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Economic decline
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2006-22
Monday May 29^th 2006 – Sunday June 4^th 2006

DURING the week the government media maintained its uncritical and lop-sided discussion on Zimbabwe’s beleaguered economy in most of the 164 stories on the topic, 104 of which appeared on ZBH and 55 in official papers.

Their stories – especially those from the national broadcaster – were generally one-sided and unquestioningly presented government as having finally resolved the crisis through the National Economic Development Priority Programme (NEDPP).

Notably, no solid evidence of the benefits of the economic package was presented, nor were there any clear explanations on what the programme entailed.

Rather, they blindly presented NEDPP as the answer to almost every economic ill affecting the country – ranging from fuel and power shortages, low industrial production to problems of congestion at the Beitbridge Border Post.

ZBH was the main culprit. It devoted 37 stories to hailing the virtues of the economic programme as already bearing fruit.

In fact, the government media used the unveiling of a US$50 million fuel deal between the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) and a French Bank, Loita Capital, to showcase it as one of the immediate benefits of NEDPP. The government papers devoted five stories to the deal.

The Herald and Chronicle (31/5), for example, quoted RBZ governor Gideon Gono endorsing the deal as part of NEDPP, saying government "will leave no stone unturned in addressing the current challenges facing the economy".

These media failed to question the authorities about the country’s ability to pay for the fuel or whether this facility would satisfy national demand and end the country’s six-year-old fuel crisis. The Herald and Chronicle (31/5) simply quoted Gono saying the package can be renewed "depending on Zimbabwe’s ability to service the facility".

The official media’s subsequent stories on the matter simply amplified and celebrated the official version of the purported benefits of the facility.

The government media’s unquestioning coverage of NEDPP was typical of the way they reported on indicators of economic decline in the127 stories they carried on the matter (ZBH [82] and government papers [45]).

The stories highlighted an economy in distress characterised by an unstable currency, skyrocketing prices and government’s skewed economic policies, as illustrated by the confusion over the authorities’ plans to nationalise mines. However, the stories were unbalanced since they were reported either in isolation of the causes of the economic quagmire, or in the narrow context of government’s working hard to resolve it.

An example was their coverage of the introduction of the $100 000 bearer cheque – which according to official reasoning – is meant "to ensure convenience to the public". Instead of reconciling this position with the authorities’ continued failure to comprehensively address the economic meltdown, they passively allowed the matter to pass. Neither did they interpret Gono’s observation that government "will not hesitate to come up with any other denomination as we deem appropriate" as an admission of failure to turn the country’s economic fortunes around (ZTV 30/5, 8pm; Spot FM 1/6, 7am and The Herald 2/6).

Fig. 1 Voice distribution on ZBH

Fig. 2 Voice pattern in the official Press

Although the official media’s sourcing appeared balanced, most of the analysts’ comments were pro-government while the business sources were cited mainly discussing their operational problems.

Generally, the country’s small private media sector critically examined the economic crisis in the 46 stories they carried on the topic (Studio 7 [seven] and private papers [39].

Six of these included the fuel deal, the proposed mining reforms and the $100 000 bearer cheque, while the rest highlighted indicators of economic collapse.

For instance, The Zimbabwe Independent (2/6) comment viewed the introduction of the new bearer cheque as overdue, saying its delay was as a result of the authorities’ "apprehension that printing of higher denominations would betray failure to manage a faltering economy and stoke inflation". But the new note, the paper said, had given "away the lie by the authorities" and had "awakened Zimbabweans to the realities of a deep-seated economic disaster caused by increased money supply growth".

The paper traced the increased money supply growth to last year’s heavy borrowing by government to facilitate grain and fuel imports, "implying that cash from the central bank was used to buy foreign currency", resulting in large amounts of cash being printed. In addition, it warned of a similar pattern emerging, citing the RBZ’s money-printing exercise to buy US dollars to offset an IMF debt, among other inflationary pressures.

In fact, Studio 7 (30/5) reported an acute shortage of money in the country due to "the inflation rate and the continued depreciation of the local currency against other currencies". It quoted economist John Robertson urging government to introduce higher denomination bearer cheques to counter the cash shortages and make transactions convenient.

And while the official media glossed over the impact of government’s proposed mining law, The Standard (3/6) revealed that RioZim Limited had "frozen a US$120 million investment" until "the debate on proposed amendments is settled". It quoted company chairman Eric Kahari saying while holding back expansion plans would "result in the diamond project winding down production in 2009, conditions relating to mining investment were not conducive for implementation".

The critical manner in which the private press generally discussed the deteriorating economy was reflected by its attempt to balance government’s perception with independent opinion (Fig 3).

Fig. 3 Voice distribution in private papers

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