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Economic
decline
Media
Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted
from Weekly Media Update 2005-45
Monday
November 21st 2005 – Monday November 27th
2005
THE government
media’s hypocrisy in handling pertinent issues was illustrated by
their lop-sided coverage of the country’s continued economic meltdown,
which manifested itself in the unprecedented grounding of Air Zimbabwe
planes due to fuel shortages.
Instead of honestly
interpreting the problems bedevilling the government-run airline
as reflective of the authorities’ mismanagement of the economy and
public enterprises, almost all the 30 stories the official media
carried on the subject (ZBH [26] and the Press [4]) narrowly blamed
company executives while simultaneously presenting government as
coming to the airline’s rescue.
For example,
ZTV (22/11, 8pm) reported that operations at Air Zimbabwe "
were back to normal" with "most flights
leaving on schedule" after government "moved
in to solve the problems". The station unquestioningly
quoted Transport Minister Chris Mushowe wondering why the airline
was in a crisis when government had helped it secure foreign currency
to buy fuel. The minister was not challenged to reveal the amount
of foreign currency the airline had received.
Neither was
there any effort to seek comment from the airline’s management.
Rather, the
next day The Herald simply carried a similar report and quoted
Mushowe demanding an "explanation" on why
Air Zimbabwe was buying fuel from private companies such as BP and
Total, instead of the government-run National Oil Company of Zimbabwe.
The paper would
not independently investigate the reasons behind this.
The Sunday
Mail report, Airzim and the cancer within, merely attributed
the problems besetting the airline to "skewed policies"
without fully discussing them. It simply quoted Air Zimbabwe Board
chairman Mike Bimha absolving government, saying the airline’s problems
were not due to "political interference"
but "managerial in nature" as government
had given his board "considerable autonomy".
However, the
paper did not take Bimha to task over why his board had allowed
the situation to deteriorate to such unprecedented levels before
taking action. The government media’s failure to question government
policies was also evident in the 20 stories they carried on indicators
of economic decline (ZBH [10] and official Press [10]). They merely
highlighted the issues in isolation without examining the cause
of these "challenges".
However, the
private media was more forthright in their 33 stories on the Air
Zimbabwe crisis and the general economic decay (private Press [27]
and private radio stations [6]).
For instance,
the Independent blamed government policies for the problems
affecting the national airline, saying the crisis exposed "poor
corporate governance and the administrative inadequacies in President
Mugabe’s government."
The Daily
Mirror (23/11) and Studio 7 (22/11) raised similar views.
The private
media also linked indicators of economic decline, such as company
closures, the weakening local currency, galloping price increases,
the collapse of the health sector and the continued severe fuel
shortages, among other issues, to government’s failed economic policies.
In fact, The
Daily Mirror (22/11) captured a graphic image of how severe
fuel shortages had crippled operations in various sectors of the
economy when it revealed that Bindura and Shamva municipalities
had "resorted to collecting refuse using ox-drawn carts
they hire from resettled farmers". An
official from Shamva municipality confirmed the crisis, saying the
town had "completely run out of fuel …even for emergency
services."
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fact sheet
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