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Sunshine journalism
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2007-43
Monday 29th October - Sunday November 4th 2007
November 08, 2007

The official media only dealt superficially with the county's economic crisis and its poor agricultural preparations. Their 112 reports on the matter (ZBC [75] and government Press [37]) were piecemeal and simply rehashed official assurances of a return to normality without matching the rhetoric with reality. For example, there was no audit on the effectiveness of the authorities' programmes in turning the economy around despite their repeated promises to tame inflation, reverse acute commodity shortages, enhance production and rein in the galloping cost of living. These media simply diverted attention on these issues by blaming those outside government for the problems, such as business and the West's targeted sanctions against the ruling elite but which they continued to present as blanket sanctions against the Zimbabwean nation. For example, instead of giving a holistic picture of the hyperinflationary environment that businesses were operating in, ZTV (29/10, 8pm), The Herald and Chronicle (30/10) passively cited National Incomes and Pricing Commission chairman (NIPC) Godwills Masimirembwa "strongly warning" businesses against "increasing prices willy-nilly".

Neither did they question the sense of his commission's decision to set foreign currency invoices for imported goods at the official exchange rate as a way of stemming "spiralling prices" as most of them were "factoring in parallel market rates in their cost build-ups". Nor did they attempt to assess the impact this would have on industry, considering that most businesses have virtually no access to the official foreign currency market forcing them to rely on the parallel market where rates are more than 300 percent higher. They also made no effort to relate Masimirembwa's instruction to previous government attempts to control prices of goods and services under its price-cutting exercise, which resulted in the disappearance of basic commodities from the official market.

Only the next day did The Herald report business leaders expressing their disapproval of the NIPC demands, described by economist Godfrey Kanyenze as "tantamount to asking businesses to close shop because they had no alternative except turn to the parallel market for their foreign currency requirements".The paper cited Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce president Marah Hativagone arguing that converting foreign currency at the official rate was akin "to asking the business community to subsidise their goods". She noted that the development would further "dampen the mood within the business community, which had been trying to ensure that goods return to the shelves". Confederation of Zimbabwe Industry boss Callisto Jokonya echoed similar sentiments: "Government does not have foreign currency . . . " adding, "he (Masimirembwa) must tell us where to get the foreign currency . . . "

The paper however, let Masimirembwa off the hook when it failed to question him about the business community's concerns - as did ZTV's current affairs programme, Face the Nation, (1/11) - when they allowed him to cursorily dismiss these concerns as misplaced. Such professional incompetence was not isolated, as illustrated by Spot FM (3/10, 8pm). It drowned news of the recent increases in commuter fares in a report that claimed Zimbabwe's erratic fuel supplies had improved. Notably, the station's claims were at odds with its headline, which reported rural bus operators appealing to the state fuel procurer, NOCZIM, to increase their weekly fuel allocations.

In fact, the government media made no attempt to give informed coverage of the country's economic problems, such as persistent commodity shortages and the new spate of commodity price increases. They only referred to the matter in the context of NIPC's concern over the steep pricing of imported goods. As a result, they barely questioned where locally produced products had disappeared to.

The government media also papered over the country's precarious food situation by emphasising authorities' optimism that the forthcoming season would be a success while muting farmers' concerns about the critical shortages of inputs such as seed and fertiliser. The narrow perspective in which they handled the matter was underpinned by their simplistic projection of government's land reforms and its farm mechanisation programme as the panacea to the country's agricultural and economic problems.

However, no evidence was given to demonstrate how the two programmes had improved agricultural production.

Spot FM (31/10, 8pm), for example, insisted that the forthcoming season will be "one of the busiest seasons coming after the mechanization drive," adding that the 'improved yields" would be boosted by the meteorological department's forecasts of between normal to above normal rainfall.The station did not reconcile this claim with another report it carried in the same bulletin revealing that most small-scale tobacco farmers had been hit by a shortage of critical inputs to plant their dry land crop. It quoted Tobacco Industry Research Board Andrew Matibiri saying his organisation had only disbursed inputs to cover 5 000 hectares against the set target of 15 000 hectares.

The government Press followed suit. It glossed over the widespread shortages of agricultural inputs with Agriculture Minister Rugare Gumbo's promise that government would import 800 000 tonnes of fertilizer "to ensure the coming season would be a success" (The Herald 1/11). Why government had waited until the eleventh hour to procure fertilizer remained unexplained, particularly in light of revelations in the Chronicle (29/10) that chiefs and farmers in Matebeleland had expressed "concern over the delays" in the provision of seed.

Otherwise, the government media projected the land reforms as enjoying extensive international support such that Jamaican reggae artist Luciano, in the country for a government-organised tourism promotion show, had composed a solidarity song 'Zimbabwe Stands Strong' (ZTV 1/11, 8pm and The Herald 2/11). They presented Luciano's support of the land reforms as having "stung" the British authorities into the "vindictive" act of refusing the artist's band members transit visas to come to Zimbabwe. No verification of the claims was made. ZTV (1/11, 8pm), for example, simply cited Zimbabwe Tourism Authority boss Karikoga speculating about the reasons for the musicians' failure to get to Zimbabwe. He told the station: "British officials said the band couldn't go through because some of them didn't have visas", or that "those with transit visas boycotted the trip because others were not allowed to proceed".

The government media's reliance on official rhetoric as the basis for its news content was reflected in their sourcing patterns as shown in Figs 1 and 2.

Fig 1: Voice distribution on ZBC

Fig 2: Voice distribution in government papers.

A critical coverage of the country's economic and agricultural problems only appeared in the private media, which carried 40 stories on the matter.

Of these, 16 appeared in the private electronic media and 24 in the private Press.

These media interpreted Masimirembwa's threats as counterproductive and a reflection of the discord in government policies, as they came barely a month after news that the Reserve Bank was trying to revive the business community following government's price-cutting campaign.

For example, The Financial Gazette (1/11) complained that Masimirembwa's commission did not "care about where manufactures access their foreign currency requirements", predicting that the commission's decision "points to more dark days for local industry . . . " In addition, it advised the commission to "restrict its role to that of complementing other economic agencies . . . " and leave politics to politicians.

Studio 7 (30/10), Zimbabwe Independent (2/11) and The Standard (4/11) carried similar sentiments.

While The Standard quoted Callisto Jokonya urging the commission to "stick to its mandate of monitoring prices" and leave the foreign currency issue to the central bank, the Independent noted that despite government "talking "tough" about the parallel market, it was also a major player.

The private media also reported on the country's precarious food situation.

The reports included one from ZimOnline (1/11) revealing that the United Nations had imported nearly 36 000 tonnes of maize from Malawi as part of its emergency food aid to the country, and another in The Zimbabwean (1/11) that army barracks had been hit by serious food shortages (also in The Standard)

The private media also questioned the government's campaign to portray the country as an attractive tourism destination as illustrated by Luciano's visit. For example, the Independent argued that this type of publicity "targeted at glossing over Zimbabwe's crisis" ahead of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa would not increase tourist arrivals in the country.

The critical manner in which the private papers examined official pronouncements was shown by their wide use of voices outside government. See Figs 3 and 4.

Fig 3: Voice distribution in the private press

Fig 4: Voice distribution in the private electronic media

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