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Daily Media Update No. 21
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
April 09, 2008

MMPZ's daily media updates monitor the output of the domestic print and electronic media, particularly relating to coverage of election issues. Monitoring of the national public broadcaster, ZBC, is confined mostly to the main news bulletins on television and its two main radio stations, Spot FM and Radio Zimbabwe, although prime-time programmes containing political content or material relevant to last week's national elections is also monitored in a separate report. (This includes prime-time political advertising on ZBC). In addition, the main evening news bulletins of two privately owned radio stations broadcasting into Zimbabwe from abroad are monitored, Studio 7 and SW Radio Africa, together with the "news" pages of four web-based online news agencies specializing in news about Zimbabwe.

Daily print media report - Wednesday 9th April 2008

Post-election focus

Government dailies The Herald and Chronicle (9/4) upped their distortion of post-election developments, especially the controversy surrounding the presidential election results, in most of the 13 reports they carried on the topic.
This was aptly demonstrated by the way they falsely depicted MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai as scared of facing President Mugabe in the widely speculated presidential poll run-off that he "begged" ZANU PF to form a government of national unity so that he could be accommodated as one of the vice presidents.

Citing unnamed sources, the dailies alleged that Tsvangirai's move came "in the wake of indications that former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan" had been "trying to contact Zimbabwean authorities over a power-sharing deal after being prompted to do so by external forces keen to seen Tsvangirai rule the country".
However, no shred of evidence was given to support this. Neither did the papers seek comment from the MDC or the UN.

In addition, The Herald and Chronicle reported that Tsvangirai's desperation to become the head of state "without going through a democratic process" saw him calling upon the US to "invade" Zimbabwe "in the same way it led military assaults on Afghanistan and Iraq".

Again, no substantiation was provided. Neither did the papers quote Tsvangirai saying this.

Moreover, they did not provide the context in which the MDC leader allegedly "supported sanctions against Zimbabwe . . . as a means of installing him in State House". They passively reported him as having urged the IMF to "withhold the one billion pound of aid to Zimbabwe unless the defeated ex-President accepts the election results . . . and hands over power".

In another report, the official dailies cited the Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, Misheck Sibanda, using conspiracies to explain the re-emergence of empty shelves in most retail shops, saying this was due to industry's "dabbling in politics as part of the regime change agenda".

Sibanda claimed: "The supply boycott was being mooted by reckless political players with the view of predetermining certain political outcomes".

Nothing was said of government's own complicit in the matter, whose policies have been largely blamed for the country's economic meltdown characterised by inflation of 165 000 percent and projected to balloon further.
The five editorials and a cartoon that the official dailies carried on the subject were also propagandist pieces that narrowly projected the ruling party as under siege from the West and their local surrogates due to its principled stand against neo-colonialism.

However, the official dailies fairly reported on and gave due prominence to the High Court's decision to treat the MDC's application compelling ZEC to release presidential poll results as urgent.

Fig 1 shows the sourcing patterns in the official dailies

Fig 1: Voice distribution in The Herald and Chronicle

Daily electronic media report - Tuesday April 8th 2008

Post-election focus
The public broadcaster, ZBC (8/4), remained complicit in the post-election crisis in the country by its deliberate suffocation of the truth of the matter.

The eight stories they carried on the subject gave very little away. For example, they censored the new wave of farm evictions of the few remaining white commercial farmers sweeping the country and other violent reprisals against perceived government opponents by the ruling party following President Mugabe's alleged loss to MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai in the March 29 presidential election.

There was also total silence on the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission's incomprehensible withholding of the presidential elections results and the crisis it had created. Neither was publicity given to the chorus of international disapproval over ZEC's results hold-up nor an examination of its negative effects.

These issues only found expression in the private electronic media.

The nearest ZBC came to covering the farm invasions was when ZTV (8pm) vaguely reported that 11 white farmers "working in cahoots" with former farmer colleagues to "repossess land from the black majority" in anticipation of an MDC election victory had "vacated their farms after they clashed with resettled farmers over the issue in Centenary".
No comments were sought from the farmers or their representative organizations on the matter.

Rather, ZBC continued to amplify police announcements on the arrest of seven ZEC officials accused of prejudicing Mugabe's chances of victory in the poll by undercounting his vote in isolation of the possible motive of the actions.
Notably, the ZEC officials arrested over the vote tampering allegations remained faceless.

The private electronic media was categorical about the growing tension over the post-election crisis and the resulting flurry of top-level diplomatic activities aimed at diffusing it.

For example, they reported on the Zimbabwe crisis talks between Tsvangirai and Jacob Zuma, president of the ruling ANC in South, as well as those between British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the South African president Thabo Mbeki.

And to demonstrate how Zimbabwe's deepening post-election crisis had put the regional and Western leaders in a dilemma, Studio 7 reported EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana as disclosing that Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete was unable to reach Mugabe to discuss the problem.

In addition, SW Radio Africa sought comment on the legal status of the current government from Briggs Bomba of the US-based Africa Action Advocacy Group.

He told the station Mugabe and ZANU PF was now "running the country illegally" after staging a "coup by veto". Bomba urged the opposition to "show leadership at this critical time", adding: "Mugabe was clearly testing the political temperature to see how far he could push against the people's will."

They private electronic media also highlighted how war veterans and ZANU PF militia had besieged the last 450 farms remaining in white hands as part of the ruling party's strategy to bolster support for Mugabe in rural areas ahead of an anticipated presidential run-off.

Studio 7, for example, reported Justice for Agriculture, an association of displaced white commercial farmers, saying at least 60 farmers had been driven off their farms while another 120 voluntarily left "for fear of violence amid threats from (war) veterans, and to seek legal assistance".

The private electronic media reported other detailed plans by the ruling party to drum up support for Mugabe ahead of the run-off.

The Zimbabwe Times reported "highly placed" army sources alleging a Zimbabwe National Army plan to deploy 200 of its senior serving officers countrywide to command "troops" of war veterans and ZANU PF militants and campaign for the ruling party. It published a list identifying the officers and their areas of deployment.
The private electronic media gave attention to ZANU PF's rigging claims too, with SW Radio Africa reporting MDC official Ian Gonese dismissing the arrest of ZEC officials accused of undercounting Mugabe's votes as aimed at putting "into doubt the credibility of the poll, which is nonsensical".

Figs 1 and 2 show the voice distribution on ZBC and the private electronic media.

Fig 1: Voice distribution on ZBC

Fig 2: Voice distribution in the private electronic media

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