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Economic meltdown
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2006-38
Monday September 18^th 2006 - Sunday September 24^th 2006

DURING the week the media carried 174 reports on the country’s economic crisis.

The official media carried 106 of these, 51 of which were aired by ZBH and 55 by government papers. The private media featured the remaining 68 stories (private papers [57] and private electronic media [11]).

The government-controlled media stories once again avoided addressing the root causes of the economic problems by passively presenting them as stemming from unwarranted Western economic sanctions as well as crooked businesses who "illegally" hiked the prices of their products.

There was no reference to government’s involvement in the economic rot.

This professional dishonesty was mirrored by their coverage of government’s crackdown on businesses, the doling out of funds and resources by the Reserve Bank, corruption at the government-run steel company, ZISCO, and indicators of economic malaise.

Only the private media critically examined these issues.

Crackdown on business executives
THE official media passively reported on the arrest and detention of business executives for allegedly increasing commodity prices without government consent in the 37 stories they carried on the subject (ZBH [21] and official papers [16]).

No attempt was made to assess the underlying impact of the action on industry and the availability of basic commodities.

Neither did these media analyse the reasons behind the price increases nor the practicality of the authorities’ bureaucratic procedures requiring manufacturers to apply for permission before increasing the price of basic goods, especially in Zimbabwe’s hyperinflationary environment.

Instead, they simply depicted the government’s strong-arm reaction to the price increases as being carried out in "good faith" and meant to "protect ordinary consumers from the escalating prices of goods" (The Herald 18/9).

And despite the paper (19/9) revealing that the court had "lambasted" the police for being "overzealous" in arresting and "unlawfully detaining" the industrialists for increasing prices "in the best interest of their companies", it still passively reported the police warning of more arrests if businesses hiked "prices without government approval" (21/9).

Earlier, Radio Zimbabwe (18/9,6am) and Spot FM (18/9, 7am) reported on the same threats.

Notably, the concerns of businesses were sidelined.

For example, while ZTV (19/9, 8pm) cited a baker justifying the increase in the price of bread on the grounds that they were getting their fuel from the expensive parallel market, it drowned his concerns in mostly emotional comments by nine members of the public who were unhappy with the "unjustified" increases.

Besides, it avoided connecting government to the economic decline.

For example, the station did not follow up on economist David Mupamhadzi’s calls for dialogue between industry and government to ensure that "bread is available" and that the bakery industry "remains viable". Neither did it explore Luxon Zembe’s suggestion that government should "identify and finance farmers who are capable of producing wheat in sufficient quantities".

Similarly, The Herald (19/9) did not pay much attention to business representative Anthony Mandiwanza’s condemnation of the arrests of his colleagues. His comments were relegated to the end of its story.

The suffocation of the views of the business community on the subject was reflected in ZBH’s sourcing as shown in Fig 1.

Table 1:Voice Distribution on ZBH

The national broadcaster appeared more interested in giving more publicity to selected members of the public, who together with official voices accused the businesses of profiteering.

Except for one Daily Mirror story (18/9), which echoed the official media stance, the rest of the 11 reports the private media carried were forthright on the negative implications of the arrests on the country’s struggling economy.

Of these, four appeared in the private electronic media and the rest in private papers.

The Financial Gazette (21/9) and Zimbabwe Independent (22/9), for example, reported the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) castigating government over the arrests, noting that they were "unprecedented".

Earlier, SW Radio Africa (18/9) reported economic analysts criticising government’s crackdown on businesses saying it was just an "attempt to treat symptoms rather than the disease".

The Standard (24/9) agreed, noting that government’s imposition of price controls would not "improve anything" but would instead "worsen shortages of basic commodities and bring about further hardships".

Government "donations"
THE official media’s unquestioning celebration of government’s ad hoc attempts to arrest economic decline manifested itself in their coverage of the central bank’s allocation of funds and resources to various ministries throughout the week.

Their reports showed no curiosity about the source of the money and whether it was budgeted for. There was also no effort to establish whether the money was being given out as loans or mere donations.

Only Studio 7 (19/9) went the extra mile by citing a "senior Finance Ministry official" as saying the state printing presses "have been running non-stop in an effort to meet demand for money by government officials".

Otherwise, the official media simply presented the allocation of funds as an illustration of the authorities’ commitment to resolving the crisis. For instance, The Herald (18&19/9) passively reported that the Reserve Bank had given the Ministry of Water Resources $250 million for the repair of Morton Jaffray Water Treatment Plant and another $215 million to the Zimbabwe National Water Authority for the provision of water to Harare.

In similar fashion, the Chronicle (20/9) and ZTV (20/9, 8pm) passively reported that the Reserve Bank had also donated 304 vehicles, which the bank had bought for its controversial Operation Sunrise, to various ministries as well as 20 million litres of diesel to government’s militarised farming venture, Operation Maguta.

While The Herald (21/9) buried in its business section news that the government-run TelOne, which owed Intelsat about US$710 000, had sought a financial bailout from the RBZ, the private media revealed that Zimbabwe’s main Internet connections had actually been shut down because of the debt (New Zimbabwe.com and SW Radio Africa 19/9).

The story was part of several the private media carried exposing the myriad economic difficulties in the country.

They included the Independent’s criticism of the RBZ’s vehicle and money hand-outs to non-productive sectors of the economy while industry, telecommunications and local authorities were facing a crisis due to hard currency shortages.

However, like the official Press, the Mirror group’s coverage remained uncritical.

Corruption
ALL media, except ZBH, reported on parliamentary revelations on corruption at the Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (ZISCO) involving an unspecified number of unnamed "influential politicians".

However, the government Press just treated the disclosures at face value.

For example, The Herald (18, 21/9) and Chronicle (21/9) simply accepted the justification by Industry and Trade Minister Obert Mpofu of a "temporary freeze on making public the report on the corrupt activities" on the grounds that it would scare away investors.

Although the papers noted concerns by MDC MP Edwin Mushoriwa that the decision to withhold the sleaze findings "flew in the face of the government’s fight against corruption giving the perception that the State was trying to sweep corruption under the carpet," they did not follow this up.

As a result, no attempt was made to scrutinise the negative ramifications of such a decision.

This only appeared in the private Press.

The Zimbabwe Independent, for example, reported observers questioning the suppression of the ZISCO report saying its "publication…could actually help to portray government in good light as it would show a new attitude of zero-tolerance for corruption".

Earlier, The Financial Gazette, in a similar story, quoted Mpofu revealing that the Indian Global Steel Holdings, which planned to invest about US$400 million into the company had "withdrawn" from the deal after it was "angered" by the "way it was treated as it endeavoured to get an insight into the operations of the company".

ZTV (20/9, 8pm) downplayed the reasons for the fall-out, attributing them generally to a "management contract" disagreement.

Indicators of economic decay
ALTHOUGH the government papers carried 39 stories on symptoms of economic distress, they dodged linking them to government’s poor economic management.

Instead, they diverted attention from this fact by amplifying government claims that the decline was a result of Western sanctions and unscrupulous business people.

It was against this background that they suffocated the IMF’s gloomy projections of the country’s economic future.

The Herald (19/9), for example, selectively highlighted positive remarks by IMF Africa Department official Siddharth Tiwari saying there was "substantial goodwill on the part of the international community to help Zimbabwe".

ZBH censored the issue.

The only reference the broadcaster made to it was when it passively quoted President Mugabe taking a "swipe" at the fund and accusing "powerful nations" of "blocking investment into Zimbabwe" (ZTV and Spot FM 21/9,7am).

Only the private media exposed the IMF’s unflattering assessments of Zimbabwe’s economic prospects (Studio 7 and NewZim.com 18/9, the Gazette 21/9 and Independent 22/9).

Studio 7 (19/9) for example, cited the Fund warning that the country’s inflation risked soaring to 4 000 percent by 2007 if the government did not embark on sound economic reforms.

However, The Herald (20/9) glossed over this projection in a report headlined, Technical drop in inflation anticipated. The story quoted analyst Erich Bloch claiming that on the contrary, he expected inflation to "run below 300 percent by end of 2007" due to the anticipated rise in "agriculture output" and contained government expenditure.

There was no attempt to reconcile his forecasts with the problems bedevilling the country’s preparations for the coming farming season and government’s documented overspending.

The private media maintained their critical perspective in the 50 stories they carried on indicators of economic decline. They continued to categorically finger government’s poor policies as the root cause of the country’s economic distress, characterised by the spiralling cost of living, commodity shortages, increasing domestic debt and shrinking production.

The difference in the manner in which the government and the private papers tackled these economic issues was mirrored by their sourcing patterns as captured in Figs 2 and 3.

As has become the norm, the official Press relied more on government voices in their coverage. Although they sought comment from several other sources, these largely toed the official line.

Fig. 2 Voice distribution in the government Press

The private papers appeared to have carried more government voices, but most (12) were featured in the Mirror group stories that simply rehashed official pronouncements on the economy. Otherwise, the rest tried to balance government views with alternative comment.

Fig. 3 Voice distribution in the private Press

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