Back to Index

International relations
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2007-34
Monday August 27th - Sunday September 2nd 2007
September 06, 2007

Government media provided only superficial coverage of the root causes of Zimbabwe's uneasy relations with the international community and other related developments in 107 stories they carried on the topic in the week (ZBC [64] and government papers [43]). This was most evident in their treatment of MDC faction leader Morgan Tsvangirai's trip to Australia. There was no coherent discussion on the nature and agenda of the visit. The government Press especially, reported news only in the context of government's perception of Tsvangirai as a traitor who was plotting with Western countries to 'illegally' oust the ZANU PF government. No concrete evidence was provided supporting such conspiracies. As a result, none of their audiences got to know what exactly happened in Australia.

The Herald and Chronicle (28/8), for instance, sarcastically presented Tsvangirai as having gone to Australia to celebrate "the hurting sanctions that Australia and other Western countries have imposed against Zimbabwe". In this light they reported him as telling "more than 100 people" at the Australian Institute of International Affairs of his "admiration" for the Canberra authorities for moving "far ahead of other countries in ensuring that at least pressure is applied through multilateral interventions". Notably, there was no attribution to where the papers had sourced the comments since there was no indication that their reporters were reporting from Australia.

Neither did the papers provide evidence for their claims that Tsvangirai had gone to Australia to link up with his ex-Rhodesian financiers, nor spell out exactly how the trip undermined South African President Thabo Mbeki's initiative to find a negotiated internal settlement.

ZBC covered the development poorly too, with ZTV (31/8,6PM) and Spot FM (31/8, 8pm) merely amplifying government Press accusations by accessing commentators who poured more scorn on Tsvangirai's alleged underhand actions. For example, they quoted Goodwills Masimirembwa "condemning" the opposition leader's action as "unnecessary considering that he is going to seek votes from the people affected by the sanctions". Neither ZBC nor its print counterparts sought comment from the MDC.

While the government media saw conspiracies in Tsvangirai's trip, they exaggerated the alleged support government was getting from the region, especially from South Africa and Equatorial Guinea. For example, in a story next to that accusing Tsvangirai of "applauding sanctions against Zimbabwe", The Herald (28/8) oversimplified Mbeki's views on Zimbabwe expressed in his weekly letter in the ANC Today by portraying his support for the people of Zimbabwe to mean support for government and its economic policies. It was in this context that the paper suffocated the corrective measures that Zimbabwe needed to implement to recover from its economic crisis contained in a report compiled by the ANC's secretariat.

In fact, such was ZBC's preoccupation with building the government's image, that 61 of the 64 stories it carried on international relations projected the government as enjoying widespread local and regional support. However, none of its stories provided any informed analysis of such support. For example, there was no critical assessment on the visit to Zimbabwe by Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema to open the Harare Agricultural Show, except as another demonstration of Zimbabwe's growing support despite Western machinations to isolate the country. The official Press adopted a similar approach. For example, The Herald (29/8) approvingly reported on how Nguema had been given a 21-gun salute, "the highest honour that can be given by a nation", without even attempting to question the appropriateness of his presence, considering the political culture in his country.

Although the government media's sourcing patterns appeared diverse (Figs 1 & 2), their coverage remained lopsided as most of the voices outside government were either quoted in the context of endorsing Mugabe and his government or narrowly blaming the West and its alleged surrogate, the MDC, for the country's problems.

Fig 1: Voice Distribution on ZBC

Fig 2: Voice distribution in the government-controlled press

Notably, all the MDC voices were presented in bad light.

The private media also barely did justice to Tsvangirai's trip to Australia. They just carried five piecemeal reports that dismally failed to interrogate the essence of the visit.

However, they carried 51 reports (private electronic media [30] and private Press [21]) that exposed growing international alienation of government over its questionable policies. For instance, The Financial Gazette, SW Radio Africa (30/8) and Zimdaily (1/9) reported that the Czech Republic was closing its embassy in Zimbabwe citing "crazy" policies by the government, saying that any further activities of the Czech embassy "would not be effective".

At the weekend, The Standard (2/9) reported that Britain would maintain its policy on Zimbabwe despite the replacement of Prime Minister Tony Blair with Gordon Brown. The paper quoted embassy official Gillian Dare saying, "If Harare thought Britain would soften its stance" following Brown's appointment, it was "mistaken". Dare said good relations with Harare depended on the implementation of sound political and economic reforms. Earlier, SW Radio Africa (31/8) (and buried in the business section of The Standard) cited a story in the British-based Daily Telegraph claiming China had shifted its policy on Zimbabwe. Reportedly, China - the hinge of government's "Look East" policy - "was dropping all assistance except humanitarian aid" as it chose to "work more closely with the international community in bringing pressure to bear on 'rogue regimes'".

The private media also critically analysed the SADC secretariat's economic report on Zimbabwe. The Gazette, for example, argued that the secretariat's criticism of Mugabe's style of management was now not so different from those of his Western critics, saying: "(It) could have been a cut-and-paste job from an International Monetary Fund report".

The sourcing patterns of the private media are shown in Figs 3 &4.

Fig 3: Voice Distribution of the private electronic media

Notably, the voice of the MDC dominated the private electronic media's sourcing patterns.

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