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Inflation and economic decline
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2006-23
Monday June 5^th 2006 – Sunday June 11^th 2006

ALL media continued to give space to the country’s economic distress, which this week was underscored by yet another record high inflation of 1,193.5% for May.

However, the government media continue to report these issues in isolation of their causes. As a result, the 131 stories they carried on the subject (Press [57] and ZBH [74]) failed to view them as an indication of government’s failure to halt the economic plunge. Otherwise, these media downplayed developments or simply censored them.

For example, The Herald (8/6 and 10/6) buried its announcements on the rise in the monthly cost of living for a family of six (from $41m in April to $49.1m in May) in its business section (8/6) and the increase in the rate of inflation on page 11 of its news stories (10/6). ZBH (all stations 9/6, 8pm) also relegated news on the new inflation figure to the tail-end of their bulletins, while the Chronicle (10/6) completely ignored the issue.

In addition, these media did not holistically discuss the underlying implications of these developments on the economically burdened Zimbabweans.

The Herald (8/6) supinely quoted the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe making the absurdly childish call for Zimbabweans "to rally behind the National Economic Development Priority Programme (NEDPP) for the betterment of the economic situation" and urging them "to exercise their right to choose and intensify their search for affordable commodities or cheaper substitutes".

The paper did not ask the organisation how consumers were expected to settle for the alleged substitutes when industrial and agricultural production was at its lowest, giving rise to shortages of basic commodities, far less their uniformly soaring prices.

Instead, The Sunday Mail (11/6) merely expanded on this unfounded optimism, arguing that although the rise in inflation was "expected", there "is a positive trend in the statistics announced on Friday" because "food inflation has started going down". It added: "…as more food makes its way to the market from last season’s harvest, the impact will be felt more."

The paper then carried three stories that sought to positively portray NEDPP as already paying dividends.

For example, its lead story passively reported Economic Development Minister Rugare Gumbo expressing optimism that despite government raising only US$350 million (14/%) of its targeted US$2,5 billion within the first three months of NEDPP’s launch, the programme would still succeed.

Notably, the paper did not view this as the first serious signs of the programme being in trouble.

The government media’s fixation with projecting NEDPP as already working even saw Spot FM and ZTV (5/6, 8pm) simplistically attributing plans to grant Beitbridge town status as part of government’s efforts to fulfill "the objectives of NEDPP" and "create a favourable image of the country".

It was hardly surprising therefore that none of the 82 stories the official media carried on indicators of economic decline (ZBH [37] and the Press [45]) linked them to government’s apparent inability to manage the economy.

The reports narrowly blamed the country’s economic woes on businesses and "illegal sanctions" that the West had allegedly imposed on Zimbabwe.

For example, Radio Zimbabwe (5/6, 6am &1pm) and official dailies (8/6) unquestioningly reported the Ministry of Industry impotently outlawing the recent bread price hikes and threatening to take action against bakers without fully examining the reasons behind the increase.

This lopsided coverage in the official media was equally evident in Spot FM’s failure (8/6, 8pm) to reconcile vice president Joice Mujuru’s statements blaming Zimbabwe’s economic mess on "sanctions" with its earlier report (5/6, 8pm) in which economist Andy Hodges revealed that Zimbabwe’s exports to the region had declined from US$700m in 1997 to the current US$200m.

The government media’s utterly passive story writing was mirrored by their dependence on government voices in their coverage of the economic crisis as shown by the official papers’ sourcing pattern. See Fig 1.

Fig. 1 Voice distribution in the government Press

Although ZBH’s sourcing pattern appeared diverse as shown in Fig 2, their stories clearly favoured government.

Fig. 2 Voice distribution on ZBH

In contrast, the private media remained forthright in their discussion of the country’s economic decline, which they continued to blame on government’s poor policies in the 42 stories they carried on the topic. Of these, 38 appeared in the private papers while Studio 7 aired four.

Studio 7 (9/6), for example, reported economist Eric Bloch proposing many alternative measures government needed to adopt to reduce inflation, which included the "genuine will to contain corruption" and reduction of government expenditure.

The Zimbabwe Independent (9/6) castigated the authorities for criminalizing price increases and disregarding the economic factors causing them. It noted that while government continued to describe price rises as "illegal", it was the one that had created the fertile ground for such "illegality".

Said the paper: "Where would industry be without the forex black market. Where did (central bank governor Gideon) Gono get the forex he bought with the $46 trillion he printed last year? Is government not the chief distributor of fuel that finds its way onto the black market? The government raised the spectre of illegality. Now it must live with it."

And while the official media avoided discussing the source of the problems blighting ZESA, the private media interpreted the matter as a reflection of government’s interference and poor management.

For instance, The Financial Gazette (8/6) viewed the problems at the government-run power utility as partly stemming from the authorities’ decision to "push aside" former company chief executive Simbarashe Mangwengwende and replace him with Sydney Gata, whom it projected as an incompetent manager who only got the post due to his closeness to "the centre of power".

The Standard (11/6) noted that the problems at ZESA were due to the authorities’ failure to provide it with adequate foreign currency.

The sourcing patterns of the private media are captured in Figs 3 and 4.

Fig. 3 Voice distribution in the private Press

Notably, except for government voices, most of which appeared in the Mirror stable, almost all other sources were quoted making unflattering remarks about the country’s poor economy.

Fig. 4 Voice distribution on Studio 7

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