Back to Index

Food security
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2005-20
Monday May 30^th – Sunday June 5^th 2005

THE government media’s attempts to downplay Zimbabwe’s perilous food security situation was reflected in the way it handled the visit by the World Food Programme head, James Morris.

All 10 reports in the government-controlled media (six by ZBH and four by its print counterparts) gave the impression that Morris’ visit was inconsequential because government was already importing food on its own and was unwavering in its rejection of food aid attached to "political" conditions.

For example, all of ZBH’s stories on Morris’ visit were punctuated by its reporters repeating President Mugabe’s declaration that "no one would die of hunger" and emphasising that government would only accept food assistance "without political strings attached".

In addition, ZBH’s stories on ZTV (1/6, 8pm) and Power FM (2/6, 1pm) passively gave the impression that the WFP was forcing its food aid onto Zimbabwe. They quoted the Minister of Social Welfare, Nicholas Goche, commenting on Morris’ visit thus: "We have not made any request… All we said is we welcome assistance from organisations and countries of good will… We are going ahead with our own programme (of importing food)".

The Herald and Chronicle (2/6) also suppressed the authorities’ apparent U-turn on food aid in their coverage of the government’s meetings with Morris. For instance, they gave more prominence to President Mugabe and Goche’s belligerence on the food issue at the expense of providing details of the meetings.

In fact, despite quoting Goche as telling Morris that Zimbabwe needed 1,8 million tonnes of food, the official papers continued to portray government as being in control of the situation.

In this vein, a comment in The Herald (3/6) claimed that Morris’ visit would "go a long way" in "thwarting" the "nefarious designs" of some Western countries as he "found first-hand, that the Government has put in place various measures to ensure that people do not starve" in spite of "floods, droughts and illegal sanctions".

It was only the private media that openly discussed the food situation in the 12 stories they carried on the subject.

For instance, Studio 7 (2/6) and the Independent revealed that government’s meeting with Morris was "a humiliating climb-down" by President Mugabe who rebuffed assistance before the election and predicted a bumper harvest.

And while the government Press projected Morris as being satisfied with Zimbabwe’s situation, the Independent quoted him telling journalists in South Africa, after his meeting with President Mugabe, that he intended to pass on to Kofi Anan, the UN Secretary-General, calls by civic leaders that the UN should send a "special rapportuer to investigate Zimbabwe’s humanitarian crisis".

Visit the MMPZ fact sheet

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP