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Arms cache
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2006-10
Monday March 6^th – Sunday March 12^th 2006

THE discovery in the week of an alleged arms cache in Manicaland generated keen interest in the media.

The print media devoted 22 reports to the matter, 15 of which were in the government papers and the remaining seven in the private Press. The electronic media carried 56 reports: 44 appeared on ZBH (ZTV [25], Spot FM [12], Radio Zimbabwe [7]) while seven were broadcast on Studio 7 and five on SW Radio Africa.

The government media’s coverage of the discovery was frenzied, feeding on and magnifying official conspiracy claims in total disregard of basic journalistic standards of accuracy, balance and fairness.

Thus, these media’s interpretation of the discovery of the "Huge arms cache" (ZTV 8/3, 7am) was heavily blighted by severe credibility gaps. For example, there was no mention of whether the weapons were licensed and no convincing evidence to support claims in the government-controlled media against those implicated. Neither was there any clear-cut presentation of organisational structure of those behind the arms collection.

Such pertinent issues were smothered in the government media’s fixation with projecting those implicated in the alleged arms hoard as already guilty of subversion.

For example, since ZBH (all stations) first reported the discovery of the arms cache allegedly at Peter Hitschmann’s residence in their main news bulletins (7/3), they claimed he was a former Rhodesian soldier to create the impression that Zimbabwe was under siege from ex-colonial forces.

In fact, all subsequent references to Hitschmann in the government media centred on this colonial link rather than on his current status. Besides, they also tried to discredit all his co-accused in the matter by connecting them either to Rhodesia or the opposition MDC, which they portrayed as a violent and unpatriotic organisation working with Zimbabwe’s enemies to effect regime change in the country.

All real and perceived enemies of the ruling party, ranging from the shadowy Zimbabwe Freedom Movement (ZFM), allegedly led by Peter Tatchell, to the opposition Renamo of Mozambique were retrieved from the archives, dusted off and linked to Hitschmann’s arms cache. This saw ZTV carrying seven archival video clips – some showing the brutalities of the Rhodesian army – just to reincarnate the cruelty of the colonial forces and bolster the idea that Zimbabwe was again being sabotaged.

Issues raised in ZTV’s reports included past destabilization activities of former Rhodesian forces, including their alleged attempts to assassinate President Mugabe; Tsvangirai’s alleged threats to remove President Mugabe violently from power and government’s interception of suspected mercenaries in Harare on their way to Equatorial Guinea.

The station’s severely selective presentation of events was exposed by its failure to relate the arms cache discovery to similar previous intrigues, which were also used to crush the ruling party’s political opposition. These have included discrediting the late Vice-President, Joshua Nkomo, and his former Zapu party following the discovery of arms caches in Matabeleland in the 1980s, the linking of the late nationalist and ZANU (Ndonga) leader Ndabaningi Sithole to alleged Chimwenje rebels; and blaming the MDC for the murder of war veteran Cain Nkala.

The Herald (9/3) also used pictorial images to bolster its efforts to promote a siege mentality among its readers by carrying a massive picture of the arms cache covering almost the whole of its front page.

The paper’s accompanying story passively accused ZFM of plotting to assassinate top ZANU PF and government officials, including the remaining white farmers "to lend credence to opposition claims that Zimbabwe was a failed state where anarchy reigned supreme, in the hope of bringing about foreign intervention and consequent illegal regime change".

Earlier, ZTV and Spot FM alleged that Hitschmann and his co-accused wanted to "target prominent business people, political and government leaders in Mutare during the 21^st February Movement commemorations", although they did not explain why they had not raided Hitschmann’s house then, only doing so 12 days after the event.

Despite their apparent easy access to official comments, especially the police, the government media would not tell their audiences the charges that Hitschmann and his colleagues were facing. It was only after the suspects had been taken to court that The Sunday Mail (12/3) revealed that they were being charged for breaching section 10 (1) of POSA, which outlaws "conspiracy to possess weaponry for insurgency, banditry, sabotage and terrorism".

Instead, these media simply carried torrents of official and editorial comment either hailing the alertness of state security agents in ‘discovering’ the guns, or justifying the harsh treatment of the suspects.

ZTV (8/3, 8pm) for example, reported National Security Minister Didymus Mutasa, threatening to "physically eliminate" Hitschmann and his associates over the arms cache.

The Manica Post (10/3) comment blindly advocated the authorities – in total disregard of the principle of ‘innocent until proven guilty’- to "deal ruthlessly" with the "merchants of death and destruction", bent on disrupting the "peace of this nation".

The propagandist nature of the government media in reporting the issue is reflected in Fig 1 and 2, which shows their dependence on official comments.

Fig. I Voice Distribution on ZBH

Notably, the MDC was only quoted in retrospect when ZTV and SFM (9/3; 8pm) used an old file of Morgan Tsvangirai calling on President Mugabe to go "peacefully" or be removed "violently".

Fig 1 Voice distribution in the government Press

Like the official Press, the Mirror stable merely regurgitated official claims on the arms cache story. The Sunday Mirror (12/3) hysterical coverage epitomised this slant. The paper quoted an unnamed source echoing police claims that the accused intended to cause "widespread chaos" in the country by "assassinating" government and ruling party officials. He also linked the arms discovery to an international network of sabotage involving such countries as Taiwan.

The other private media’s coverage of the arms cache was more informative, incisive and sober.

For instance, they reported lawyers, politicians and commentators questioning the validity of the discovery and its timing. They also carried updates on the condition of the prisoners.

For example, Studio 7 and SW Radio Africa (9/3) and The Standard (12/3) cited defence lawyers either complaining about the ill treatment of their clients by the police or the inappropriate nature of the charges against them.

SW Radio Africa reported Hitschmann’s lawyer, Trust Maanda, dismissing the "banditry and terrorism" charges against his client as unfounded since he was a registered firearms dealer. Maanda also said the police had used threats of beatings to extract information from Hitschmann and that the interrogation was not done at a police station but at an army barracks in Mutare.

The Standard (12/3) also reported Maanda’s allegations.

In addition, Studio 7 (10/3) quoted head of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, Reverend Trevor Manhanga, and Crisis Coalition’s Advocacy Officer Itai Zimunya, revealing that Hitschmann belonged to the ZRP’s special constabulary and routinely worked with the Mutare police to curb border jumping in the City.

Manhanga told Studio 7 that it therefore "came as a big surprise to read in the papers that he is being accused of keeping arms since he works closely with the police".

The government ignored this piece of evidence. For example, The Manica Post refused to investigate why Hitschmann, who "at one time commanded border patrols along the Zimbabwe-Mozambique border", was once arrested, discharged and placed "under surveillance for over a year".

Earlier, ZTV and Spot FM (10/3, 8pm) tried to exonerate state security agents from complicity in the arms collection saying although Hitschmann had indicated that some "uniformed forces sold him guns for want of money, they didn’t know of his intention to topple government".

However, the stations would not explore why state security agents were apparently stealing guns for resale, to whom they were selling the guns and how prevalent the practice was.

The private media’s sourcing pattern is shown in Figs. 3 and 4.

Fig. 3 Voice Distribution on private radio stations

Notably, the private media’s sourcing pattern was basically based on alternative sources’ responses to the official accusations.

Fig. 4 Voice distribution in the private Press

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