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Daily Media Update No.24
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
April 12, 2008

Daily print media report - Saturday 12th April 2008

Post-election focus
The government-controlled dailies, The Herald and Chronicle (12/4), remained silent on the extent of the deepening national political crisis arising from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission's failure to release the presidential election results.

None of their 16 reports on the subject acknowledged or explored the negative repercussions of the problem by relating them to rising local, regional and international indignation over the delay.
Instead, the official dailies tried to portray ZEC's alarming failure to release the results as normal. This was illustrated by the prominence given to a report that two church leaders, Trevor Manhanga and Patrick Mutume, had expressed "satisfaction" with ZEC's explanations for its failure to release the results of the election two weeks after it had been staged.

Notably, ZEC's "explanation" for the delay in releasing the results was never given. Neither did the papers explain on whose brief the two clergymen met ZEC, nor why the commission seemed to have privatised information about the presidential outcome by keeping it out of the public domain. They only cited Manhanga describing the "closed-door" meeting as "free" and that ZEC chairman George Chiweshe had answered their concerns, adding: "He could not go into details as the matter is before the courts."

There was also no effort by the two papers - the only ones available to the Zimbabwean public today - to link the delay in releasing the election results with the emergency meeting of SADC leaders in Lusaka today, convened specifically to deal with Zimbabwe's growing political crisis. They simply reported former government officials dismissing the conference as "unnecessary" since the electoral authorities were "still busy collating results of the presidential election".

The Herald and Chronicle also failed to establish why President Mugabe had snubbed the emergency summit, sending three former Cabinet ministers and a secretary for foreign affairs in his place. Instead, the same two papers attempted to divert the public's attention away from the crisis arising from ZEC's manifest failure to release the results with reports portraying business, the opposition and Western countries as architects of Zimbabwe's political and economic woes.

In one of these, they passively reported an emotional tirade from Police Elections Commander Faustino Mazango accusing the MDC-T of all manner of unsubstantiated political misdemeanours ranging from "agitating for war", "spoiling for a fight" to "agitating for stayaways" at a Press briefing announcing a ban on all political rallies in the country. Reportedly, the ban followed the MDC-T's application to hold a rally tomorrow (Sunday). They quoted him saying: " . . . we are all aware that the current period is still very sensitive unless it is the intention of that party (MDC-T) to provoke and cause mayhem for the purposes of satisfying their masters."

The Herald editorial also attacked the business community for creating artificial shortages to "foment" rebellion against government without factoring in the country's unstable economic environment. Said the paper: "We can only warn the (business community) that such attempts will be repelled with equal force and they will forever regret."
In addition, the paper's robustly vitriolic Saturday columnist Nathaniel Manheru, lashed out at SADC chairman, Zambia's Levy Mwanawasa, for calling an emergency summit to discuss Zimbabwe's political crisis on the grounds that it was unnecessary, anathema to Pan-African ideology and a decision that fulfilled part of the West's alleged regime-change agenda for Zimbabwe.

Fig. 1 shows the voice sourcing patterns in The Herald and Chronicle

Fig 1: Voice distribution in the official press

Daily electronic media report - Friday 11th April 2008

Post-election focus
ZBC continued to conceal the impact of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission's inexplicable failure to publicize the presidential election results by either downplaying or distorting growing domestic, regional and international concern over the delay in 15 reports it carried on the matter. The broadcaster proved to be a mouthpiece of the former ZANU PF government, by anchoring most of its reports on the pronouncements of officials from that party with little attempt to balance it with alternative opinion. ZBC (8pm) for example, failed to interrogate the basis upon which former Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary, Joey Bimha, described the decision by SADC chairman, Levy Mwanawasa to hold an emergency summit to discuss Zimbabwe's growing political crisis as "unnecessary" and "unwarranted".
Instead, it merely quoted him exonerating government, saying "there is no deliberate delay to release the results on the part of government" as it was also "waiting for their announcement after verification". He claimed that since ZEC "is an independent body" government "cannot push ZEC to announce the results".

ZTV reporter Judith Makwanya claimed Mwanawasa's decision to call the summit "has come as a surprise to many onlookers who believe the SADC region knows the Zimbabwe situation better" without explaining what this statement meant. She cited 'a political analyst' who said that it appeared Mwanawasa was "giving in to pressure from some Western powers who are bent on discrediting the Zimbabwe electoral processes".

