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Print and Electronic Daily Media Update #3
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
March 25, 2005

1. Daily Print Media Update: Friday, March 25, 2005
BECAUSE of the late publication of today's issues of the Chronicle and The Manica Post (25/3), MMPZ was unable to include the news output from these two papers in its report. However, we have included the news content of yesterday's Daily Mirror (24/3), which was only publicly available today. 

a) Campaigns
THE Herald's coverage of the campaign activities of political parties again blatantly favoured ZANU PF. All four stories that it published today were on the campaign activities of the ruling party and nothing on the opposition or independent candidates. These stories covered five rallies held by the presidium in Masvingo, Midlands and Matabeleland. As a result, all eight voices quoted in these stories were either ZANU PF (four) or government (four). All the government voices echoed ZANU PF opinions. Paradoxically, the MDC continued to dominate in three of the four ZANU PF campaign stories where it was portrayed negatively as a front for imperialist forces, particularly of Britain.

The paper passively allowed President Mugabe and his deputies, Joseph Msika and Joyce Mujuru, to propagate this view as exemplified by Vice President Msika whom it quoted as telling party supporters at a rally in the Midlands that the "MDC was not a political party but a group of puppets and sell-outs". The paper also failed to question the political implications behind President Mugabe's on-going computer donations to schools during political rallies after it reported him as having donated 50 computers to five schools during his campaigns in Matebeleland.

In contrast, The Daily Mirror (25/3) maintained its professional stance, giving equal coverage to the political party rallies in its Election Watch column .The private daily carried six stories on the matter, three each on both ZANU PF and MDC campaigns. None were on minor opposition parties or independents. The previous day the paper (24/3) carried nine campaign stories. Five were on the campaign activities of the ruling party, three on the MDC and the remainder on independent candidate and former Information Minister Jonathan Moyo.

Unlike The Herald stories, The Daily Mirror stories were fairly presented as illustrated by the paper's voice distribution in Fig 1.

Fig 1 The Daily Mirror voice distribution

For example, even when Moyo attacked Mugabe and his "Zezuru colleagues in ZANU PF of imposing" Mujuru as vice-president, The Daily Mirror (24/3) balanced this claim with input from ZANU PF and independent commentators such as Brian Kagoro.   

b) Administrative Issues
THE Herald carried two administrative issues where it passively reported on the Greek ambassador to Zimbabwe, Dimitri Alexandrakis, commending the "peaceful environment" prevailing in Zimbabwe ahead of the poll and the deployment of members of the SADC observe mission to the country's provinces. Both stories were briefs based on one opinion.

The Daily Mirror (25/3) also carried two stories on the electoral framework. One was an event report, premised on a "warning" by the Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC) to foreign observers accredited to observe next week's election to adhere to instructions from electoral staff according to Zimbabwe's electoral laws. However, the story failed to balance the ESC's instructions with views from the observers themselves. Neither did it query the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission's state of readiness, only allowing the electoral body to make claims that were not verified. For example, the paper did not confirm the ZEC's claim that the postal votes were indeed being processed "under the watchful eye of all the candidates". In fact, none of the contesting parties were asked if they had been included in the process. The other report, an opinion piece, explored the pitfalls of prejudging elections.

c) Political violence
THE Herald did not publish any new cases of politically motivated violence. But it carried two stories that sought to pre-empt the notion that there was any violence in the country ahead of the election.

For example, in one of the two reports the paper carried Zimbabwe's ambassador to South Africa, Simon Khaya Moyo, was reported as attacking SA's Young Communist League for telling that country's SA media that Zimbabwe was experiencing "massive political violence" orchestrated by "the government-funded youth militia". The paper also carried a front-page follow-up story amplifying the police's rebuttal of the claims by National Constitutional Assembly chairman, Lovemore Madhuku, linking state security agents to cases of politically motivated violence in the country.

However, The Daily Mirror recorded four new cases of politically motivated violence and rights abuses in four stories it carried on the subject. Three of the cases were reported on (24/3) and the rest on (25/3). The paper identified MDC supporters, Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe secretary-general Raymond Majongwe, and commuter omnibus drivers as the victims in three of the cases, while ZANU PF and the police were named as the perpetrators. The other case identified MDC supporters as beating up their ZANU PF rivals.

