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Political developments
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2007-47
Monday November 26th - Sunday December 2nd 2007
December 06, 2007

This week the government media gave a highly partisan picture of ZANU PF's popularity and the causes behind Zimbabwe's fallout with Western democracies in 95 stories they carried on the subject. Of these 45 appeared on ZBC and 50 in the official papers. The heavy coverage indicates the importance the government attached to disseminating this perspective. The bias was reflected in the way these media paid glowing tribute to ZANU-PF's million-man march, organised by the party's former liberation fighters, in support of President Mugabe's candidature in next year's elections.

ZBC aptly illustrated this devotion to reporting the event in a context favourable to President Mugabe by allowing ZTV alone to dedicate 47 minutes (66%) of the one hour and 11 minutes it devoted to its news coverage of the country's political developments in the week to the march.

In addition, ZBC abruptly suspended its normal programming (ZTV, Spot FM and Radio Zimbabwe) to feature live the subsequent four-hour rally after the march. At least 20 minutes of this time was dedicated to covering numerous party officials shouting slogans denigrating the opposition MDC and its alleged Western masters for plotting 'illegal' regime change. This overkill did not translate into informed coverage of the occasion. For example, there was no effort to critically analyse the essence of Mugabe's one-and-half-hour speech, which basically amplified the party's criticism of the West and the MDC as the sole causes of the country's problems.

Instead, the government media narrowly projected the march as a national event that had the support of every Zimbabwean without giving a coherent explanation of its objectives and relevance.

For example, there was no honest discussion on why Zimbabweans were being compelled to back Mugabe's presidential candidacy publicly if his party had already 'unanimously nominated' him in March, as the official media had previously claimed, or why the endorsement had to be done outside formal party structures. These media also made no effort to question the abuse of public resources by the party to support Mugabe's candidature. Neither did they interpret this as a clear illustration of how the distinction between government and the ruling party has been so badly eroded. There was also no effort to explain why the police so avidly participated in this public demonstration when they violently put an end to a court-sanctioned civic rally in Highfield last March and brutally assaulted opposition and civic leaders in detention.

The government media also clearly inflated the number of people who attended the rally as a way of proving its success. For example, while a ZTV reporter (30/11,8pm), claimed that the event had attracted "more than one million people", The Herald (1/12) allowed war veterans chairman Jabulani Sibanda to make similar grossly inflated claims, while providing only vague attendance figures of its own. It was in this context that the government media projected the 'successful' holding of the march as a clear statement against the West's alleged 'illegal' regime change agenda in the country. For example, while The Herald (30/11) claimed the "march and gathering is like a throwback to January 1980 because the setting and circumstances are the same . . . the British are at it again, funding a proxy opposition in an attempt to torpedo the people's revolution", ZBC's Judith Makwanya, said the march was a "statement to the world that ZANU PF is here to stay" (Spot FM, 30/11).

The government media also highlighted the region's continued defence of Zimbabwe's attendance at the EU-Africa summit and interpreted the refusal to have the country's human rights record discussed there as a victory. They also celebrated the call by Senegalese leader, Abdoulaye Wade, for the lifting of the West's targeted sanctions following his unsuccessful effort to convince ZANU PF and MDC to agree to involve more African leaders to help negotiate a settlement in the country. Notably, no activities of opposition parties were reported in the government papers except in the context of the MDC's alleged machinations to destabilise the country. In fact, a The Herald (30/11) cartoon seemed to incite violence against MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai by warning him to "avoid" the routes ZANU-PF marchers were going to use.

The government media' superficial coverage of the topic was reflected by its selective sourcing, which mainly targeted ruling party opinion or those closely linked to the party. See Figs 1and 2.

Fig 1: Voice distribution on ZBC

Fig: 2 Voice distribution in the government Press

Only the private media tried to give an independent perspective of the march and of Harare's strained relations with the international community in the 51 reports they carried (private electronic media [26] and private papers [25]). They questioned the purpose of the march, which they linked to ZANU PF's succession issue and as a ploy to confer Mugabe with life presidency. The private media also reported on how a variety of national resources, including the national railways and various forms of public road transport, had been commandeered to ensure the success of the rally. They also reported that many people had allegedly been forced into participating. For example, The Standard (1/12) carried a picture of an empty Mupedzanhamo flea market in Mbare, saying vendors had been warned they risked losing their stalls if they did not attend. But it also quoted Sibanda denying this.

Earlier, The Financial Gazette (29/11) quoted analyst Eldred Masunungure querying why the war veterans were still pushing for Mugabe's candidacy when "pretenders" to his job had already "thrown in the towel". However, the private media provided wildly differing figures for the number of people who attended the event. For example, while Zimdaily (30/11) estimated the number at about 100 000, New Zimbabwe.com (30/11) put the figure at 500 000. The private media also reported Mugabe as under continued pressure from the international community to resolve Zimbabwe's crisis.

In fact, the Gazette reported Mugabe as having asked incoming US envoy James McGee to help improve relations between the two countries when the American presented his credentials - as far cry from The Herald's report of his arrival, and its racist and offensive leader page comment likening him to a "house negro" of the American administration.

Figs 3 and 4 show the sourcing patterns of the private media.

Fig 3: Voice distribution in the private electronic media

Fig 4: Voice distribution in the private papers

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