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Political developments
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2007-19
Monday May 14th 2007 - Sunday May 20th 2007

ALL media gave attention to increasing protests by the international community against Zimbabwe's political crisis. These included the imposition of a ban by the Australian government on its cricket team from touring Zimbabwe; a resolution by the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) to send a fact-finding mission over human rights violations in the country, debate on Zimbabwe's poor human rights record at the African Commission on Human and People's Rights (ACHPR) meeting in Ghana and the US warning to its citizens against visiting Zimbabwe. The government media carried 78 stories on these topics (ZBC [31] and government papers [47]), while the private media carried 47 (private electronic media [15] and private papers [32]). Almost all the official media's stories were basically premised on vitriolic official reactions to the developments and lacked coherent background information.

For example, 19 of the ZBC reports merely amplified official conspiracies dismissing criticism against government misrule as unwarranted interference while the remaining 12 stories were mostly routine profiles of incoming and outgoing ambassadors, which the broadcaster portrayed as a show of world solidarity with Zimbabwe against Western plots to isolate the country.

It was against this propagandist coverage of the international community's displeasure with the country's political crisis that saw the official media drown the reasons behind Australian Prime Minister John Howard's banning of his country's cricket team from its tour of Zimbabwe in anti-Western rhetoric.

The Herald (14, 15, 16 & 18/5), ZTV (14/5, 1pm, 8pm) and Chronicle (16/5) simply carried or expanded on official tirades against the Australian government without remotely balancing it with alternative opinions. The Herald (14/5), for example, reported Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu accusing Howard of trying to "please the British . . . which is leading a crusade in demonizing Zimbabwe" while his deputy, Bright Matonga, described the Australian move as "a racist ploy to kill" local cricket.

ZTV (14/5, 8pm) quoted Ndlovu and Media and Information Commission chairman Tafataona Mahoso expressing similar sentiments.

None of the claims were verified.

The Chronicle (16/5) simply amplified government's offensive against Australia, questioning why Howard was concerned with human rights in Zimbabwe when his country "was possibly built by Aboriginal slave labour". It was against such attempts to depict Australia as "the most racist country" that The Herald (18/5) used old pictures of Aborigines just to buttress its claims that Howard's "forebears, and kith and kin" had "annihilated at least 90 percent of the Aborigine population" between "1788 and 1972".

The source of these statistics remained unclear.

Earlier, The Herald (15/5) avoided reporting accurately or adequately on the reasons and implications of the public warning issued by the US government relating to Zimbabwe's deteriorating situation. It only referred to it in the context of government dismissing the report as having "failed to achieve the intended purposes in the past". Neither did the paper (19/5), ZTV (17/5, 8pm) and Spot FM (18/5, 6am) explain the circumstances under which Foreign Affairs Secretary Joey Bimha announced government would only "co-operate with . . . Mbeki's mediation efforts" and "brook no foreign interference or any parallel initiative".

ZTV (17/5, 8pm) and Spot FM (18/5, 6am) vaguely mentioned that the PAP and EU-ACP were working on sending a fact-finding delegation to Zimbabwe to assess the situation first hand. The pattern remained unbroken in the official media's reportage of the deliberations of the ACHPR 41st ordinary session in Ghana: It was solely hinged on the observations of Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, who was reported branding private radio stations and civic society organisations as regime-change activists while simultaneously playing down human rights violations by government (ZTV 17/5, 8pm, The Herald 19/5 and Spot FM 19/5, 1pm).

Chinamasa's allegations went unchallenged.

Notably, none of the official papers interpreted these political developments as indicative of the growing discontent over the authorities' bad governance. This lopsided news presentation resulted in the government media narrowly celebrating the appointment of Environment and Tourism Minister Francis Nhema as chairman of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development as the "final nail in Britain's futile efforts to demonize the country" (Spot FM 17/5, 8pm and The Herald 18/5).

How this was so, they did not say. Neither did they openly discuss the reasons behind the "strong objections" to Zimbabwe's chairmanship that resulted in the world body putting its "election" of Nhema, which was "supposed to be by acclamation", to the vote. The official media also simplistically used British Premier Tony Blair's resignation and the African Union's campaign to have President Mugabe invited to the Lisbon AU-EU summit to claim diplomatic victory against Western machinations to isolate the country. Details on the exact circumstances leading to these developments were either distorted or censored. In fact, attempts by government and the media it controls to present the country's problems as exclusively stemming from Blair resulted in the official papers carrying several stories the previous week that celebrated his resignation - under a purely democratic process - as signifying defeat for his alleged "disastrous policies", and by extension victory for Zimbabwe.

ZBC's dependence on official pronouncements in covering the topic is shown in Fig 1.

Fig. 1 Voice distribution on ZBH

Basically, all the voices of the foreign diplomats were reported in the context of supporting Zimbabwe against alleged Western machinations.

Although the official Press quoted a significant number of sources outside government as shown in Fig 2, they were mostly buried in government responses.

Fig. 2 Voice distribution in the government Press

The private media largely filled in the information gap left by the government media through its categorical interpretation of Zimbabwe's growing pariah status. For example, SW Radio Africa (16 &17/5) and online news agency Zimbabwe Times (15, 17 & 19/5) revealed how Zimbabwe had become a subject of debate for its human rights abuses at the ACHPR meeting. SW Radio Africa (16/5) quoted Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights acting director, Irene Petras, who attended the session, saying the African NGO Forum had adopted a resolution on Zimbabwe that cited numerous on-going violations.

NewZimbabwe.com (14/5) quoted Howard justifying his decision to bar the national cricket team from touring Zimbabwe. It quoted him saying the Australian team should not be seen condoning Mugabe's "Gestapo" regime, which had impoverished the country, adding: "I have no doubt that if the tour goes ahead, it will be an enormous boost for this grubby dictator".

In addition, the private media quoted various observers who speculated that the Australian position could mark the beginning of an international sport boycott over the worsening human rights situation in the country. The Standard (20/5), for example, viewed the banning of the Australian tour as "the first clear sign Zimbabwe is in trouble" and "in danger of further isolation". The paper also reported that the Canadian Senate had "unanimously" passed a motion to "cut diplomatic ties with Zimbabwe in protest (against) human rights excesses . . . " Earlier, the Zimbabwe Independent (18/5) reported Australian officials vowing to exert more pressure on Mugabe.

The private media also projected Nhema's UN appointment as ill-timed in view of government's poor policies that have driven the country's economy into the ground.

These included the negative repercussions of government's purge of the urban poor under Operation Murambatsvina that left 700 000 citizens homeless; violent land seizures that destroyed agriculture and food security; and the mismanagement of the economy that has caused Zimbabwe to have the highest inflation in the world (Zimbabwetimes.com 14/5 and the Independent). In fact, SW Radio Africa (14/5) pointed out that Nhema himself had failed to run a farm he seized in Karoi and during his tenure the country had witnessed the collapse of conservancies and a rise in poaching.

The private media's candid coverage of these issues was mirrored by their balanced sourcing pattern as shown in Fig 3 and 4.

Fig. 3 Voice distribution in the private papers

Fig. 4 Voice distribution in the private electronic media

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