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Political developments and conspiracies
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2007-24
Monday June 18th 2007 - Sunday June 24th 2007
June 28, 2007

THIS week ZBC censored the country's political developments reflecting displeasure with President Mugabe's misrule, preferring to swamp its audiences with routine official events. In fact, all its stations (18/6, 8pm & 23/6, 6am) only reported on Zimbabwean ambassador to South Africa Simon Khaya Moyo's calls on the media to exercise "restraint" and avoid "pushing (South African president Thabo) Mbeki to reveal progress" of his efforts to broker an internal settlement to the Zimbabwe crisis saying doing so would be "disrespectful". The context in which he made these statements was not explained.

The broadcaster blacked out the outgoing US ambassador to Zimbabwe Christopher Dell's predictions of an imminent economic collapse unless Mugabe's government reformed; an alleged economic rescue package Western governments were putting together in preparation of the post-Mugabe era; Australia's expansion of its targeted sanctions list and the inclusion of Zimbabwe on the agenda of the ACP-EU summit.

Although the government Press carried 24 reports on these issues, they were all premised on conspiracies projecting the West as bent on destabilising the country to effect "illegal" regime change.

For example, the Chronicle (19/6) distorted Dell's address at a media roundtable in Bulawayo just to portray him as having been exclusively posted to Zimbabwe to incite people to oust Mugabe "like he did in Yugoslavia when he helped topple Slobodan Milosevic". It was in this light that it deliberately misinterpreted Dell's admiration of the "resilience of Zimbabweans" for their survival skills in the face of the worsening crisis as a "grudging" admission of his mission's failure to goad them into rebelling against government. To reinforce its depiction of Dell as an agent of regime change, the paper then carried another story accusing him of "cutting short" his meeting with journalists to attend a court case in "solidarity" with two leaders of "an anti-government" Women Of Zimbabwe Arise, "accused of actions likely to cause alarm and despondency".

It was not surprising when the Chronicle and The Herald (21/6) subsequently linked his prediction of an economic "collapse" to an alleged "top secret document" by the West, purportedly comprising "a vast network of regime-change agents . . . that will spearhead acts of economic sabotage against Zimbabwe".

Notably, no coherent details of the document were presented. Rather, the papers simply presented it as evidence of Western plots to "incite an uprising against government".

The plot thickened at the end of the week when The Sunday Mail (24/6) related the fresh spate of price hikes to Dell's predictions of an economic meltdown, claiming that the increases "curiously" came just after the ambassador revealed he was working "tirelessly" with some local businesses "who indicated to him that that the real inflation figure was around 19,000 percent". And like its counterparts, the paper neither tested the ambassador's forecast against the situation on the ground nor traced the root causes of the economic instability. For example, it did not query which was credible: Dell's "wild prediction" of 1.5 million percent inflation by year-end or government's assurance that the rate would tumble to 25 percent during the same period. Instead, the paper simply quoted Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu dismissing Dell's observations, arguing: "The government of Zimbabwe is in a much stronger position now politically and economically than ever. Events on the ground speak for themselves."

The government Press' use of conspiracies to drown the international community's disapproval of government policies was also evident in attempts by The Herald and Chronicle (21/6) to present Australia's expansion of its targeted sanctions against Zimbabwe's ruling elite as part of Western machinations to oust government.

Similarly, The Herald (22/6) avoided investigating the circumstances surrounding the failure especially by two ZANU PF MPs to travel to Germany for the ACP-EU summit, preferring to narrowly peddle government's attack of the country for allegedly denying the legislators visas. Rather than verify government claims, it simply portrayed Germany Ambassador to Zimbabwe Karina Blumberger-Sauerteig as an arrogant diplomat, who, instead of personally meeting government to solve the issue, had actually travelled out of town possibly on a "subversive mission somewhere in the country". This, it claimed, was in violation of the Vienna Conventions, which dictate that "when an ambassador travels distances outside a 40-kilometre radius, they have to inform the foreign ministry".

No official comment was sought from the Germans.

There were no such conspiracies in the 28 stories the private media carried on political developments (private electronic media [19] and the private Press [9]). They reported the developments in their proper context without distortions.For example, the private electronic media (18&19/6), the Zimbabwe Independent (22/6) and The Standard (24/6) not only reported Dell's warning, but they also outlined his reasons for saying so.

For example, The Standard quoted Dell justifying his prediction of the collapse of Mugabe's government in the "next six months" thus: "Historically, no government in the world has survived a five or six-digit inflation. Zimbabwe is already enjoying that figure."

Besides, the private media carried several other reports exposing local and international concerns on the Zimbabwe crisis. These included civic and opposition leaders' trip to European countries to brief them on the situation in Zimbabwe and Portugal Foreign Affairs Minister Luis Amado's announcement that his country would not invite Mugabe for the Lisbon EU-AU summit because he was a "factor of disturbance."

And while the government papers carried 10 stories that continued to dishonestly present the MDC as the stumbling block to Mbeki's mediation efforts, the private media gave clearer details on the progress of the initiative. The Independent, for example, reported on the adoption of a "consolidated agenda" for the "critical" talks. Reportedly, these included the constitution; electoral, security and communication laws; and the political climate. The private electronic media (21&22/6) carried similar reports.

Although the government Press' sourcing pattern appeared diverse (Fig 1), it remained pro-government. For example, most of the foreign voices, like that of Dell, were reported in the context of the alleged Western plots to topple government.

Fig 1 Voice distribution in the government Press

The private media's sourcing pattern is shown in Figs 2 and 3.

Fig 2 Voice distribution in the private media

Fig 3 Voice distribution in the private Press

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