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News
censorship and under-coverage
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media
Update 2006-35
Monday
August 28th 2006 - Sunday September 3rd 2006
THIS week the mainstream
media either underplayed pertinent national developments or censored
them altogether. This was illustrated by their awful coverage of
the Victoria Falls train crash, the forthcoming council and parliamentary
by-elections, the demonstration by the leadership of the Morgan
Tsvangirai-led faction of the MDC and government’s appeal for humanitarian
assistance. Only the niche market online news agencies and private
stations tried to pay attention to most of these issues.
1. Train crash
Although ZBH aired
most of the 25 stories (84%) the electronic media carried on the
train crash, these were merely event reports that were largely pegged
on the ministerial inspection of the scene of the accident. None
viewed the matter as a reflection of the deteriorating standards
of service at the government-run National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ).
Neither did the broadcaster link the disaster with several previous
accidents that have occurred on the same line or in other parts
of the country.
Instead, its reports were
mainly unquestioning amplifications of official observations on
the accident buried deep in the bulletins.
For instance, ZTV (27/8, 8pm)
belatedly carried news of the crash as its fifth item in the main
evening bulletin, preferring to lead with the arrival of visiting
Botswana President Festus Mogae. Besides, the report merely announced
that "several people are believed to have been burnt
beyond recognition when an NRZ passenger train collided head-on with
a goods train."
No coherent detail
was provided on the causes of the accident.
While Radio Zimbabwe and
Spot FM (27/8, evening bulletins) duly carried news of the crash
as a top story, they, like ZTV’s, were delayed reports. And rather
than independently verify the official claims on the causes of the
accident or openly discuss its economic and human cost, ZBH drowned
its audiences in the authorities’ promises to financially assist
the victims and urgently clear the accident wreckage (28-30/8, 6
& 8pm).
The official papers’ six
stories on the subject were equally appalling.
Except for the Chronicle
(28/8), which carried the disaster as its front-page lead story,
its sister papers did not consider that it deserved such prominence.
The Herald only reported the crash the following day and
relegated it to page two. Even then, it was a small report borrowed
from the Chronicle’s follow-up story (29/8). Notably, like
ZBH, the papers’ reports lacked independent investigations into
the cause of the crash. They only fed on official explanations attributing
it to "common human error", alleging
the driver of the passenger train had deliberately ignored a phone
call advising him to stop at Dibamombe Junction to give way to an
oncoming goods train.
No attempt was made to question
whether traffic signals that are usually designed to alert train
drivers of such dangers were working.
It was against this background
that the Chronicle (29/8) comment limited itself to calling
on the authorities to "deal with undisciplined employees
to curb railway accidents" without holistically
assessing the root causes of the increasing number of train derailments.
The official media’s reluctance
to frankly discuss the subject resulted in them failing to challenge
government on why it still had not publicized the results of its
inquiries into similar accidents, particularly the 2004 Dete train
disaster.
Such professional deficiency
was illustrated by their over-dependence on official comment as
mirrored by ZBH’s sourcing pattern (Fig 1).
Fig. 1 Voice distribution
on ZBH
| Govt |
Zanu
PF |
Police |
Witnesses
|
| 17 |
3 |
4 |
3 |
The private Press coverage
of the calamity was no better. Only one story on the disaster appeared
in The Daily Mirror (30/8). To make matters worse,
the report covered the accident in the context of the NRZ setting
up a commission of inquiry to investigate the matter. And like the
official media, it did not ask the fate of previous investigations
into other crashes.
It was only online agencies
and Studio 7’s five stories that fairly handled the matter.
They reported the accident
in the light of previous crashes, which they viewed as an example
of the country’s deteriorating standards of service delivery.
New Zimbabwe.com summed up
their slant. The agency carried three stories on the issue, highlighting
the causes of the crash, its human cost and the general collapse
of the country’s railway infrastructure. It also carried several
photos that captured the extent of the tragedy.
The private electronic media’s
sourcing pattern is shown in Fig 2.
Fig. 2 Voice distribution
in the private electronic media
| Govt |
Zanu
PF |
MDC |
Witnesses
|
| 1 |
1 |
3 |
1 |
2. Elections
The media’s coverage
of the forthcoming elections was equally inadequate.
The official media carried
22 stories on the topic, of which 19 were on ZBH and the remaining
three in the government papers.
The private media featured
only two stories.
Although the government
media appeared to have significantly covered the subject, none of
the stories critically examined the country’s electoral process,
which the authorities have been accused of manipulating to ensure
a ZANU PF victory.
Rather, almost all the stories
were passive reports on the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC)’s
preparations for the polls and ZANU PF’s campaign activities.
Typically, other parties
and contestants were ignored.
As a result, government
media’s audiences remained uninformed on the mechanics governing
the conduct of the elections such as the state of the voters’ rolls,
location of polling booths or the stringent measures and exorbitant
fees government had set for aspiring candidates. They only gleaned
some of this information from three ZEC advertisements on the dates
the nomination courts would sit and the inspection of the voters’
roll, which appeared in The Herald (30/8 & 1-2/9).
The private media were worse.
Except for the two stories
that appeared in The Daily Mirror (30/8) and SW Radio Africa
(28/8), the rest ignored the topic. While The Mirror’s report
was a mere ZEC statement announcing the sitting of the nomination
court for the Chikomba and Rushinga by-elections, SW Radio Africa
exposed the outbreak of political violence in Bindura ahead of the
polls. The station claimed that ZANU PF activists had "burnt
four houses" belonging to MDC supporters resulting
in "the death" of one person.
It quoted MDC officials
accusing ZANU PF officials Elliot Manyika and Ephraim Masawi of
fanning violence in the area saying the two were angered by the
fact that the opposition would field candidates in all Bindura wards.
The police reportedly confirmed Manyika’s culpability.
In addition, the report
revealed that ZEC was not ready to run rural council elections due
to a lack of funds. None of the media discussed how this undermines
the basic democratic process.
3. MDC march
The government media’s
audiences were also kept in the dark on a demonstration by the MDC
faction leader Morgan Tsvangirai and his party’s national executive
against the country’s worsening economic crisis. Only online agencies
(1/8) and The Standard (3/8) covered the event. They reported
that the protest march began at the party’s Harvest House offices
and ended at Parliament where the group handed a petition in for the
attention of Speaker of Parliament, John Nkomo, demanding "better
living conditions" for Zimbabweans
"suffering under the yoke of ZANU PF oppression".
4. Government’s humanitarian aid appeal
Also, it was only the private media (private electronic media [30/8]
and the Zimbabwe Independent [1/9]) that exposed government’s
appeal for a further US$257 million in humanitarian aid to address
the crisis in health and education sectors as well as cushion vulnerable
groups from the worsening economic conditions.
The official media simply
censored this appeal.
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fact
sheet
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