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Political developments
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2007-9
Monday March 5^th 2007 – Sunday March 11^th 2007

View Save Zimbabwe Campaign index of images and articles

THIS week all media highlighted local and international groups’ concerns on Zimbabwe’s political crisis.

The print media carried 33 stories on the subject, of which 24 featured in the official papers while nine appeared in the private Press. ZBC aired 114 stories and the private electronic media 18.

Issues covered included the International Crisis Group (ICG)’s observations on political developments in the country; the US’ renewal of its targeted sanctions against the ruling elite; the Anglican Church’s concerns over the country’s human rights record and the Save Zimbabwe Campaign’s aborted ‘prayer’ meeting in Highfield.

However, only the private media interpreted these developments as a reflection of mounting discontent over President Mugabe’s rule.

The government media narrowly reported these issues in the context of conspiracies, depicting them as unwarranted intrusions that were part of the West’s unrelenting machinations to oust Mugabe from power.

For example, these media neither reported on nor analysed the implications of the renewal of the US’ targeted sanctions. ZBC censored the development altogether while the government Press merely carried a reaction from Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu trivializing the matter as a "non-event" that was "just meant to cause upheaval among our people" (The Herald 5/3).

Likewise, the government media only hinted at the ICG’s prospects of a resolution to the country’s political stalemate through official responses.

The Herald (9/3), for example, quoted Ndlovu again dismissing the Brussels-based think-tank’s predictions on the possibility of a negotiated internal settlement in Zimbabwe due to various political developments – particularly ZANU PF squabbles over Mugabe’s succession – as a "grandiose flight of imagination" that "must be dismissed with the contempt it deserves".

ZBC (8/3, 8pm) did not perform any better. It also passively reported Ndlovu castigating ICG’s "imperialist" machinations.

Neither did the broadcaster report on the planned civic meeting by the Save Zimbabwe Campaign, a grouping of civic and political organisations, except in the context of Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena’s threats against "MDC supporters who continue to cause mayhem" in the country (Spot FM 5/3, 1pm; ZTV 5/3, 6pm; Radio Zimbabwe 5/3, 8pm).

Notably, during the week ZBC carried 21 stories that passively allowed the police to portray the MDC as violent, including the re-screening of seven-year-old footage in which MDC faction leader Morgan Tsvangirai appears advising President Mugabe to go "peacefully" or risk being removed "violently".

The broadcaster did not give the context in which Tsvangirai made these statements. Neither did its evening bulletins of the 10^th question the circumstances under which Bvudzijena claimed an insurgency by an alleged MDC underground movement, the Democratic Resistance Committee (DRC), which had been given weapons to fight the police. For example, he was not asked to provide adequate evidence of this, except to brandish a scythe-like garden implement that he said had been "surrendered" to the police by one of the DRC members.

Audiences of the official Press were left in the dark too, about the Save Zimbabwe Campaign meeting except for Bvudzijena warning the public against attending the meeting in a story he was accorded ample space to project the MDC as violent (The Sunday Mail 11/3). Like ZBC, the paper unquestioningly quoted him alleging a planned insurrection by the DRC.

Earlier, The Herald (5/3) reinforced official claims of a violent MDC by avoiding examining the political context in which the police "fought running battles" with youths aligned to the Tsvangirai MDC following the group’s announcement that it would hold a rally in the area "despite a police ban on public political gatherings and demonstrations".

It merely presented the violence as having been triggered by "thugs" who "barricaded and set bonfires on roads around Budiriro 1 Shopping Centre" without viewing the matter in light of the continued erosion of civil liberties.

It was against this background that The Sunday Mail simply presented calls by the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams on Anglican Bishop Norbert Kunonga to condemn human rights abuses in Zimbabwe as part of a "high-level campaign aimed at whipping the pro-Government clergyman into line".

ZBC censored this news.

There was equally nothing professional in the way the official media covered the President’s trip to four African states, including a stopover in Angola for "refuelling". They failed to provide their readers with details on the discussions he held with some of the African leaders.

Otherwise, the government media narrowly projected the meetings as a reflection of Zimbabwe’s good relations with its neighbours and the rest of the international community.

In contrast, the private media not only reported on the political developments, they also interpreted them as signifying renewed local and international pressure on Harare to reform.

For instance, the Zimbabwe Independent (9/3) carried a report that catalogued several demonstrations by civic activists, student leaders and opposition supporters, which it presented as part of growing discontent over government’s mismanagement of the economy. It also reported that the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions had scheduled a nationwide two-day protest in April to "force the government to arrest Zimbabwe’s eight- year-old economic meltdown".

Earlier, Studio 7 and SW Radio Africa (7/3) reported Zambia as having displayed an interest in finding a solution to the Zimbabwe crisis when it takes over the chairmanship of SADC in August. They noted that the country’s openness in urging its SADC counterparts to stop pretending that "all is well in Zimbabwe" was a first in the region.

However, the private media also failed to enlighten their audiences adequately about the motives for Mugabe’s four-nation tour.

The differences in the reporting patterns between the government and private media are reflected in their sourcing patterns as shown in Figs 1 to 4.

Fig. 1 Voice distribution on ZBC

Fig. 2 Voice distribution in the government Press

Notably, the foreign voices in government papers mainly appeared in the context of official responses to the international community’s concerns on the worsening situation in the country.

Fig. 3 Voice distribution in the private electronic media

Fig. 4 Voice distribution in the private Press

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