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

WHILE the private Press continued to follow-up on international efforts to find a solution to Zimbabwe’s political and economic crisis, the government papers basically censored the developments.

Instead, they concentrated on projecting Zimbabwe as enjoying good relations with the rest of the world. For example, only one out of the 15 stories the papers published on international relations was on the proposed visit by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, aimed at finding a solution to the Zimbabwean problem. ZBH ignored the issue altogether.

The story, carried by The Herald (2/6), muddled the essence of the expected visit. It merely reported Foreign Affairs Deputy Minister Obert Matshalaga saying that the invitation extended by government to Annan to assess last year’s clean-up operation and its aftermath "still stands although it might be no longer relevant for him to take it up now".

No attempt was made to relate this observation with the previous week’s comments by Secretary for Information George Charamba that the UN chief’s visit had gone "stale".

Otherwise the rest of the stories glossed over growing international pressure on Harare by celebrating the alleged support Zimbabwe enjoyed from Asian and African governments such as China and Equatorial Guinea.

The official media largely ignored alternative comments in its coverage of the topic. See Fig 1.

Fig. 1 Voice distribution in Government papers

In contrast, the private media provided more useful information on the matter in 13 stories they carried on international relations.

The Daily Mirror and Financial Gazette (1/6) reported Annan as still determined to come despite government’s discomfort. The Gazette even claimed that the expected UN-brokered intervention would reportedly include "an exit scheme" for President Mugabe.

However, the private media failed to fully establish the exact government position on the UN chief’s invitation. While The Daily Mirror (1/6) quoted Charamba reiterating his stance that the invitation had "fallen away", the next day the Zimbabwe Independent (2/6) reported Information Minister Tichaona Jokonya as telling the Voice of America that Annan was "still welcome to come".

In fact, the Independent revealed that the standoff between the UN and government over the invitation had escalated during the week with the world body "recalling its envoy to Harare for consultations".

Moreover, the paper reported on growing official disquiet in South Africa over the Zimbabwe crisis, which that country’s Vice President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka reportedly suggested, "had to be solved urgently".

By the weekend, The Standard (4/6) revealed that following last week’s meeting between President Mugabe and members of the clergy, EU diplomats had subsequently "rebuffed attempts" by the "pro-ZANU PF clergy to broker a peace pact between Mugabe, the EU and the United States". The paper quoted the diplomats saying as far as they were concerned they were "awaiting the outcome of a visit by Annan".

The paper also quoted Archbishop Pius Ncube dismissing the clergy’s efforts to resolve the crisis, alleging the group was pro-ZANU PF and beneficiaries of government’s land reforms. The paper did not ask Ncube to substantiate his claims.

Fig. 2 shows that the private papers relied mostly on foreign diplomatic opinion.

Fig. 2 Voice distribution in the private Press

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