Back to Index

Blair's visit & political developments
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2007-21
Monday May 28th 2007 - Sunday June 3rd 2007
June 07, 2007

THIS week the government media used the MDC leadership and British Prime Minister Tony Blair's visits to South Africa to reinforce their allegations that the two were relentlessly working together to oust government. Almost all the 33 stories the official papers carried on the country's political developments projected this slant.

The Herald (31/5), for example, announced that the two MDC leaders, Arthur Mutambara and Morgan Tsvangirai, "stole out of Zimbabwe . . . for a rendezvous with . . . Blair", who "summoned" them to help him "press South Africa to adopt a hard-line stance towards Harare".

Although the paper quoted the MDC spokesman William Bango denying these claims saying the opposition leaders were in South Africa for a "church gathering" partly organized by the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA), it insisted they had gone to meet Blair. No effort was made to seek corroboration from the British or the South Africans, or even IDASA. Instead, the next day the paper allowed Vice-President Joseph Msika to use its unsubstantiated claims to promote hatred against the opposition. He branded the MDC a "non-progressive party for renegades (and) treacherous people" who wanted "to sell out the country" by "clandestinely" flying to South Africa to meet Blair, "an international imperialist who has been rejected by his own people".

The distortions and inaccuracies contained in this statement were never revealed, quite apart from exploring the negative and intolerant effects such comments have in influencing the common man. Neither did the paper (or ZBC 31/5, 8pm) examine the underlying implications of President Mugabe's pronouncements that government would "never allow, let alone succumb, to the call for job stayaways and wildcat strikes that seek to shape the socio-economic and political life of our society" on the public's basic freedoms. They simply swamped their audiences with his praise for the police and criticism of Britain's alleged use of "shameless arm-twisting tactics . . . through the MDC" and civil society "to change events in the country".

It was against such attempts to narrowly blame Britain for all the country's problems that saw The Herald (1/6), Spot FM and Radio Zimbabwe (1/6, 8am) bury Blair's criticism of Mugabe's misrule in government's vitriolic response. As a result, they failed to relate his statements or his discussion on Zimbabwe with South African President Thabo Mbeki to growing discontent over the country's bad governance and attempts to address the problem. For instance, The Sunday Mail (3/6) simplistically interpreted Blair's endorsement of Mbeki's mediation efforts as indicative of him having been "humbled" by the South African leader.

ZTV (1/6 8pm) and The Herald (1/6) also avoided viewing the second visit by SADC executive secretary Tomaz Salamao to assess the country's economic crisis in light of widespread discontent in Zimbabwe.

Although the government Press' sourcing pattern appeared diverse as captured in Fig 3, its tone remained pro-government.

Fig. 3 Voice distribution in the government Press

A more accurate picture of Blair's visit and growing concerns on the country's worsening crisis appeared in the 34 stories the private media featured on the topic (private Press [22] and private electronic media [12]). Zimdaily.com (30/5) however, dented its coverage of the subject by claiming - like the government media - that Tsvangirai and Mutambara had gone to South Africa to meet Blair without providing evidence. The Financial Gazette (31/5) also tried to link the opposition leaders' South African visit to Blair's in its story, MDC leaders close ranks.

However, the Zimbabwe Independent (1/6) quoted Mutambara dismissing the reports as "totally false" saying they had only attended "an all-stakeholders meeting of Zimbabwean civic organizations in Pretoria" to discuss the country's problems.

An unnamed South African official concurred, saying "Blair did not meet MDC leaders as this was never on his agenda". In addition, the paper and the private electronic media (29 & 30/5) reported South African opposition parties calling on Mbeki to "toughen" his stance on Zimbabwe and include civic society, churches and business in his mediation efforts if he were to succeed in resolving the country's crisis.

In fact, the Independent reported a coalition of Zimbabwe's civic bodies as lobbying for their "inclusion in the dialogue" arguing that "the political parties currently involved did not necessarily and adequately represent the interests of all Zimbabweans".

SW Radio Africa (30/5) carried a similar report.

The private media's open coverage of the topic was illustrated by the private papers' efforts to give more space to independent views. See Fig 4.

Fig. 4 Voice distribution in the private Press

Visit the MMPZ fact sheet

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP