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Economic issues
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2005-31
Monday August 15^th – Sunday August 21^st 2005

ZBH’s passive handling of important national issues was clearly illustrated by its coverage of the country’s continuing economic decline. For instance, almost all its 30 stories on the economy simply rehashed pronouncements by the authorities on their efforts to rejuvenate the economy without critically examining them or giving a holistic picture of the root causes for the decline.

Its uncritical stance was epitomized by the way it covered the mid term fiscal policy statement and the $6,6 trillion supplementary budget announced by Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa.

All 24 stories that the national public broadcaster carried on the matter simply regurgitated Murerwa’s statements without subjecting them to scrutiny. For example, despite noting the raft of new taxes announced by Murerwa, ZBH failed to analyse their effects on inflation, the cost of living and industry’s wellbeing.

Instead, ZTV (16/8, 6pm) simplistically endorsed the taxes on the basis that they would increase government’s "revenue base" and generally heaped praise on Murerwa’s statement, which it presented as a panacea to the country’s economic woes.

ZBH’s subsequent bulletins on the matter adopted a similar slant.

In fact, ZBH’s reluctance to openly discuss the country’s dwindling economic fortunes manifested itself in the broadcaster’s indifferent coverage of the record rise in inflation by 90.5 percentage points from 164,3% in June to 254,8% in July. ZTV (17/8, 8pm), for example, relegated this news to its Business News segment and hid it underneath an announcement on the boycott of the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange by traders over the 10% withholding tax on tradable securities announced by Murerwa.

There was no discussion on the reasons for the increase or any attempt to relate the development to the deteriorating macro-economic environment. Neither did ZTV (18/8, 8pm) view the devaluation of the local currency from $17 500 to $24 025 against the US dollar as indicative of the country’s intensifying economic crisis. ZBH’s radio stations simply ignored the matter altogether.

The unprofessional manner in which the government broadcaster handled the economic meltdown was reflected in its sourcing pattern. See Fig 1.

Fig 1 Voice distribution on ZBH

Except for the MDC voices, all other sources were quoted hailing government policies.

However, the 10 stories that the private radio stations carried (six appeared on Studio 7 and four on SW Radio Africa) were more revealing. They noted that the rise in inflation and the announcement of the supplementary budget were symptoms of the poor state of the economy.

The stations quoted economic analysts such as Eddie Cross and Eric Bloch projecting a bleak economic future, saying inflation was set to rise again by year-end due to government’s skewed economic policies.

Besides, Studio 7 and SW Radio Africa (18/8) reported that MDC legislators had protested against the fiscal policy saying it would seriously affect the livelihoods of Zimbabweans.

ZBH ignored the issue.

But while the broadcast media differed in handling the country’s economic ills, there seemed to be general agreement in the print media. For once both sections of the Press questioned the effectiveness of Murerwa’s fiscal policy in resuscitating the economy in the 34 stories they devoted to the matter. The private papers carried 20 stories on the fiscal review and the official Press published 14.

The papers particularly decried the minister’s plans to raise money to finance government expenditure through extra taxation, saying this would greatly disadvantage Zimbabweans, especially the long-suffering working class.

The papers also pointed out that Murerwa’s fiscal policy seemed to undermine the monetary policy of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ). They argued, for example, that government’s announcement of a supplementary budget was in itself a major setback with regard to fiscal discipline, which the RBZ has tried to enforce over the past year to steer the country out of its economic coma.

Both sections of the Press’ attempts to balance the matter was mirrored by their sourcing patterns that were generally similar as shown in Figs. 2 and 3. 

Fig 2.Voice distribution in government papers

Fig 3. Voice distribution in private newspapers

Notably, the alternative voices quoted by the government Press were markedly varied, ranging from their traditional pro-government commentators such as Joseph Kadzura to critically minded ones like John Robertson.

However, despite the government Press’ measure of frankness in debating the inadequacies of Murerwa’s fiscal policy and supplementary budget, they were still unwilling to blame government for the country’s poor economic performance.

This was well illustrated by the Chronicle comment (18/8) which attributed the economic crisis to the "effects of sanctions imposed on the country by Western nations".

The Sunday Mail editorial (21/8) tried to blame the economic decline on the "conduct of industry and commerce", whose alleged pricing system of goods and services "bordered on greediness and selfishness" and was "inflationary".

The paper accused industry of reneging on the recent pricing structure of 174 percent increases, which they had agreed with government by introducing their own prices.

The rationality of such price controls was not questioned.

But the Independent’s columnist, Eric Bloch, did.

He wondered why the government-controlled media "has vigorously…given prominence" to government’s attacks on commerce and industry for alleged "profiteering… bringing poverty to the masses and creating inflation" while government itself introduces massive increases and charges for its services regardless of the inflationary consequences.

As examples, Bloch cited the steep increases in service charges by government-run companies such as Zimpost, the Registrar of Companies, the Civil Aviation Authority and Tel*One.

Such clear coverage of the economy’s condition was also evident in The Financial Gazette (18/8), which interpreted Murerwa’s revelation that he had rejected requests for fresh funding from ministries because "the government does not have the capacity to finance them at this time" as an admission that government was "broke".

In addition, the Financial Gazette, the Independent, The Daily Mirror (20/8) and The Standard (21/8) all warned of the possible crash of the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange following an unprecedented boycott by investors protesting against the 10 percent withholding tax.

The government Press initially ignored this boycott.

The private papers’ competent coverage of the country’s economic meltdown was also apparent in the seven stories they carried on the rise in inflation, a development they viewed as indicative of government’s failure to manage the economy. While the government media carried nine stories on inflation and the devaluation of the local currency and 13 other stories on symptoms of economic decline, they failed to link them to government’s failure to run the economy.

For example, The Herald and Chronicle (19/8) merely projected the latest devaluation of the local currency as a planned move, which "is in line with purchasing power parity" and designed to cushion exporters against rising inflation without reconciling this to the crippling shortage of foreign currency.

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