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Mbasogo's visit - and ZBH's poor news management
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2006-13
Monday March 27^th – Sunday April 2^nd 2006

THE government Press largely used the visit by Equatorial Guinea president Obiang Nguema Mbasogo to project government as committed to improving the economy through the strengthening of economic ties with other countries.

Fourteen of the 57 stories that these papers carried on the economy painted this impression. They emphasised how Mbasogo’s visit would reinforce relations between the two countries by opening up business opportunities for Zimbabweans in Equatorial Guinea as well as providing Zimbabwe with the chance to tap fuel from the rich oil country.

This optimism was reflected in the papers’ stories such as Zim, Guinea call on Africa to co-operate (The Herald 30/3); Zim, E. Guinea sign comprehensive agreement (The Herald 1/4) and Zimbabweans invited to invest in E. Guinea (Chronicle 31/3).

However, enthusiasm on the expected economic benefits from the Equatorial Guinea/Zimbabwe relations remained largely speculative. For instance, despite depicting the two countries as having signed a "comprehensive" agreement covering trade, economic, cultural, scientific and technical co-operation, The Herald (1/4) provided no evidence showing how the signing of the deals would economically empower the country.

Rather, the Chronicle of the same day accused local businesses of failing to capitalise on opportunities created for them by government, using Mbasogo’s calls for the businesses to discuss areas of co-operation with his government as an example.

However, the rest of the 43 stories that the government Press carried on the economy did not portray any rosy picture of Zimbabwe’s economic prospects. They captured an economy in turmoil as characterised by the shortages of commodities, galloping cost of living and low production.

The private Press were not as upbeat about the purported economic benefits from Mbasogo’s visit.

Instead, the papers, as exemplified by the Zimbabwe Independent (31/3), simply noted how government was "desperately" trying to take advantage of the trip to secure a fuel deal, a development that it observed started "since the arrest two years ago of 67 mercenaries at Harare international airport". The paper also linked Mbasogo’s visit to the gazetting of the Bill on international terrorism, saying it was "part of efforts to appeal to countries like Equatorial Guinea seen as vulnerable to coup plots."

The stories were part of the 33 stories that the private Press carried on the economy. The rest continued to highlight indicators of economic collapse as well as questioning the authorities’ seriousness in arresting the decline due to un-coordinated policies.

For example, the Independent exposed how Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono’s over arching role in government was creating friction between him and some of his principals like Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa and Energy Minister Mike Nyambuya who accused him of usurping their powers by straying into their areas of jurisdiction.

The paper revealed that Gono acknowledged the negative effects of these differences saying they would make economic recovery in the country impossible, even "in the famous 1 000 years" of Rhodesian leader Ian Smith.

Rather, during the week ZBH continued to display poor news prioritisation by giving prominence to less important stories while it either drowned topical issues or simply censored them.

For example, ZTV (27/3, 6pm and 8pm) and Spot FM (27/3, 8pm) led their bulletins with stale reports on the election of a new Zimbabwe Football Association board, which had taken place two days earlier, and buried a newsy story on government’s completion of yet another land audit.

Similarly, ZTV and Spot FM (29/3, 8pm) carried follow-up stories on the death of President Mugabe’s bodyguard Winston Changara and the typical flattering remarks on government’s efforts to revive the agricultural sector ahead of a more important Civil Protection Unit’s alert on "possible flooding" in the Zambezi valley. The story was relegated to the end of the bulletins and allocated only 15 seconds on ZTV.

Besides, the broadcaster turned itself into a ZANU PF notice board by carrying what clearly qualified as the party’s advertisements as news. ZTV, Radio Zimbabwe (29/3, morning bulletins) and Spot FM (28/3, 8pm), for example, devoted valuable news airtime to Mugabe’s call for an emergency politburo meeting at his party’s headquarters. Similar adverts disguised as news included calls for meetings of ZANU PF’s central committee members, legislators and senators, ZBH (31/3, 6&7am).

But while the broadcaster accorded space to such non-news stories, it censored US ambassador Christopher Dell’s recent uncomplimentary remarks on the deteriorating Zimbabwean crisis, reports on Mugabe’s displeasure over the collapse of basic amenities in Harare, divisions in government over policy formulations and the death of scores of Zimbabweans in South Africa.

These only appeared in the private media.

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