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Economic decline
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2005-34
Monday September 5^th – Sunday September 11^th 2005

ZIMBABWE’S continued economic contraction – marked by rising hyperinflation and crippling shortages of fuel, foreign currency and basic commodities – littered the media during the week.

The print media carried 81 stories on the economic decline, 45 of which appeared in the government-controlled Press and 36 in the private papers. The electronic media aired 48 stories. Thirty-eight of these appeared on ZBH (ZTV 17, Power FM 15, Radio Zimbabwe 6) and the remaining 10 on Studio 7. However, the scale of Zimbabwe’s economic difficulties remained largely undefined in the government media. Although they reported on indicators of the decline, the stories were mainly piecemeal.

For example, none of the six reports ZBH carried on government’s doubling of fuel prices explored its ripple effects on the galloping cost of living. Neither did the stories, all based on official pronouncements, reconcile the hike with the continued scarcity of fuel.

ZTV (7/9, 6pm & 8pm), Power FM (7/9, 8pm) and Radio Zimbabwe (8/9, 6am) merely reported Power and Energy Minister Mike Nyambuya attributing the hike to rising international oil prices and the "firming" of the local currency against the US dollar without quizzing him on government’s failure to develop workable economic policies that will decisively rectify the crisis.

Such unprofessionally docile reporting on important national issues was reflected in all the 11 stories the government papers carried on the fuel crisis. The Herald and Chronicle (8/9) only announced the 123% increase in the fuel price without analysing its ripple effects on commodity prices, inflation and the general state of the economy. For example, they failed to ask Nyambuya the purpose of raising the fuel price when, according to his own admission, this would "not automatically mean that the [fuel] supply situation would improve".

Rather, they allowed Policy Implementation Minister Webster Shamu to follow the same lame official line, blaming the acute fuel shortages on the "black market", "drought" and "unpatriotic Zimbabweans lobbying for sanctions". The papers’ failure to contest Shamu’s claims was in line with their earlier portrayal (7/9) of the fuel crisis as emanating from "red tape", "corruption" and the "diversion" of Zimbabwean-bound fuel from Mozambique to "some neighbouring countries".

Only the private media’s 14 stories on the subject (private press [10] and Studio 7 [4]) covered the fuel increase with greater scope by extensively sourcing comments from economists, labour, transport operators and ordinary members of the public. For example, The Daily Mirror (8/9), cited Graduate School of Management lecturer Isaac Kwesu saying the hike would worsen inflation and the plight of Zimbabweans as it would push the "black market price of the commodity higher" and "trigger a round of price increases in goods and services".

MDC secretary for economic affairs, Tendai Biti, agreed. He told the Zimbabwe Independent (9/9) that the fuel price hike, which represented a cumulative increase of 7,500% in the last two years, was the "most pervasive of all prices in adding to the momentum of overall inflation…" and "yet another testimony to the bungling incompetence in the economic management of the country".

Besides, said economist Eric Bloch on Studio 7 (8/9), the hike will count for nothing because "until we see a substantial increase in export earnings, there will still be a shortage of foreign currency hence a shortage of fuel".

In fact, the same bulletin quoted commuters complaining that because of the fuel increase – which immediately triggered commuter bus fare hikes of at least 70 percent – they could no longer afford public transport. In addition, it cited commuter omnibus operators defending the fare increases, saying they have to survive since they were sourcing foreign currency from the parallel market to import fuel and spare parts.

SW Radio Africa (9/9) also reported on the fare hikes.

In contrast, the official media maintained its lopsided coverage. They merely focussed on the impact of the hike on the transport sector alone and ignored its repercussions on other sectors of the economy.

And while The Herald (9/9) highlighted the high cost of running commuter omnibuses to justify the operators’ fare hikes, it failed to reconcile this with Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo’s declaration outlawing the fare increases, saying they "should not go up by more than10 percent".

Neither did it point out the policy contradictions between Chombo’s desire to prescribe prices for businesses and remarks by Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa suggesting that price controls be dropped and "allow market forces to determine prices of goods", as reported in The Daily Mirror and SW Radio Africa (6/9).

ZBH’s handling of Zimbabwe’s economic decline was not different either. For example, the 10 stories it devoted to Zimbabwe’s near expulsion from the IMF were steeped in official bias. As a result, they failed to honestly address the background leading to the souring of relations in the first place and its bearing on Zimbabwe’s current economic doldrums.

Instead, Power FM (10/9, 1pm) narrowly celebrated Zimbabwe’s subsequent six-month reprieve from expulsion from the IMF as an "achievement…against all odds as countries against Zimbabwe had gone all out to decampaign on-going efforts to revive the country’s economy".

Such simplistic evaluation was also evident on ZTV (10/9, 6pm), which failed to balance Murerwa’s claims that the IMF’s decision not to expel Zimbabwe would "improve the economy" with the Fund’s continued reservations on Zimbabwe’s economic policies.

In fact, The Herald (9/9) comment, Zim can survive with or without IMF, sought to dismiss the Fund’s concerns saying, the "country has adopted home grown solutions to its challenges and it is common knowledge that these have begun to bear fruit" despite "sanctions-induced foreign currency shortages and the rising rate of inflation".

However, besides this pre-emptive article, published on the eve of the Fund’s board meeting to discuss Zimbabwe’s membership, the rest of the nine stories the government Press carried on Zimbabwe’s turbulent relations with the IMF fairly represented the matter.

So were the 10 stories that Studio 7 aired.

The generally passive manner in which the government media handled the country’s economic troubles was reflected in their sourcing pattern as reflected in Fig 1 and 2.

Although they accessed comments from alternative sources, their views were largely suffocated by the supine tone of their stories.

Fig 1 Voice distribution in the public Press

Fig 2 Voice Distribution on ZBH

In comparison, private papers and Studio 7 gave greater latitude to alternative views, which they mainly balanced with the official perspective as mirrored in Figs 3 and 4.

Fig 3 Voice distribution in the private Press

Fig 4 Voice distribution on Studio 7

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