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Image building and economic decline
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2005-35
Monday September 12^th – Sunday September 18^th 2005

THE national public broadcaster’s lop-sided coverage of the just ended 60^th UN General Assembly summit focused narrowly on President Mugabe’s speeches, which it presented as the only sensible ones delivered and ignored pertinent addresses made by other leaders. Without giving a coherent picture of what actually transpired at the meeting, it simply amplified Mugabe’s attack on the West for its alleged hypocrisy in handling global issues and simultaneously projected him as a champion of the developing world and the oppressed.

This hero-worshiping also emerged in ZBH’s coverage of Mugabe’s visit to Cuba.

It was in this context that the 56 stories ZBH (ZTV [23], Power FM and Radio Zimbabwe [33]) carried on the UN summit and Mugabe’s Cuban trip were merely event reports that lacked any critical assessment. For example, ZTV (15/9, 8pm) bombarded its audience with an 8 minutes 30-second uninterrupted speech Mugabe made at the summit without critically examining the statement or putting it into a proper news context.

Rather, the station reported pro-government analysts as hailing the President’s speech, saying that through his "keynote address", the "voice of the oppressed and downtrodden was heard". Herald reporter Caesar Zvayi followed the example, saying that Mugabe’s description of the US-led alliance in Iraq as a "coalition of evil" had "hit the nail on the head" because US President George Bush and British Premier Tony Blair "don’t have a good agenda for the rest of the world".

The voices of other world leaders were suffocated.

In fact, the only time ZBH made reference to other countries was when ZTV (14/9) attacked the US, Nigeria and South Africa for various transgressions they allegedly committed. While the station accused the US of "hijacking" the summit by proposing a "watered-down declaration on development, human rights, terrorism and global security" for adoption at the summit, it blamed Nigeria and South Africa for compromising the "African position on the UN Security Council reforms".

But while the station fleetingly highlighted the US’s proposals, there was no detail on how exactly Nigeria and South Africa had "compromised" the continent’s position on UN reforms. ZBH radio’s coverage (13, 14 & 15/9, main bulletins) of the summit followed a similar vein.

The attempts to build Mugabe’s image as a great statesman also found expression in ZBH’s coverage of his visit to Cuba. For instance, ZTV (14/9, 7am & 6pm) passively reported African diplomats as having exalted Mugabe as "a true liberator" without reconciling such blind praise with the country’s present deteriorating fortunes.

In fact, none of the 15 stories ZBH carried on indicators of continuing economic decline holistically related the crisis to factors responsible for causing it.

The broadcaster’s efforts to tout Mugabe as the hero of the Third World was also evident in its sourcing pattern as shown in Fig 1. Mugabe’s voice alone outshone all other voices ZBH sourced.

Fig 1 Voice distribution on ZBH

Notably, most of the foreign voices were from the ZANU-PF aligned US-based December 12^th Movement, who hailed Mugabe’s leadership qualities, saying "black Americans need a leader like (him)", while the rest of the voices either amplified government’s position or expressed optimism that Zimbabwe’s socio-political and economic situation would improve.

Although the government Press did not openly pursue the image-building theme, it failed to identify the causes of economic decline in the 41 stories it carried on the matter.

Instead of diagnosing these causes, the official papers merely blamed them on drought and ‘illegal’ sanctions imposed on the country by the US, Britain and their Western allies.

Their preoccupation with blaming external forces and nature resulted in extending the mystery of the government’s inability to solve the crisis.

For example, the official Press ignored the policy contradictions marking government’s relationship with the IMF, seen as an important partner in the revival of the country’s economy. This was illustrated by their failure to reconcile President Mugabe’s reproachful comments about the IMF with the expressed wishes of central bank governor Gideon Gono and Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa to restore relations with the international money lending institution (The Herald, 12/9, and ZBH, 12 &13/9, 8pm).

Rather, The Herald (13/9) simplistically tried to defend Mugabe’s observation that "Zimbabwe is not a friend of the IMF and is unlikely to be its friend in the future" because it was "consistent with his calls for the democratisation of international organisations".

However, the private papers disagreed.

The Financial Gazette (15/9), Zimbabwe Independent (16/9) and Sunday Mirror (18/9) believed Mugabe’s attack of the IMF just hours after Gono had pleaded with the fund not to expel Zimbabwe over its arrears, highlighted serious policy discords within government. The Sunday Mirror cited analysts saying while Gono and Murerwa had made "valiant" efforts to keep Zimbabwe within the IMF, Mugabe’s "vitriolic rhetoric" could, however, send and reinforce "confused messages to the IMF and international investors".

MDC secretary for economic affairs Tendai Biti told the paper that although Gono and Murerwa "realise the importance of radical market reforms" the "problem is that they belong to a government of cartoon characters who are not clear on policy."

The Independent concurred, saying such policy contradictions had resulted in the country’s failure to implement several of its own economic turnaround strategies.

Apart from failing to expose policy contradictions in government’s position on Zimbabwe’s IMF relations, the official media also did not reconcile Transport Minister Chris Mushowe’s threat (The Daily Mirror, 13/9) that government would seize white-owned businesses with calls by Gono and Murerwa for the restoration of investor confidence. Again only the private media discussed the issue.

Besides, the Independent revealed that because of biting foreign currency shortages the Reserve Bank was negotiating a long-term fuel deal with South Africa’s Rand Merchant Bank (RMB). As collateral, the bank was reportedly demanding that Zimbabwe’s export receipts to that country be tied up as guarantees for the deal.

Although the paper quoted RMB spokesman Peter Gent confirming the negotiations, saying they were of a "politically sensitive nature" and that such kind of "cross-border financing" between SA and Zimbabwe takes place regularly "in a wide variety of product areas, from maize to railway equipment", it did not try to connect the development to the loan facility that Harare is seeking from Pretoria.

The Independent story was part of the 39 stories that the private Press published on the economy. Fifteen of these were on the IMF loan; three on inflation’s 10-point rise to 265.1% in August, and the remaining 20 stories were on indicators of economic decline. All the stories were critical of Zimbabwe’s economic performance.

Similarly, the private radio stations carried 12 stories (Studio 7 [7] and SW Radio Africa [5]) that critically examined the country’s economic contraction. Both stations (16/9) revealed that the deteriorating economic situation had resulted in MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai walking to work to demonstrate against fuel shortages.

The government media ignored the matter.

Notwithstanding their supine coverage of Zimbabwe’s relations with the IMF and the fuel crisis, the other 29 stories the official papers carried on Zimbabwe’s economic woes were fairly presented even though they quoted more government voices. See Fig 2.

Fig 2: Voice distribution in the government Press

Although the private papers also relied heavily on government sources, they also gave more space to alternative opinion as shown in Fig. 3.

Fig 3: Voice distribution in the Private Press

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