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Shortage of newsprint
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2008-4
Monday January 28th – Sunday February 3rd 2008

MMPZ notes with concern the latest threat to the survival of the already frail local print media following news that production of newsprint at the country’s biggest manufacturer had nosedived to 30 percent due to power cuts, coal and foreign currency shortages.

The Financial Gazette (31/1) reported ART Corporation executives, owners of paper manufacturer Mutare Board and Paper Mills, as having told the Information Ministry and newspaper industry executives how the latest power outages had "resulted in a no-stock situation" at the company, "with output falling to levels that cannot even satisfy the domestic market". The paper cited company insiders saying that even if ZESA restored power at MBPM, foreign currency shortages would still cripple the importation of pulp needed for the production of newsprint. The Gazette also cited the insiders claiming that Hwange Colliery had indicated that "it was only able to supply a few wagons of coal, which is not enough to power the plant".

Such a crippling restriction on the free flow of information does indeed represent a crisis in Zimbabwe’s already devastated media landscape, especially now, in the countdown to the March 29 harmonised elections. The media are an essential part of the election process, disseminating critical election information to voters. The current newsprint shortage however, severely undermines the media’s critical role as messenger to the nation resulting in an alarming information drought. Newspapers have become thinner and print runs, especially of the government dailies, have been slashed. Justin Mutasa, Group CEO of Zimpapers, publishers of the government-controlled Herald and Chronicle, is on record saying they have been receiving "totally inadequate" quantities of newsprint. This is reflected by the scarcity of newspapers, and with insiders at Zimpapers placing The Herald’s print-run at below 20 000 copies a day, this has seriously undermined the rights of the electorate to be informed about pertinent issues regarding the March elections.

For example the supplement placed by the Registrar-General’s office in the government dailies (31/1) containing crucial information on the location of voters’ roll inspection centres and documents required for registration, cannot have reached a significant number of the electorate thereby creating the possibility of disenfranchising many potential voters, especially given the short period allowed for the inspection of the rolls.

Such a crisis in the industry further erodes the possibility of creating a conducive climate for the staging of a free and fair election.

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