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Economic Issues
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2005-17
Monday 9th 2005 - Sunday May 15th 2005

THE country's economic mess continued to attract the attention of the media ahead of the delayed presentation of the quarterly monetary policy review by Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono.

The media carried 170 stories on the topic. Of these, 70 were on ZBH (Power FM, Radio Zimbabwe and ZTV), 16 on private radio stations and 84 appeared in the Press. Half of the Press' stories were in the private papers while the government-controlled newspapers published the other 42. However, most of the reports carried by the government-controlled papers failed to give a fair and balanced interpretation of the causes and scale of the economic problems. This was apparent in the way they either downplayed the deepening economic decay or blamed it on businesses and the West while simultaneously exonerating government from any wrongdoing.

In fact, the official Press' attempts to blame businesses for the sorry state of the economy resulted in The Sunday Mail (15/5) carrying two articles alleging that some "fugitive bankers" in Britain and South Africa, in collaboration with some local businessmen, were plotting to scuttle the country's economic revival by causing artificial shortages of basic commodities and damaging the country's image abroad. Besides relying on unnamed sources, details of the plot remained foggy. The government papers' failure to honestly handle the matter was due to the fact that they restricted themselves to echoing or amplifying official explanations on the issue without blending them reasonably with expert opinion as illustrated by Fig 1.

Fig 1 Voice distribution in the government-controlled Press

Notable too was the way alternative and business voices were used in the government Press. They were largely quoted expressing their willingness to work with the authorities in resuscitating the economy rather than on their candid appraisal of what was wrong with it in the first place.

In addition, the government-controlled Press carried six editorials endorsing government's economic policies. These ranged from putting the onus to explain Zimbabwe's economic decline solely on the shoulders of local industrialists to lauding government's 'Look East' policy, which they touted as having improved the economic fortunes of the country.

ZBH was not any different. None of its 70 reports openly discussed the root cause of the economic slide. Rather, 38 (54%) of its stories gave a rosy picture of the country's economic performance. ZTV actually allocated 22 minutes (43%) of the 51 minutes the station devoted to economic issues to such 'feel-good' stories. The remaining 32 (46%) simply exposed indicators of economic decline without viewing them as emblematic of the country's gloomy macro-economic environment.

The tone of the 38 reports that ZBH used to gloss over the country's economic tailspin was epitomized by ZTV's lead story on its 8pm bulletin of the 12th. The report claimed that "there have been significant improvements in the economy" due to "fiscal discipline by the government, restoration of sanity in the financial services sector and the clampdown on speculative behaviour", which had resulted in "an increase in foreign currency inflows and the reduction of inflation from over 600% to below 123%..." Without trying to reconcile these claims with reality on the ground, the station (13/5, 8pm) then blamed businesses for causing the current economic contraction saying retailers were "increasing prices of food commodities haphazardly, especially those that are imported."

Power FM (14/5, 8pm) even claimed that the current soft drinks shortage was a result of Delta Corporation's attempts to "force the government to review the prices of [soft drinks]". The business community was not given the right of reply. Instead, just like the government Press, most of ZBH's stories relied on official comment while business people were mainly quoted pledging to support government's efforts to resolve the country's economic problems. See Fig 2.

Fig 2 Voice distribution on ZBH stations

The business community's detailed response to the matter only found space in the private Press. They basically attributed price hikes and commodity shortages on government's skewed economic policies rather than on any acts of sabotage on their part, as claimed by the government media.

Alternative voices also seemed to find more space to discuss Zimbabwe's economic ills in the private papers than in the official ones as Fig 3 shows.

Fig 3 Voice distribution in the private Press

Although the private radio stations also used independent commentators to critically examine the country's economic performance in their 16 stories on the issue, they dented their coverage by failing to seek government comment as shown in Fig 4.

Fig 4 Voice distribution on Studio 7 and SW Radio Africa

Despite giving more space to alternative commentators, the private Press also carried 10 editorials, which were critical of the authorities' poor management of the economy. For example, in its comment, Silence is not golden, The Financial Gazette

(12/5) criticised Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa for his apparent inaction in the face of the economic crisis. It offered two possibilities for this silence. Either the minister lacked "the ideas and surgical skills...to put a fresh heart into the enfeebled economy" or that his "solutions to the country's economic woes" were being frustrated by "rigid influence-peddling ruling ZANU PF politicians".

Further, private papers carried four stories criticising government's self-lauded 'Look East' policy as compared to the three glowing reports on the issue published in the official papers. For instance, the Zimbabwe Independent quoted observers saying the policy lacked an established framework for Zimbabwe's integration with Asia "except ad hoc measures largely dictated by (President) Mugabe's whims instead of economic realities".

The government-controlled Press however, remained blinkered in their presentation of economic facts. This was exemplified by the papers' failure to question the logic of government's plans to re-introduce price controls despite protestations from businesses in the five stories they carried on the matter. No wonder, The Herald (9/5) ended up contradicting itself in its attempt to justify government's intervention in the pricing of basic commodities. While the introduction of its front-page story noted that twenty-eight supermarkets in Harare had been fined a total of $31million "for stashing basic commodities" it quoted permanent secretary in the Industry Ministry, Christian Katsande, noting that an investigation by his ministry did "not find any proof to support the alleged hoarding of commodities".

While the government-controlled papers defended government's price control regime, the private Press carried 23 stories exposing the economic undesirability associated with controls, including a fixed foreign currency exchange rate. The Gazette, for example, quoted Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries and the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce officials forecasting company closures and an "economic catastrophe" if government persisted with its skewed economic policies, which they noted, were undermining the gains made by the central bank. The official Press ignored these economic facts, preferring to carry three passive previews on Gono's imminent presentation of his monetary policy.

Nevertheless, The Herald, and indeed The Daily Mirror (14/5), reported on the increase in inflation from 123.7 percent in March to 129.1 percent last month. Although ZTV (13/5, 8pm) and Power FM (15/5, 6am) reported on these latest inflation figures, they circumvented the real causes of the rise by trying to attribute the increase to "selling of goods and foreign currency on the illegal market".

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