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

DURING the week ZBC displayed poor news prioritisation by either censoring or burying important issues while giving less important reports headline status.

For example, while the broadcaster swamped its audiences with various trivial stories, it only carried superficial reports on the extent of drought in the country and the damage caused by Cyclone Favio. Neither did it report on the arrest of prominent people, such as government official William Nhara and the son of Zimbabwe Defence Industries boss Tshinga Dube over alleged illegal diamond deals. Nor did it report the surge in human rights violations by state security agents.

Instead, more than half the 36 headline stories all ZBC stations aired in the week were about President Mugabe’s visit to Namibia.

But such prominence did not reflect critical assessment of the visit, especially his address to various groups during his four-day stay in Windhoek. Otherwise, most of the stories were uncritical updates about Mugabe’s itinerary and deals signed between Zimbabwe and Namibia.

For example, while ZBC (28/3, 8pm) reported that the two countries had signed a power deal, it did not seek independent comment on the unlikely nature of Zimbabwe exporting energy to Namibia in exchange for the refurbishing of Hwange power station. Neither did it link the matter with previous energy deals the authorities have reportedly signed with other countries, whose benefits have still to be made apparent.

Nor did ZBC report on the demonstration by Namibian civilians against Mugabe’s controversial rule during the visit. The broadcaster’s failure to cover the visit competently was worsened by its dull presentation. For instance, seven of the nine stories ZTV carried on the subject throughout the week largely used still pictures of old photographs of Mugabe. Only two stories that appeared at the end of the week were accompanied by actual footage of the visit.

But while ZBC (26/2 & 27/2, 8pm) gave prominence to the Namibian trip, it buried important news such as the destruction caused by Cyclone Favio in Manicaland.

In fact, the closest the broadcaster came to covering the matter was when it passively cited a statement by Civil Protection Unit director Madzudzo Pawadyira announcing that the tropical storm was over.

No effort was made to investigate and give a holistic picture of the damage caused by the cyclone, despite having a bureau in the affected province. Worse still, ZTV (26/02; 6pm, 8pm & 27/02, 7am) used six-year-old footage of the ravages of Cyclone Eline to accompany Pawadyira’s statement.  

Such sloppy news management also manifested itself in the broadcaster’s coverage of the impending drought in some parts of the country, particularly Matabeleland. For example, ZTV (28/2, 6pm) buried news of imminent starvation in Matabeleland at the end of its vernacular bulletins, preferring to lead with Vice-President Joice Mujuru praising women and youths for supporting government’s land reforms. And although it quoted Matabeleland South governor Angeline Masuku calling on government to declare the province a state of disaster, no effort was made to investigate the extent of the problem.

Instead, ZTV (2/3, 6pm & 8pm) merely announced that government had imported 100,000 tonnes of maize from Zambia "as part of its efforts to avert food shortages" without discussing whether the amount was adequate.

ZBC also displayed a penchant for promoting parochial official events as newsy.

For example, ZTV (2/3, 8pm) carried as "breaking news" a report, which simply announced that Vice-President Joseph Msika had "lent his weight to the Bindura Municipality’s social safety net initiated by (its) mayor Advocate Martin Dinha…to assist the less privileged."

How such a report, with little national relevance, was accorded the breaking news status remained unexplained. 

ZBC’s bulletins were further compromised by technical glitches such as video-mix ups and poor sound quality and reading skills. Also, ZTV failed to caption its sources in almost all its 7am and 6pm bulletins.

For instance, in its report on concerns by people living with HIV and AIDS over the public stigma surrounding the disease, ZTV (3/3, 8pm) showed footage of people complaining about inadequate National Social Security Authority payouts.

Earlier, the station (1/3, 6pm) showed Social Welfare Minister Nicholas Goche strolling around his soyabean farm in a report that was supposed to show soyabean farming expert Sheunesu Mupepereki discussing the country’s projected yields of the crop. There were no apologies or corrections. These were part of seven reports with technical faults that ZTV carried in its main news bulletins. Three of these were in one 8pm bulletin of March 1^st.  

Only the government papers provided informative updates (four stories) on the damage caused by Cyclone Favio in the week.

The Sunday Mail (4/3) for instance, revealed that the repair of damaged electricity pylons alone would cost an estimated $300 million. To support this, the weekly carried pictures of some of the damage.

In addition, the government Press also carried four stories on the looming drought in Matabeleland due to low rainfall.

However, their stories were piecemeal and – like ZBC – lacked a coherent audit of the countrywide crop situation.

Except for The Financial Gazette story on the impending drought in Matabeleland, the rest of the private media ignored these issues. 

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