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Government
interference in the national public broadcaster
Media
Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2005-30
Monday August 8th – Sunday August 14th 2005
THE Daily
Mirror (10/8) provided more evidence of government interference
in the operations of the national public broadcaster during the
week. The paper revealed that Secretary for Information George Charamba
had "stormed" ZBH’s Pockets Hill studios
on "Monday night" to register his displeasure
with radio news desk’s coverage of President Mugabe’s Heroes’ Day
speech after his phone calls to the newsroom went unanswered.
According to
the paper, Charamba was irked by the fact that ZBH’s radio led with
President Mugabe’s calls on Zimbabweans to defend the country’s
independence and sovereignty but omitted his rejection of talks
with the MDC and comments on Murambatsvina.
More worrying
was Charamba’s confession that his interference with the editorial
independence was not isolated. He told the paper: "It’s
not my first time to fight with them over the lead story".
Although The
Herald of the same day carried a similar report, it muted the
fact that Charamba had gone to Pockets Hill to meddle with the editorial
content of the broadcaster and presented his actions as having been
sparked by allegations of "unprofessional conduct and
lack of dedication to duty" levelled against some members
of the broadcasting corporation’s news team.
However, both
papers passively presented Charamba’s actions as normal without
viewing them as indicative of the extent to which government has
hijacked this national public resource.
It also emerged
that apart from exerting their stranglehold on the public media,
the authorities had also allegedly used the Central Intelligence
Organisation (CIO) to infiltrate the private media thereby further
diminishing the few alternative sources of information in the country.
The Zimbabwe Independent (12/8) reported that "billions
of taxpayers’ funds" had been allegedly used by the
CIO to buy majority shares in The Financial Gazette and the
Mirror stable. The story however, did not provide evidence
for this assertion and appeared to be unable to differentiate between
alleged editorial interference and ownership.
Meanwhile, the
media demonstrated its evident fatigue in reporting elections by
their lack of coverage of the important mayoral election in Zimbabwe’s
southern capital, Bulawayo. There was precious little useful information
about the election campaigns of the two candidates or of the electoral
process itself; none of the media adequately re-examined the accuracy
of the voters’ roll, or other related electoral mechanics, such
as the location of polling stations, or the composition and number
of election monitors and observers, all crucial elements in the
citizenry’s exercise of democracy.
Rather, the
20 stories that the government media carried (ZBH [14] and government
Press [6]) were mainly on the electoral authorities commending the
peaceful atmosphere that characterised the pre-election and polling
periods, and on ZANU PF campaigns.
The private
media carried six stories (Studio 7 [3] and private Press [3]) that
were on the parties’ campaigns, voter apathy and the arrest of MDC
activists.
Visit the MMPZ fact
sheet
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