In one such case of rights abuse by the police, Majongwe was detained on Tuesday at Braeside Police Station and at Harare Central on allegations of insulting the head of State. The paper quoted police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena confirming the incident and saying he had been charged. Majongwe's lawyer Alex Muchadehama was reported as saying Majongwe was picked up by the police on accusations of violating a section of the repressive Public Order and Security Act after allegedly telling a ZANU PF rally at Cranborne: "How can you vote for Robert Mugabe achembera (an old man)"

2. Daily Electronic Media Update: Thursday, 24th March 2005

ELECTION COUNTDOWN

*MMPZ is still unable to effectively monitor SW Radio Africa.

THE national public broadcaster aired an interview with ZANU PF chairman, John Nkomo, also Lands Minister in the President's Office at 9pm on television and on Spot FM. Notably, the interviewers (Happison Muchechetere and Supa Mandiwanzira) asked relevant questions and followed up the answers in a rare display of professional journalistic inquiry.

a. Election Campaigns
ACCESS to the national public broadcaster remained heavily in favour of the ruling party. ZANU PF had the highest number of campaign stories carried on the stations of Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH). It also enjoyed the largest chunk of airtime. For instance, on ZTV (7am, 6pm & 8pm news bulletins) ZANU PF got 28 minutes 15 seconds (76%), while the MDC and Mabvuku-Tafara independent received 5 min 25 sec (14.5%) and 3 min 25 sec respectively of television's campaign news time.

Studio 7 was more balanced, carrying one profile each between the two main political parties and one more each on the two parties' campaign activities. However, it ignored other smaller political parties and independents.

All ZBH reports were campaign rallies. Of the 11 ZANU PF voices quoted by ZBH (on ZTV, Power FM, and Radio Zimbabwe), all were members of that party's Presidium except Obert Mpofu, the Umguza candidate. Otherwise there was precious little coverage on ZBH of other aspiring candidates for Parliament.

The government-controlled media continued to misrepresent the MDC. For example, ZTV's anchor (8pm) said MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai would "remove newly-resettled farmers from their allocated land if elected into power, saying the opposition party will redistribute land in its desired way." But the video clip showed him saying those who had settled themselves illegally (without the authority of chiefs, headmen, district administrators, etc) would be removed.

Number of campaign stories

Voice distribution

It is notable that the voice of the MDC and news of their rallies were completely missing in ZBH's radio bulletins.

b. Administrative Issues
ZBH continued to claim that preparations for the elections were on course, with equal access to the media, violence-free campaigning and positive remarks from the SADC Observer Mission (ZTV; 6pm, 8pm, Power FM and Radio Zimbabwe). They quoted SADCOM's Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka confirming that her team had not received any reports of politically motivated violence. ZBH bulletins also reported that the Greek ambassador to Zimbabwe said "unlike in other countries, the political playing field in Zimbabwe is level as all political parties have access to the electronic media and all are campaigning freely throughout the country"(ZTV). He was not directly quoted saying this.

While ZBH stressed the SADC mission's reported endorsement of the preparations, Studio 7 reported to the contrary. It quoted Mlambo-Ngcuka taking issue with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) over the role of chiefs in the elections. Another member of the team, ANC parliamentarian, Ramathlodi, was also concerned about the allocation of polling stations, which he was reported to have said favoured the ruling party.

ZBH continues to stress that the administrative preparations for the election are progressing so well that only "enemies of Zimbabwe" whose intention was to "tarnish the image of the country" could claim the contrary (ZTV; 6pm, 8pm). The one report carried by ZTV and Radio Zimbabwe quoting a government/business voice in the table below, was ZUPCO chairman, Charles Nherera, saying buses would be available for ferrying people for the holidays and the election.

ZBH stations did not access any political parties in relation to their stories on election administration issues.

c. Political Violence
THERE were no reports of political violence. The 10 references ZBH made to the topic, mostly intertwined with election administration stories, all emphasized that there was peace throughout the country and largely quoted people variously supporting that view.

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