Back to Index

This article participates on the following special index pages:

Election countdown
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2008-9
Monday March 3rd - Sunday March 9th 2008

The government media's relentless complicity in the creation of a highly uneven electoral playing field ahead of the March 29 elections was overwhelmingly evident again this week. They devoted a massive 310 reports (ZBC 223, government papers 87) to supporting the ruling party against its opponents, glossing over the authorities' poll preparations and generally ignoring cases of politically motivated violence and electoral malpractice. Only the private media critically reported on these issues in 129 reports: private electronic media (66) and private Press (63).

Campaigns
The official media displayed blatant favouritism towards ZANU PF campaigns by giving it excessive publicity whilst paying scanty attention to other contestants. For example, ZBC marketed the ruling party in 148 stories and carried only 19 stories about the opposition: the Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC (17), two to the Arthur Mutambara-led MDC and none to independent presidential candidate Simba Makoni and alternative opposition. ZTV alone dedicated one hour and nine minutes of the one hour and 26 minutes it devoted to the parties' campaigns in the week's news bulletins to advertising ZANU PF. The opposition received only 17 minutes.

The pattern remained unbroken in the government Press. Of the 73 stories they carried on the parties' campaigns, 53 were on the ruling party, 12 on the MDC formations and Makoni (eight). Besides, only ZANU PF rallies received front-page status, were described glowingly as "star rallies", and were often accompanied with colourful pictures. Sometimes the government media also flighted free ZANU PF adverts under the pretext of providing news items. The Chronicle (4/3), for example, carried a front-page timetable of ZANU PF rallies scheduled for that week.

The opposition was not given a remotely similar service.

However, none of this massive coverage of ZANU PF's activities translated into informed coverage of the party's programmes of action if it retained power. Instead, the official media reports basically highlighted ZANU PF candidates either doling out money, food, and goods in their constituencies or discrediting their rivals without investigating the implications of these actions. For example, Spot FM (6/3,6am) cited Mugabe denouncing Makoni for "emerging from nowhere" to challenge for the presidency as if that was a crime, while earlier (5/3, 6am) it quoted ruling party politicians accusing politburo member Dumiso Dabengwa of being a "sell-out" for defecting to Makoni. Another government media tactic used to tarnish the opposition involved inserting reporters' opinions in news items on opposition activities to denigrate them.

The Herald and Chronicle (3/3), for example, misleadingly claimed that having "realised . . . the land issue is going to be the rallying point" in the March 29 vote, opposition presidential candidates "have backtracked on their earlier assertions that they would give back land to white former owners". Similarly, they ridiculed Makoni for holding a rally at the Zimbabwe Grounds in Highfield "hoping that he would match Mugabe's star rally" at the same venue on his return from Mozambique in 1980 after the liberation war. The opposition was not afforded the right of reply.

The private media gave reasonable coverage to all political parties' campaigns and their manifestos and assessed their perceptions of the electoral environment in 81 reports on the matter. Thirty-five of these were on ZANU PF, Makoni (32) and MDC formations (14). The Financial Gazette (6/3), for example, quoted analysts describing both Makoni and Tsvangirai's manifestos as similar. One of the analysts, James Jowa, noted that the "bottom line" was the "ability of the candidates to deliver", adding that the ruling party's presidential candidate "looked set to fare badly, having presided over the recession". The Zimbabwe Independent (7/3) criticised ZANU PF campaigns for failing to " focus on any particular theme outside denigrating the opposition and their alleged Western supporters". The private media gave opposition candidates and parties platforms to respond to ruling party accusations against them. For example, Studio 7 (8/3) reported Makoni dismissing Mugabe as a "liar" for alleging that Makoni would reverse the land reforms if elected into power. Earlier, ZimOnline (5/3) quoted the two companies accused of funding Makoni denying any links with him.

The official media censored these developments.

It was in this light that ZimOnline (3/3), The Zimbabwean (6/3) and the Independent all reported the MDC accusing ZBC of unfair and inequitable election coverage of its activities. The Herald (4/3) passively reported ZEC spokesperson Shupikai Mashereni appearing to justify the media blackout saying: "If political parties manhandle journalists, obviously they will have to think twice in future before coming to your rallies." But it did not ask him to explain what ZEC was doing to ensure the government media complied with the electoral laws governing the coverage of elections.