No evidence was provided to support these claims.

Instead, Makwanya attempted to justify ZEC's failure to release the results on the basis that such delays were "not unique to Zimbabwe" as "similar delays were witnessed in Mozambique, Nigeria and even the USA when George Bush came to power for the first time" without providing the context in which these problems occurred in these countries.

In another report, ZBC (8pm) vaguely reported on the meeting between some church leaders and ZEC chairman George Chiweshe. The broadcaster did not explain why the church leaders were meeting Chiweshe or what transpired at the meeting. It simply reported Chiweshe saying the presidential poll results "will only be announced after the High Court ruling on Monday", without asking him how any legal proceedings had prevented ZEC from announcing the results. Neither did the broadcaster ask him why there was a delay in the first place.

ZBC also passively reported threatening and partisan political statements from the police. For example, all stations (8pm) reported Assistant Commissioner Faustina Mazango accusing the MDC (Tsvangirai) faction of "spoiling for a fight . . . " while announcing the banning of political rallies until after the announcement of the results. Apart from failing to seek comment from the MDC, ZBC passively quoted Mazango claiming the MDC had "deployed around 350 youths countrywide to man bases . . . " without even asking for some evidence to support his claim. Notably, the national public broadcaster ignored widely reported incidents in which ZANU PF was allegedly sponsoring post-election retribution attacks against a wide variety of Zimbabwean communities using mainly National Youth Service militias. ZBC bulletins continued to highlight the court appearances of ZEC officials accused of undercounting ZANU PF votes.

The private electronic media provided more informative analysis of the constitutional and political crisis triggered by ZEC's refusal to release the presidential election results, and growing regional and international concern in their 23 stories. They reported rising tensions in the country and increasing pressure on President Mugabe to concede defeat if he lost to MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.

Studio 7, for example, quoted UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon speaking on the eve of the emergency SADC summit on Zimbabwe saying, "he was pleased that the regional leaders are mobilising and coordinating to help Zimbabwe overcome its post electoral crisis through peaceful means". Ban Ki-moon added that he was "concerned that the situation in Zimbabwe could deteriorate further if no prompt action is taken to resolve the impasse".
Studio 7 and The Zimbabwe Times online publication reported Tsvangirai as having met South African President, Thabo Mbeki, among other regional leaders ahead of the SADC summit, although they did not provide details of the meeting.

SW Radio Africa quoted South Africa's ANC official, Matthews Phosa, criticising Mbeki's "quiet diplomacy" policy saying it has "failed" to resolve Zimbabwe's political crisis. It noted that Phosa's criticism of Mbeki's stance on the Zimbabwe crisis came after ANC president Jacob Zuma allegedly called for "tougher action on Zimbabwe" while his deputy described the withholding of the results as "equivalent to a coup". The private electronic media also recorded rising tensions and political violence.

SW Radio Africa and New Zimbabwe reported the police ban of an MDC rally scheduled for Saturday at Glamis Stadium in Harare. New Zimbabwe.com cited police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena confirming the decision and justifying it saying, "We see no reason for rallies since we have had an election".

New Zimbabwe.com also reported the MDC calling for a general strike on Tuesday to demand the release of poll results. Citing the party's spokesman, Nelson Chamisa, New Zimbabwe reported the party as having consulted its partners in civil society and trade unions who had all agreed to the move.

Studio 7 reported Tsvangirai accusing government of "deploying troops across the country to intimidate the population should a run-off take place". In another report, Studio 7 reported the opposition and various civil society groups making similar allegations. They claimed government was "stepping up a campaign of intimidation and violence in rural areas to cow voters who shifted their allegiance to the opposition in the elections".
The private electronic media published three incidents of human rights violations and political violence against perceived ZANU PF opponents.

Among them was the arrest of an MDC lawyer, Innocent Chagonda, for demanding the release of a helicopter hired by the party last March (SW Radio Africa) and news that former Health Minister and the new MP for Murehwa North, David Parirenyatwa, was allegedly "organising violence in Murehwa and threatening opposition supporters" for voting for the MDC in last month's polls. However, the report on political violence in Murehwa lacked independent corroboration.

Figs 1 and 2 show the sourcing patterns on ZBC and the private electronic media

Fig 1: Voice distribution on ZBC

Notably, all alternative voices were on the clergy.

Fig 2: Voice distribution in the private electronic media

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