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Unprofessional
conduct
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media
Update 2006-48
Monday November 27th
2006 – Sunday December 3rd 2006
IN recent days the official media reinforced
its reputation for being a source of unreliable information by a
number of false reports, including "news" that a Chinese
company was about to buy a majority shareholding in the financially-troubled
steel-making giant, Zisco; that South Africa had relaxed its stringent
visa requirements for Zimbabweans; and that private schools had
"lost" their bid to increase school fees. Besides misrepresenting
facts on these matters, they also censored stories that reflected
badly on government or the ruling party, such as fresh reports of
human rights violations during the week and breaking news about
former Information Minister Jonathan Moyo’s defamation lawsuit.
Only those who accessed the private
media had the privilege of getting accurate information about these
issues.
a. Distortions and misrepresentations
As the week opened, The Herald and
Chronicle (27/11) announced that the Metallurgical Corporation
of China (MCC) had "put a US$3 billion bid for a 60 percent
stake in Ziscosteel" following a "meeting
held between the Government of Zimbabwe and MCC officials in October".
The paper quoted Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to China Christopher
Mutsvangwa confirming the "investment deal"
saying the Chinese company was "very serious about
the bid" and was "ready to move in as soon
as the deal is agreed to" by government. Spot FM
(27/11, 8am) carried a similar report claiming the alleged takeover
would restore Zisco status "as the biggest steel manufacturer
in Africa south of the Sahara."
However, the next day Reuters, in a
story that appeared on ZWNews, reported MCC officials denying the
claims saying the company had not bid for a majority stake in Zisco.
One of the unnamed officials told the
agency: "There’s no such thing. We haven’t bid for it
at all". Although The Financial Gazette (30/11) also
reported the MCC denying making moves for Zisco, it unprofessionally
presented the report as their own and failed to acknowledge Reuters
as the original source of the story. Despite the denial, the government
media made no visible effort to correct its original story.
Such unprofessional journalistic conduct
was also apparent in the manner in which they handled debate on
South African visa requirements. For instance, although The Herald
(29/11) reported the SA embassy refuting claims that its government
had relaxed "stringent visa requirements for Zimbabweans",
it did not categorically explain that this was in response to
misleading reports carried in the official media quoting Zimbabwe
government officials stating that SA had agreed to waive the visa
conditions for the time being. Instead, it merely attributed the
distortion to SA Defence Minister Mosioua Lekota, whom it said,
had told "reporters in Victoria Falls last week"
that his country had "temporarily scrapped"
the requirements. ZTV and Radio Zimbabwe simply ignored the
SA government’s statement clarifying the matter.
Earlier, The Herald (28/11) continued
to misrepresent the implications of last week’s ruling in a case
in which the Association of Trust Schools (ATS) sought the court’s
intervention to increase fees after government barred it from doing
so.
Instead of openly informing its readers
that the judgement on the matter was only temporary as Justice Antonia
Guvava had ordered private schools to first "exhaust
all…channels" available to them under the Education
Act before seeking the court’s intervention, the paper maintained
that the ATS had "lost" its case. It was
such distortions that prompted Muchraker, the Zimbabwe Independent
columnist to note that a "‘believe it at own risk’ caveat
would help Herald readers", adding that "luckily"
for the paper "when such things happen (Media
and Information Commission chairman) Tafataona Mahoso conveniently
goes deaf and mute".
b. Omissions and censorship
The official media also censored news stories or simply omitted
important detail in the contemporary stories they did carry. Their
coverage of the defamation case in which Moyo is suing senior ZANU
PF officials John Nkomo and Dumiso Dabengwa for libel is a case
in point. For example, while the Chronicle did report on
the court proceedings, The Herald and ZBC simply suppressed the
developments. Even then, the Chronicle censored detail that cast
the ruling party in a bad light. For example, it (28-30/11) suffocated
Nkomo’s evidence that attempts in 2004 by Moyo and other ZANU PF
members to oust Vice-President Joseph Msika from the party’s leadership
would have split the ruling party. This only appeared in the private
media.
The Financial Gazette (30/11),
for example, reported Nkomo as having told the court that the removal
of Msika would have ended the "fragile unity achieved
when the unity accord was signed in 1987" because "there
could not be any unity without (him)".
The government media also censored
additional human rights violations during the week. Again these
only featured in the private media, which carried 11 reports on
the matter. Of these, five were new abuses while the rest were follow-up
reports on previous rights violations. The incidents included the
arrest and assault of civic activists and artists, the break-up
of students’ meetings by the police, farm invasions and the use
of the youth militia to enforce price controls. The Gazette revealed
that it was due to such violations that the UN Special Rapporteur
on Torture Manfred Nowak "could visit Zimbabwe in the
new year" to assess the situation on the ground.
c. Poor news management
Apart from censoring and misrepresenting important stories, ZBC also
displayed poor news management during the week. Its evening bulletins
of November 28th epitomised the broadcaster’s dismal journalistic
standards. For example, ZTV (28/11, 6pm) claimed that 150 Air Force
of Zimbabwe officers were benefiting from a poultry project Vice-President
Joice Mujuru had started in Manyame. However, an officer the station
quoted complained that the project had stalled due to lack of chicks
and stockfeed. In its 8pm bulletin, the station’s reporter Reuben
Barwe used standard diplomatic etiquette to gloss over the country’s
isolation. He deceitfully interpreted the normal presentation of credentials
to President Mugabe by incoming French and Kenyan ambassadors to mean
that Zimbabwe "still has many friends out there
who recognise her strategic position on the African continent."
That same evening, ZTV and Radio Zimbabwe
passively reported Education Minister Aeneas Chigwedere announcing
that as from January 2007 all schools would be required to teach
both Shona and Ndebele. The stations did not ask how the schools
were expected to implement the policy when – by the minister’s own
admission – there was a lack of Ndebele teachers in Shona-speaking
areas. Instead, the next morning ZTV falsely claimed that ATS chairman
Jameson Timba had welcomed the minister’s decree "as
a noble idea that promotes unity" when he actually
opposed the policy saying it was virtually impossible to implement.
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