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Political developments
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2007-11
Monday March 19th – Sunday March 25th 2007

DURING the week the official media distorted and censored news stories and used editorials to drown regional and international concerns about government’s crackdown on the MDC leadership and the general deterioration in Zimbabwe’s human rights record.

Almost all the 187 stories they carried on the matter (ZBC [61] and government papers [126]) accused government’s critics of employing double standards in their criticism of government actions while ignoring the MDC’s alleged "orgies of violence", which they claimed, were part of the West’s machinations to overthrow government using a surrogate opposition. To buttress this slant, they selectively amplified sympathetic statements by prominent Africans, such as former Zambian presidents Frederick Chiluba and Kenneth Kaunda, criticising Western countries for being hypocritical in their dealings with Zimbabwe while blacking out expressions of concern by other important regional figures. For example, they censored condemnation of the country’s deteriorating political crisis by Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, SA opposition parties, the African Union and SADC NGOs, among a chorus of other disapproving voices.

In addition, the official media censored news of the nationwide crackdown on opposition, civic and labour leaders and civilians by state security agents while simultaneously magnifying cases of alleged MDC violence, which they linked to the West. For example, these media reported the alleged petrol bombing of a Mutare police station and a passenger train by "suspected MDC activists" as politically motivated, but presented the brutal beating of the MDC’s Nelson Chamisa by suspected state security agents at Harare International Airport while on his way to an ACP-EU meeting as a common act of mugging.

In the same vein, the official media attempted to justify the heavy-handed manner in which police barred MDC officials Grace Kwinjeh and Sekai Holland (both brutally beaten by the police in detention following the foiled Save Zimbabwe Campaign rally) from flying to South Africa for medical attention by presenting them as fugitives from justice.

It was in this light that The Herald and Chronicle (20/3) and Spot FM (20/3, 1pm) made no attempt to investigate the context in which local Western ambassadors had allegedly offered support to the opposition victims of police brutality and how they had violated the Vienna Convention as claimed by government. They simply reported Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi accusing the diplomats of engaging in "politically-motivated actions calculated to generate cheap propaganda", which was "tantamount to unwarranted political interference". The briefing followed President Mugabe’s instruction to the minister to summon the diplomats and "read the riot act to them". Neither did they seek comment from US ambassador, Christopher Dell, on the reason why he had walked out of the ‘briefing’ except to speculate that it was meant to "incite other ambassadors" to do the same.

Otherwise, the government media passively justified, and even encouraged, more state repression against the opposition on the basis of its unproven links with the West’s alleged regime change agenda. They carried several comments ranging from the Presidium, Cabinet ministers, war veterans and ordinary members of ZANU PF accusing the West and its MDC "stooges" for the country’s problems.

ZTV (23/3, 8pm), for example, reported President Mugabe alleging that the MDC "was formed to wrestle power from ZANU PF to further the interest of the former coloniser (Britain)", adding that opposition activists had been paid between US$10,000 and $60,000 to launch a campaign of violence in the country.

No evidence for this was given.

Earlier (22/3), The Herald’s Caesar Zvayi maintained – despite previous denials by both Dell and the MDC – that the alleged violence by the opposition party followed a strategic meeting the two parties held "two months ago". In addition, Zvayi tried to divert attention from the police’s fatal shooting of MDC activist Gift Tandare by presenting the activist, including the late MDC spokesman, Learnmore Jongwe, as personifications of ‘unruliness’ in the opposition party.

ZBC’s one-sided handling of the topic was reflected in its sourcing pattern as shown in Fig 1.

Fig 1 Voice distribution on ZBH

Notably, all those accused of fanning the political crisis in Zimbabwe, such as the MDC and the West, were not given the right of reply. The broadcaster basically gave space only to those diplomats making favourable comments about the country.

Although the government papers' voice distribution appeared diverse (Fig 2), their stories remained unbalanced because almost all their sources were used in the context of vilifying the West and the opposition.

Fig. 2 Voice distribution in the government Press

Fig. 4 Voice distribution in the private Press

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