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Economic crisis
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2005-24
Monday June 27^th – Sunday July 3^rd 2005

THE government media’s failure to tackle pertinent issues was also apparent in the way they mishandled Zimbabwe’s intensifying economic decline.

Although 20 of the 26 reports the official papers carried on the topic highlighted symptoms of economic stress such as commodity shortages and price hikes, none of the reports viewed the issues as a reflection of government’s failed macro-economic policies. The rest were attempts to cast a positive perspective on the visit by an International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation.

Similarly, all of ZBH’s 43 stories on the topic were hardly informative. For example, none of the 18 stories that the government-controlled broadcaster carried on the crippling fuel shortages or the massive increase in the price of fuel analysed their likely effects on the economy.

ZTV (28/6, 8pm) even attempted to suffocate this news by relegating it to its Business section under the headline: "The price of fuel has been reviewed upwards."

And although almost all the 18 stories that ZBH aired on fuel shortages were based on officials’ pronouncements, not a single report demanded answers from them.

Instead, ZTV (27/6, 8pm) passively reported Transport Minister Chris Mushowe urging "employers to provide transport for their employees" because of the current transport problems.

Similarly, The Herald (30/6) just quoted Industry Secretary, Retired Colonel Christian Katsande, calling on businesses not to effect price increases of more than "10 percent on goods and services" following the trebling of the fuel price without asking him first how they had arrived at the figure.

But while The Herald (2/7) was urging businesses to keep price increases within reasonable limits, it endorsed bus fare increases of more than 40% by the government-run Zimbabwe United Passengers Company, saying the move will "go a long way in restoring viability to the transport industry".

The private media were more informative in the 35 stories they carried on the economy.

For example, almost all the 18 stories they carried on fuel price hikes noted that the development would worsen the country’s economy by triggering massive commodity price increases and fuelling inflation.

In fact, the private media carried 12 reports that linked the galloping cost of living and other symptoms of economic decline to government’s poor management of the economy.

The private papers also carried five reports revealing that the visiting IMF delegation had raised concerns over the authorities’ economic policies and painted a gloomy picture of the country’s economy. For instance, The Financial Gazette reported that Zimbabwe’s membership to the IMF was under threat because the Fund had demanded "more comprehensive" economic reforms to avert the country’s "forced withdrawal" from the organisation, sentiments also reported in the Independent.

Notably, while the Independent quoted Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono as being non-committal about Zimbabwe’s chances of retaining its membership to the IMF, The Herald (1/7) quoted him as saying that he was "optimistic over Zimbabwe’s relations" with the institution.

The government daily then drowned the IMF’s concerns with Gono’s catalogue of the purported successes of the country’s economic turnaround programme.

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