Administrative issues
The government media continued to deny their audiences insight into the authorities' progress in creating conducive conditions for free and fair polling by giving them only piecemeal details about the administration of the elections. As a result, they remained in the dark about election logistics, even though The Herald must have known that ZEC had taken the unprecedented step of having a 12-page supplement published in the paper on Saturday (8/3) listing the location of all the polling stations in the country.

Although there was no time to examine the list in the week under review, The Herald earlier (4/3) passively reported ZEC spokesman Shupikai Mashiri dismissing fears that there were too few polling stations, saying, "the number of polling stations per constituency was not an issue that could be discussed at national level but at constituency level".

The official media also passively allowed the President to confuse the issue of voter registration. While the dailies (6/3) reported Mugabe urging ZANU PF supporters to "continue registering to vote . . . " saying, "even though the voters' roll had been closed, people were still free to register . . . as their names would be put on a supplementary voters' roll", ZEC, through advertisements, advised the public that "only" those registered by February 15 would be eligible to vote.

In the same vein, all ZBC stations (6/3,8pm) passively carried Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi's statement that the "legitimacy of the 2008 elections will be determined by the people of Zimbabwe and not by external forces", adding that his ministry has invited only foreign observers who are "objective and impartial". The station did not question the criteria used to define objectivity, or the reasons behind the selective invitation of foreign observers - which has resulted in most professional bodies such as the UN not being invited - if the authorities have nothing to hide during the elections.

In fact, ZTV (8/3,8pm) relegated news that "government had accredited over 40 foreign observers" to the end of a report in which the little known president of the Zimbabwe Development Party, Kisnot Mukwazhi, was calling for peaceful campaigns.

The reports formed part of the 26 reports the official media carried on election administration. Only the private media continued to test official assurances of indisputable polls against the situation on the ground. Almost all their 30 reports cited local and regional bodies' continued reservations on Zimbabwe's capacity to hold free and fair elections by March 29. ZimOnline (4/3), for example, quoted ZESN chairman Noel Kututwa reiterating the need for their postponement until ZEC had been given "enough logistical capacity to run multiple elections".

Studio 7 (4/3) reported civic society's disquiet with the late arrival of the SADC election observers, which they said "should have been already in the country by now".

And while ZimOnline (7/3) reported on a demonstration by the South African labour body, COSATU, to "demand free and fair elections in Zimbabwe", the Independent accused the authorities of having "gerrymandered" constituencies to give ZANU PF an upper hand in the elections and cited as an example, the inclusion of a "non-existent constituency", Tsholotsho East, in the delimitation report.

Political violence and vote-buying
The government media did not record any new incidents of politically motivated violence in 18 stories on the issue. The reports were based on police and contestants' calls for peaceful elections. However, the official media carried 50 reports showing ruling party candidates, including President Mugabe, donating money, foodstuffs, computers and various other goods, including promises of salary hikes to teachers and other civil servants at ZANU PF campaign rallies without interpreting this as electoral misconduct.

Only the private media did.

The Standard (9/3), for example, described as "outright vote buying" Mugabe's computer donations to schools throughout the country as this "is done in order to rally voters to a political cause". It also questioned the timing of the distribution of agricultural equipment under the government's farm mechanisation programme and the offering of stands to urban voters by organisations linked to the ruling party. The private media recorded six incidents of politically motivated violence in five stories on the topic.

Five of the cases named opposition activists as the victims and ZANU PF militants and the police as perpetrators. The exception involved the burning down of the home of war veteran leader, Misheck Masukume, by "unknown assailants" after he was allegedly implicated in the assault of MDC official, Pishai Muchauraya (Studio 7 7/3).

The dominance of ZANU PF in the government media's coverage of the elections was mirrored in their sourcing patterns as shown in Figs 1 and 2.

Fig 1: Voice distribution on ZBC

Fig 2: Voice distribution in the government papers

Fig 3: Voice distribution in the private electronic media

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