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Stay away
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2007-13
Monday April 2nd 2007 - Sunday April 8th 2007

THIS week the government media politicized the objectives of a two-day national job protest by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) by presenting it as part of alleged clandestine Western moves to overthrow government. For instance, none of the 71 stories these media carried on the matter (ZBC [44] and official papers [27]) reported the exact purpose of the strike, aimed at protesting against worsening economic conditions.

Instead, they just covered it in the context of pre-emptive and unsubstantiated conspiracies that projected the ZCTU as having abandoned its "mandate" by joining the alleged MDC/West crusade to 'illegally' oust government (Spot FM 2/4, 8pm).

For example, a day before the strike The Herald (2/4) widely quoted government authorities, a group calling itself the "Concerned ZCTU Affiliates" and unnamed members of the public dismissing the strike as "illegal", "unwarranted and counterproductive political posturing".

The Herald (2/4), for example, cited the ZCTU "affiliates" as having "blasted" the ZCTU for "calling on workers to rally behind a patently political mission". There was no elaboration on what they meant. Instead, the official media just quoted government ministers Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, Webster Shamu, Obert Mpofu and Nicholas Goche expanding on these unsubstantiated claims.

The Herald (2/4) also cited "various people" contending that they would "proceed with their normal business" as they were "tired of being used as cannon fodder by individuals keen to line their pockets". Notably, none of the "people" quoted were identified and reasons for hiding their identities remained a mystery.

Similarly, in an effort to depict Zimbabweans as being against the boycott Spot FM (3/4, 1pm) and ZTV (3/4, 8pm) reported that the "stay-away was widely condemned by all sectors of the country", without naming the sectors.

The government dailies (4&5/4) and Spot FM (4/4, pm) presented the alleged "flop" of the stay-away as a demonstration of Zimbabweans' displeasure with ZCTU's political agenda. No attempt was made to holistically link the 'failure' to harsh economic conditions or the alleged intimidation of workers by state security agents.

In fact, while the government media reported approvingly on the alleged failure of the strike, it did not reconcile this with Minister Mpofu's threats to take "uncomfortable" measures against "all companies that closed shop or turned their workers away in support of the ZCTU stay-away, which was a flop" (The Herald 5/4; Radio Zimbabwe 5/4, 1pm; ZTV 5/4, 6pm and Spot FM 5/4, 8pm). Neither did they examine the effects of such threats on the country's struggling industry.

The government media's sourcing patterns are shown in Figs 1 and 2

Fig. 1 Voice distribution in the government Press

Fig. 2 Voice distribution on ZBH

Although the official media's voice distribution appeared diverse, their coverage remained unbalanced as all the voices, except those of the ZCTU, were quoted echoing the official line. ZBC simply blacked out all ZCTU voices.

The private Press was generally reticent on the stay-away. Only The Zimbabwean (5/4) and The Standard (8/4) carried stories in their news pages. The Zimbabwe Independent (5/4) dealt with the subject through its columnists while The Financial Gazette ignored it.

However, the private electronic media devoted more attention to the stay-away in 17 reports. They mainly blamed the "mixed results" of the industrial action to the "desperate campaign of misinformation and threats by the government to thwart the boycott" (Studio 7 3/4 and Zimbabwe Times 3, 4/4).

For example, Studio 7 reported that police had ordered businesses, such as Border Timbers in Mutare, to stay open. In addition, the station and Zimbabwe Times (4/4) revealed how on the eve of the stay-away the police had ordered beer halls to close early, and beat up patrons and anyone seen loitering in several high density suburbs of Harare. The two media organisations (3/4) also reported on the arrests of ZCTU provincial chairmen for Kariba, Chinhoyi and Bulawayo before the stay-away.

The government media ignored these events.

However, Studio 7 (3/4) and The Standard failed to independently verify or challenge the ZCTU leadership to provide statistical evidence on what they claimed was the "success" of the stay-away.

The private media's sourcing pattern is shown in Fig 3.

Fig. 3 Voice Distribution in the private electronic media

Notably, the private papers' failure to adequately cover the stay-away resulted in them relying on only two ZCTU voices in the five reports they carried on the matter.

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