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'Official' media stokes up hatred against political opponents
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2007-13
Monday April 2nd 2007 - Sunday April 8th 2007

THE Media Monitoring Project strongly condemns the increased use of the "official" media to stoke up hatred against political opponents of the government and their perceived allies, which has accompanied the ongoing crackdown on opposition and civic activists. For example, between March 11th and April 8th the Project monitored 48 stories in the official media that conveyed threats, incitement, racial bigotry and insults against the opposition MDC, civic leaders and some Western diplomats.

Most of these (37) appeared in the government Press while the remaining 11 were contained in ZBC bulletins (ZTV [10] and Radio Zimbabwe [1]).

Thirteen of the official papers' reports were news stories while the rest were editorials and opinion pieces.

Almost all the news stories passively quoted President Mugabe either endorsing the brutal assault and torture of opposition leaders or threatening more violence against them. For example, five days after the assault in police custody of MDC and civic leaders, ZTV (16/3, evening bulletins), The Herald and Chronicle (17/3) quoted Mugabe telling ZANU PF youths that the injured opposition leaders would "get arrested and get bashed" if they protested against government again because the "police have a right to bash".

None of them subjected these inflammatory statements to scrutiny.

Neither did they analyse the implications of his calls to ensure the police are "well armed" to counter "threats" of alleged MDC violence, nor his instruction to ZANU PF youths to "organize and defend the revolution that brought about independence".

Instead, they unquestioningly quoted him describing the youths as the party's " big hard-knuckled fist", which ZANU PF can "summon effectively, once challenged".

The Sunday Mail and Sunday News (18/3) also quoted Mugabe making similar threats against the MDC while addressing International Women's Day commemorations.

Said Mugabe: "We have given too much room to mischief-makers and shameless stooges of the West" adding that government "will not sit back and watch the opposition perpetrating 'terrorist attacks' on innocent civilians".

Undeterred by widespread world condemnation of the police brutality, Mugabe was again quoted in The Herald (24/3) telling ZANU PF Women's League that if the opposition leaders had not "learnt a lesson" they would "get similar treatment" as the police "will act very vigorously and severely on those who go on a defiance campaign".

Earlier, ZTV (23/3, 8pm) reported him using racial language to vilify the MDC leaders saying that while they were "stooges" of the West who advocated change of their skin colour he "didn't want to be pink" or have a "pink nose".

Inflammatory statements also characterized President Mugabe's address to ZANU PF supporters following the SADC extraordinary summit that discussed the Zimbabwean crisis. ZTV (30/3, 8pm) and the official dailies (31/3) quoted him justifying the severe assault on MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai saying he had "provoked" the police.

He said: "I told SADC (leaders) that yes he (Tsvangirai) was beaten up. He was thoroughly beaten up. I told them that the police thoroughly beat him. I didn't hide that. You ask for it when you go and challenge the police, especially at the police station".

But rather than condemn such statements and discuss their negative ramifications (not least their role in undermining the public's perception of the country's justice system), the official papers carried 24 editorials and opinion pieces that endorsed the severe beatings of the MDC activists; called on the authorities to maintain their brutal treatment of the opposition and even threatened some diplomats accused of bankrolling the opposition with deportation and death.

The three articles by The Herald's vituperative columnist, Nathaniel Manheru, whom the private media claim is a pen name for Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba, typified their tone. Manheru ridiculed the injured opposition leaders and the murdered MDC activist Gift Tandare; made sexually abusive comments about the injured female MDC activists and invariably insulted Tsvangirai, Ambassadors Christopher Dell (United States) and Andrew Pocock (UK), and independent MP Jonathan Moyo.

Notably, Manheru found allies in the form of other abusive Herald columnists such as Caesar Zvayi, Reason Wafawarova and David Samuriwo, whose articles also contained venomous attacks against government opponents and their perceived allies.

For example, Herald columnist Samuriwo accused a senior British diplomat Gillian Dare of financing the alleged MDC violence and warned that she could be deported or end up dead (3/4). Said Samuriwo: "It will be a pity for her family to welcome her at Heathrow Airport in a body bag just like some of her colleagues from Iraq and Afghanistan".

Although the media are obliged to expose inflammatory language made by public figures, they are duty-bound to condemn it as unacceptable in a civilized society because it undermines the basic democratic concept of justice by encouraging hatred, violence, lawlessness and intolerance. Their failure to do so makes them accomplices in the erosion of a nation's fundamental human rights. The great tragedy of Zimbabwe is that instead of fulfilling this duty, the official media are actually used to endorse and promote the language of incitement and intolerance.

This week the private media carried 18 new incidents of serious rights abuses by state security agents and others unknown. These comprised the continued abductions, torture and shooting of MDC and civic activists, the harassment and beatings of university students and the killing of retired journalist Edward Chikomba.

The official media ignored these incidents.

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