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Economic issues
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2007-8
Monday February 26^th 2007 – Sunday March 4^th 2007

THE government media failed to tackle the country’s economic problems as reflected by their sketchy coverage on the developments surrounding government’s planned social contract and the discord among the authorities over government’s relations with the IMF. They carried 26 stories on these issues, of which 16 featured in the government Press and 10 on ZBC’s stations. 

For instance, there was no in-depth inquiry on the implementation and likely success of the social contract, particularly in view of the sharp differences between government, business and labour – key partners in the planned project – over the causes of the country’s economic decline. Neither did these media explain why the implementation of the contract, initially scheduled for March 1^st, was deferred.

They also failed to reconcile the planned contract with previous efforts to bring together government, business and labour under the Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF) to resolve the country’s economic crisis. In fact, there was no clarity on how the social contract would relate to the TNF. 

Instead of addressing these issues, ZTV and Radio Zimbabwe (27/2, 6pm & 8pm) simply projected government and some businesses as already implementing the contract.

They passively reported that government had signed a memorandum of understanding with bus operators – "within the central bank’s idea of a social contract" – in "an effort to curb the rampant hiking of fares". The report only relied on Transport Minister Chris Mushowe and failed to seek comment from the operators or provide useful details on the agreement.

The Herald and Chronicle (28/2) also carried vague reports on the matter. Like ZBC, they did not clarify whether the agreement was part of the main social contract proposed by the Reserve Bank. 

Rather, The Sunday Mail (4/3) added more confusion to the matter when it failed to explain how the social contract related to layers of other government economic committees such the Economic Recovery Council (ERC), whose brief is "to deal in part with the controversial pricing systems that are feeding the upward inflation spiral". Reportedly, the ERC comprises ministers, permanent secretaries and representatives from the private sector under the auspices of the National Economic Development Priority Programme.

Otherwise, the government Press merely supposed that the social contract would succeed since the concept had been "successfully" effected in other countries such as the US, Germany and Israel without accounting for the different operating environments under which the scheme was implemented. 

The official media’s reluctance to openly discuss the confusion surrounding the authorities’ management of the economy resulted in ZBC censoring the introduction of new denominations of bearer cheques by the central bank. Neither did ZTV or Radio Zimbabwe report on the IMF’s continued suspension of Zimbabwe and its unflattering observations about the country’s struggling economy.

Although Spot FM (2/3, 1 & 8pm) reported the matter, this was in passing and in the context of President Mugabe’s dismissal of the IMF as irrelevant to the country’s economic revival. No attempt was made to examine the implications of his rebuke of the Fund on the country’s relations with the institution.  

Similarly, while The Herald and Chronicle (2/3) reported Mugabe dismissing the IMF’s suspension of the country as inconsequential, it did not link this to Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono’s efforts to re-engage multilateral institutions in his economic turnaround strategies.

The government papers’ 13 reports on symptoms of economic decay were also uncritical. None of them viewed the indicators of economic decline as a result of government’s economic management practices. It was in this context that The Herald and Chronicle (2/3) buried the introduction of the new $5,000 and $50,000 bearer cheques in its business section and avoided interpreting the development as reflective of the authorities’ failed policies. The rest of the papers ignored the matter and only carried central bank adverts on the security features of the new cheques. 

The government media’s uncritical coverage of the topic was reflected in their dependency on government voices as shown by the official papers’ sourcing pattern (Fig 1). 

Fig. 1 Voice distribution in the government Press

By comparison, the private media fared better in the 34 stories they carried on the economy. Of these, 26 were in the private Press while the private electronic media carried eight.

For example, the private Press and SW Radio Africa explored several obstacles that apparently rendered the realisation of a social contract as being impractical. Central to this, they argued, was the mistrust and antagonism between government, business and labour. 

The Zimbabwe Independent (2/3), for example, observed that as long as government maintained "several bad laws" that criminalised Zimbabweans, the social contract would not work as citizens would always feel that "President Mugabe’s government is not ‘in the interest of all Zimbabweans’".

In fact, in its front page story the paper attributed the authorities’ failure to launch the social contract on March 1^st as evidence that there was "no shared vision in the country".

Earlier, The Financial Gazette’s comment (1/3) disagreed with President Mugabe’s observations about the IMF, arguing that the fund was a "necessary evil" that economically troubled countries such as Zimbabwe could not do without. It said this was because donor funds "are being indexed on an individual country’s standing in global financial institutions" while membership to the IMF also sent a positive image to investors.

The Private Press’ critical nature was also reflected in the 10 stories that it carried on indicators of economic decay. Almost all the stories identified government policies as the main causes of economic decline.

For example, not only did the Independent give front-page prominence to the introduction of new bearer cheques, it interpreted the development as confirmation that the Reserve Bank’s plans to launch a new currency pinned on the hopes of a stabilising economy had collapsed due to worsening economic conditions.

The private electronic media echoed similar views.

The private papers’ critical approach was mirrored by their attempts to balance official comment with alternative views (Fig 2). 

Fig. 2 Voice distribution in private papers

Notably, the private electronic media – like ZBC – dented the credibility of their coverage of the economy as a result of their unbalanced sourcing. Whereas ZBC depended on government and business comments almost to the exclusion of independent views, the private electronic media relied on labour, analysts and the opposition and ignored government voices (Fig 3). 

Fig. 3 Voice distribution in the electronic media

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