reported that the SADC observer mission had also expressed concerns over the role of chiefs in the elections. The Gazette's report was one of 14 critical stories the private press carried on administrative matters. All the reports raised concerns by the opposition, independent candidates and observers on various aspects of the administration of the election.

These included:

• The MDC and independent candidates questioning the readiness of the ZEC to run the election and confusion over the number of polling station staff (Zimbabwe Independent & Financial Gazette).
• Fresh reports that the voters' roll was still in a shambles and that contesting parties were yet to receive the supplementary voters' roll (Zimbabwe Independent).
• Allegations that the Registrar-General's office was still registering voters, an exercise that was supposed to have closed on February 4th (Zimbabwe Independent).
• Allegations that the armed forces had already voted in a clandestine postal voting exercise without the knowledge of the opposition (Financial Gazette).
• The constitutionality of President Mugabe's right to appoint 30 Members of Parliament (Fingaz).

The Independent noted that these concerns disproved claims by the ZEC that "indications are that all preparations are on course". Unlike the government Press, which mainly relied on the authorities' voice, the private Press's reports were diversely sourced as shown in Fig 2.

Fig 2 Voice distribution in the Private Press

c. Political Violence and intimidation
THERE were two reports of political intimidation in the Zimbabwe Independent. One of the reports alleged that ZANU PF activists were harassing Nyanyadzi villagers who did not have ruling party cards. The story, which appeared in a campaign report, lacked police comment on the matter. The paper also reported the National Association of NGOs (NANGO) claiming that members of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) were stalking leaders of NGOs with a view to monitoring their operations. The report also failed to balance NGOs' allegations with a comment from the police or the CIO.

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