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Inadequate coverage
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2007-28
Monday July 16th 2007 - Sunday July 22nd 2007
July 26, 2007

WHILE the government media flooded its audiences with reports of Archbishop Pius Ncube's sexual activities, they either under-reported or censored important political developments in the country. These included factionalism within the ruling party over President Mugabe's succession, developments on the SADC-sanctioned attempts by South African President Thabo Mbeki to broker a settlement to the Zimbabwe crisis, and updates on preparations for the 2008 poll.

For example, while the government papers carried just nine stories on these issues, ZBC carried only one. Even then, these were piecemeal reports that lacked informative detail. The Sunday Mail (22/7), for example, only referred to proposed electoral reforms in the context of the planned debate on the Constitutional Amendment Bill (Number 18) when Parliament re-opens on July 24th. No further mention was made about the authorities' preparations for the elections.

Although ZBC carried a single story on the matter, this was in the context of ZANU PF Harare South MP Hubert Nyanhongo's calls on "people in his constituency" to "take advantage" of the registration exercise to " . . . register to vote in next year's harmonised elections" (ZTV, 21/07, 8pm). There was no attempt to conduct a national audit of the exercise or take the authorities to task over their failure to publicise it. Neither did the station seek the views of the political opposition or of civil society, especially in view of reports from the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) exposing problems plaguing voter registration. Instead, it carried several mundane stories on ZANU PF activities that sought to project the ruling party positively.

It was against this background that the official media censored ZANU PF's succession battles, which have reportedly divided the party into three rival factions. Neither did they provide useful updates on Mbeki's search for an internal settlement to the country's problems. The Herald and Chronicle (16/7), for example, merely covered the matter in the form of revelations in the British Parliament that Britain's new Prime Minister Gordon Brown had asked Mbeki and five other SADC states about the situation in Zimbabwe.

Details on the exact nature of the inquiry were not disclosed.

Instead, the papers simply speculated that it followed SADC's denunciation of Western sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe and Mugabe's "hope" that Brown's government "would try to improve" the "strained" relations between the two countries "over the land reforms".

Only the private media updated their audiences about Mbeki's mediation efforts.

Not only did they attribute the floundering of the talks to ZANU PF's failure to send its delegation, they also quoted South African official Ronny Mamoepa saying the ruling party had apologised to his government for failing to attend the last meeting, adding that efforts were being made to set a new date for the talks. It was in this context that the Zimbabwe Independent (20/7) argued that Mbeki, who had postponed the talks on several occasions following ZANU PF's failure to turn up for the negotiations, "has nothing tangible" to present to the SADC leaders at their meeting on August 12.

Studio 7 (16/7) made similar observations, noting that ZANU PF's failure to attend meetings had fuelled speculation that "Mbeki's efforts" were "crumbling".

In addition, the private media provided some idea of the power struggles within the ruling party itself. The Zimbabwe Times (20/7), for example, revealed that contrary to the impression created by the government media that there was unanimity in ZANU PF over Mugabe's candidature for the 2008 elections, the party's Masvingo provincial executive had "now gone back on an earlier endorsement of Mugabe's bid for re-election".

Reportedly, the executive now wanted Mugabe to "go through primary elections as stipulated in the party's election statutes." An unnamed executive member told the online agency: "Things are very terrible in the country and we cannot continue to pretend that the situation is normal", adding, "We want new people with new ideas . . . (because) the old man has shown that he will never be able to deliver".

The Zimbabwe Independent (20/7) also revealed that a faction led by Youth Development Minister Saviour Kasukuwere had allegedly begun "purging senior party officials in Mashonaland Central suspected of the supporting Vice-President Joice Mujuru's presidential aspirations" ahead of next year's elections. Earlier, The Financial Gazette (19/7) viewed Mugabe's reshuffling of permanent secretaries and heads of ministerial departments as a "precursor of changes to be made in more senior positions". These reports were part of the 19 stories the private media carried on the country's political developments. Of these, 11 appeared in the private Press while the private electronic media featured eight.

However, like the government media, the private media also failed to provide informed analysis of the electoral process, particularly the on-going voter registration exercise.

Apart from carrying ZESN's supplement on the country's electoral framework (The Standard 22/7) and its concerns over the lack of publicity on voter registration (SW Radio Africa 19/7), the private media largely ignored the subject. As a result, their audiences remained ignorant about the problems facing a fundamentally important instrument in the democratic process.

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