Back to Index

Conspiracies, distortions and censorship
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2006-21
Monday May 22^nd 2006 – Sunday May 28^th 2006

THE government media’s status as unreliable sources of information was further affirmed by their passive coverage of revelations by South African President Thabo Mbeki that UN Secretary General Kofi Annan would this year visit Zimbabwe to find a solution to the country’s deteriorating political and economic crisis.

These media largely fed on official response to the revelations and weaved conspiracy theories to muddle the gist of the planned visit.

For instance, none of the four stories the official Press carried on the subject gave a coherent picture of the proposed UN intervention. Instead, The Herald and Chronicle (25/5) diverted attention from Mbeki’s revelations by projecting the planned move as unjustified.

They quoted Secretary for Information George Charamba professing ignorance about the pending visit, saying he was only aware of a "stale invitation" to the UN chief by President Mugabe over government’s controversial Operation Murambatsvina, which has since "fallen away".

Without giving background to Mbeki’s disclosures, they cobbled conspiracies aimed at tarnishing the image of the UN as a neutral broker. The papers (27/5), for example, cast the world body as a surrogate of Britain, which they claimed wants to "exert, mobilise and maintain international pressure for change in Zimbabwe". To buttress this view, they conveniently misconstrued statements by British official Geoffrey Hoon that his government "wanted to see sustained pressure on the regime and further international action to isolate Mugabe’s leadership" to mean Britain was the brains behind Annan’s visit.

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s endorsement of the visit was also used as proof of yet another subplot by Britain and the opposition to oust Mugabe.

The next day, The Sunday Mail (28/5) carried a cartoon amplifying the two dailies’ portrayal of Annan as a stand-in of British interests.

But while the official Press made such unsubstantiated claims, ZBH completely censored the matter in its main news bulletins. Consequently, those who only rely on the broadcaster for information were left in the dark on these renewed international efforts to resolve the Zimbabwean crisis.

In fact, the government media’s determination to either suffocate or distort growing concerns over the country’s deepening crisis was further reflected in their coverage of Swedish Ambassador Sten Rylander’s comments on Zimbabwe and a meeting between Mugabe and some church leaders.

For example, despite a letter to The Herald (23/5) by Rylander reiterating his country’s support of EU’s targeted sanctions and accusing the paper and Manica Post (19/5) of having "deliberately distorted" his views on the matter in a bid to "divide the EU" and "blame poverty in Zimbabwe on these sanctions", The Herald (24/5) still maintained that he was against the EU position on Harare.

Rather than professionally consider Rylander’s concerns, the paper’s political editor Caesar Zvayi insisted: "It was clear that Mr Rylander was touched by what he saw in the communal areas and spoke out but was quickly reigned in by his fellow armchair European colleagues."

Such reluctance to acknowledge Zimbabwe’s political and economic quagmire resulted in the government media supinely reporting on a meeting between Mugabe and members of the clergy. None of them gave background information on the circumstances leading to the meeting. Neither did they provide profiles of the church leaders: their credentials, constituency or mandate. Instead, ZBH (25/5, 8pm) simply rehashed mundane statements by Mugabe and the leaders during and after the meeting.

For example, ZTV quoted the leaders praising Mugabe as a "great leader of our nation", adding that "we (the clergy) are with you and we assure you that the churches…are there to support the people of Zimbabwe as you lead us".

Even as Bishop Nemapare hinted that the clergy had raised concerns over the country’s shrinking economy, the reporter would not unravel what exactly transpired during the meeting preferring to passively regurgitate Mugabe’s statements calling on the Church to cooperate with government in developing the country.

Similarly, The Herald and Chronicle (26/5) reported that the meeting discussed "the situation in the country, touching on socio-economic issues among other matters" without elaborating.

Although the papers quoted more foreign diplomats in their stories (See Fig 1), their comments were mainly used in the context of government responses to issues they had raised.

Fig. 1 Voice distribution in the government papers

Except for the Mirror stable, the nine stories that the rest of the private papers carried on the search for a solution to the Zimbabwe crisis were informative.

Contrary to government papers’ claims that Annan’s invitation had expired, the private Press revealed that government had actually cancelled the trip to maintain its stranglehold on power.

For example, the Zimbabwe Independent (26/5) alleged that President Mugabe had nullified Annan’s July trip to the country "because he feared the international community would use it to stampede him out of office".

Earlier, The Financial Gazette (25/5) reported more fully on Mbeki’s hopes that Annan’s pending visit would resolve the country’s crisis. However, the paper somewhat took the

gloss off its story by carrying it under a misleading headline, I failed in Zim: Mbeki. Notably, nowhere in the story did the paper quote Mbeki saying that.

SW Radio Africa and Studio 7 also carried four stories on the proposed UN intervention in Zimbabwe.

To further belie government media’s attempts to dismiss diplomatic moves to resolve the country’s crisis as non-existent, the private media revealed that there were two other initiatives on the table.

The Independent, for example, reported that while Mugabe wanted to block the Annan visit, he had engaged former Tanzanian leader Benjamin Mkapa to push for talks with British Premier Tony Blair because he believed he could "persuade the international community to rescue him from a political and economic quagmire".

The other initiative evolved around the church, whose leadership, explained The Standard (28/5), was tasked by government with coming "up with suggestions on how the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank could be influenced so that lines of credit to Zimbabwe could be re-opened."

The Mirror stable largely ignored developments on the Annan visit.

The private press heavily depended on foreign voices in its coverage of the matter as shown in Fig 2.

Fig. 2 Voice distribution in the private Press

Visit the MMPZ fact sheet

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP