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Prime-time Daily Monitoring Report No.23
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
April 10, 2008

Summary
The national public broadcaster continues to ignore its duty to meaningfully inform Zimbabweans about issues of immense of public interest and national importance. For example, ZBC continued to avoid the subject of the "missing" presidential election results and, instead, continues to follow the agenda set by illegitimate ZANU PF politicians posing as government officials. The broadcaster gave prominence to the impending Independence Day celebrations at the expense of useful information about the failure by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to release the presidential results.

Current Affairs programmes
ZTV awarded ZANU PF politicians airtime to justify the indefensible delay in the release of the presidential election results. At 2100hrs the station aired a 37-minute current affairs programme Setting the Record Straight with Patrick Chinamasa, which allowed the former Minister of Justice, Patrick Chinamasa, to present unchallenged ZANU PF propaganda on the subject of the March 29 elections while ignoring the glaring failures of that process.

Chinamasa took the opportunity to pre-empt the results of the presidential elections by discrediting the unannounced results when he said, "With respect to the presidential elections, which you know the results have not yet been announced, we noted some discrepancies which we drew to the attention of the ZEC. Some of these discrepancies could have been due to criminal intentions on the part of those who may not have put the right figures". Chinamasa also said all parties know the results of the presidential elections and a runoff could not be avoided. None of this nonsense was challenged by ZBC's presenters, who allowed the former minister unfettered access to television to spread this deceit. How, for example, did his party gain access to voting material that should have been exclusively in the hands of ZEC, which his party was evidently able to scrutinize in order to note "some discrepancies, which we (the party) drew to the attention of ZEC".

Politically influenced music
Spot FM aired 12 tracks totaling 38 minutes in celebration of the country's independence commemoration on April 18th. The songs played included the Harare Mambo's Vachitepo Kufa Vachitaura, Nora, by ZANU PF's political commissar, Elliot Manyika, Chinx's Vapambepfumi, and Solomon Skuza's Heroes, among others. The songs paid tribute to the liberation war heroes for freeing the country from colonial rule.
Radio Zimbabwe aired four minutes of Pan African music.

Although the songs were played to commemorate Independence Day, they cannot be distinguished from ZANU PF election campaign material. For instance, some of the songs, like Manyika's Nora, openly urge people to support ZANU PF. This appears to be preparatory campaign material in view of the presidential election run-off that ZANU PF is pushing for despite the fact that the results have still not been declared.

Political advertising
ZTV aired eight advertisements totaling seven minutes' airtime praising liberation war heroes for bringing independence to the country. As mentioned in earlier reports (Report No.21), ZANU PF has privatized the liberation struggle, thereby insinuating itself as exclusively responsible for the country's independence as reflected by the similarity between the advertisements aired on ZTV and ZANU PF's election campaign advertisements. For instance, Mugabe and the message of land, sovereignty and the economy feature prominently in the Independence Day ads. The promotion of ZANU PF election material is a clear abuse of the national public broadcaster.

ZTV and Spot FM also aired advertisements that featured Robert Mugabe's voice. One of the advertisements featured a clip of the 1980 official swearing-in ceremony of Mugabe as prime minister, where he is heard saying, "I Robert Gabriel Mugabe do swear that I will work and truly serve Zimbabwe in the office of minister of government so help me God".

In another advertisement Mugabe is heard saying, "Today we face a different angle from our former colonial masters in reaction to our bid to economically empower our people. If indeed we are a sovereign independent nation then there is no reason why our empowerment programmes should encounter such undeserved opposition and hostility as that which comes from Britain regularly". Mugabe is also heard saying, "Zimbabwe is an African country, and Zimbabwe has the sovereignty - sovereignty reposed in the people of Zimbabwe". The advertisements are clearly aimed at endearing Mugabe to the masses. The advertisements also point to ZANU PF's perception that an independent Zimbabwe is only possible under ZANU PF.

Radio Zimbabwe aired two adverts of four minutes each commemorating those who died fighting for the country's independence.

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