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Media Update 2008/13
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
May 25, 2008

General comment
MMPZ expresses its grave concern over the burning of a delivery truck containing 60 thousand copies of the privately owned weekly newspaper, The Zimbabwean on Sunday, and the brutal attack on the driver and his assistant near Chivi, in Masvingo, on May 23. The paper, launched in February this year, is published by veteran Zimbabwean journalist Wilf Mbanga and is printed in South Africa and brought into the country by independent distributors. The private online agency, Zimdaily (25/5), carried a statement from the publishers of The Zimbabwean on Sunday saying unknown armed assailants waylaid the truck and set it ablaze before brutally assaulting its South African driver, Christmas Ramabulana, and his Zimbabwean assistant, Tapfumaneyi Kancheta.

The motive for the attack was not established, but the statement noted that the burning of the paper came after President Mugabe's chief election agent, Emmerson Mnangagwa, blamed the paper and its sister publication, The Zimbabwean, for ZANU PF's electoral defeat in the March 29 elections. Despite frequently being harassed and denounced until this weekend, Zimdaily observed that "every issue (of the two papers) had made it safely to Harare where it was distributed . . . and devoured by a population starved of accurate information and fed a daily diet of the coarsest government propaganda". Other private media have also reported this shameful incident, but the government media censored the news.

MMPZ condemns this primitive and violent attack on one of the very few sources of alternative information still available to Zimbabweans, which, as media watchdog MISA says, represents a blatant and "unwarranted onslaught on citizens' right to access alternative information and ideas". In fact, MMPZ believes that the government media's censorship of the incident and the silence from the authorities, including the police, implies they are complicit in this latest atrocity. It reflects precisely the same shameful silence they have maintained about the brutal abduction and murder of a number of MDC activists by death squads in recent weeks, as well as the appalling battering and displacement suffered by thousands of innocent civilians, mostly at the hands of youth militia, the security services and people wearing military uniforms, according to private media reports.

The denial by the authorities of these most appalling human rights atrocities and the refusal by the government-controlled media to report them clearly points the finger of blame at those they wish to protect and condemns the Zimpapers' products and ZBC's output to the rubbish bin of discredited propaganda dedicated to hiding the truth and deceiving the nation. There is no question that those responsible for these crimes against free expression and the practice of journalism have abandoned their responsibility to the nation and will have to be removed and the two institutions entirely rebuilt whenever Zimbabweans are allowed to exercise the new political dispensation they so clearly expressed on March 29.

Election focus
The government-controlled media failed to provide any informative coverage of the electoral environment in the country ahead of the June 27 presidential run-off between Robert Mugabe and winner of the first round poll, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, despite devoting 168 reports to the subject. Of these, 42 focused on election-related political violence, 104 on the parties' campaign activities and election administration (22). The stories selectively accused the MDC of being the architects of political violence; failed to give equitable coverage to the contestants as required under domestic and regional guidelines on election reporting; and inadequately reported on the authorities' election preparations. The private electronic media performed somewhat better in their 117 reports on the subject, comprehensively reporting on the extent of politically motivated violence (59 stories). But apart from this, they provided few useful updates on the activities of the contestants (although they carried 47 stories) and 11 reports on election administration.

Political violence
With less than a month before Zimbabweans return to the polls to choose their next president in a run-off, the government media remained reluctant to expose widespread reports of state-sanctioned violence against opposition supporters. They only acknowledged the existence of violence in the context of blaming it exclusively on the MDC, accusing it of terrorising ZANU PF supporters. ZANU PF's culpability only appeared in the private and international media. Consequently, all 14 incidents of politically motivated violence they recorded in the week portrayed the MDC as the aggressor and ZANU PF as the victim. However, there was no detailed information in the official media on the alleged violence against ZANU PF by the MDC except for generalised allegations from the police and the authorities.

In one case, The Herald (23/5) gave pride of place on its front-page to police accusations of the MDC as being a violent organization under a severely propaganda-afflicted headline: "MDC-T terror gang nabbed". But in the story neither the paper nor the police provided any evidence linking the arrested 12 "suspected MDC-T thugs" to any "terror" in Manicaland except for the assertion that they were found in possession of "axes, chain blades and sjamboks" allegedly used to terrorize ZANU PF supporters. There was no attempt by the paper to interpret the arrests in the context of the ongoing government clampdown against the opposition. Instead, it passively quoted police spokesman Oliver Mandipaka claiming that in "most cases" MDC activists "disguised themselves as ZANU-PF supporters by wearing the party's regalia" and "beating people to taint the ruling party's image". Not a shred of evidence for this claim was provided. ZTV (22/5, 8pm) and Spot FM (23/5, 8am) committed the same journalistic offence when reporting the story.

Earlier, ZTV (21/5, 8pm) and the government dailies (22/5) amplified President Mugabe's unsubstantiated claims that the MDC was conducting an "evil crusade aimed at dividing the nation by fanning and sponsoring heinous violent acts on innocent citizens" during a police pass-out parade at Morris Depot. They quoted him citing, as an example, the alleged petrol bombing of a house belonging to a ZANU PF House of Assembly candidate in Bulawayo by unknown assailants during the run-up to the March 29 plebiscite. No comment was sought from the MDC. However, Studio 7 (22/5) quoted an MDC official describing Mugabe's comments as "utter nonsense", saying it was actually ZANU PF that was "increasing violence (against opposition supporters) to ensure a ruling party victory".

The Herald (23/5), Radio Zimbabwe (23/5, 6am) and Spot FM (23/5, 8am) failed to question the claim by Acting Attorney-General, Justice Patel, that cases of political violence were declining throughout the country. Reportedly, Patel said his office had recorded 80 cases of violence, including a murder, in six provinces excluding Matabeleland and Midlands, since May 18. However, these media did not challenge him to give an informed comparative analysis of the prevalence of the violence since its outbreak following ZANU PF's loss in the March 29 elections, or identify those responsible.

Only the private media gave extensive and detailed coverage of the matter in 29 stories. They recorded 31 incidents of politically motivated violence by ZANU PF militia, war vets and state security agents against suspected opposition supporters. Although most of the reports lacked police corroboration, they were often accompanied by chilling accounts of brutality from some of the victims, including graphic pictures of their mutilated bodies. This week alone the private media reported the murder of two MDC supporters Godfrey Kauzani and Cain Nyeve and the discovery of the decomposing body of another party activist, Tonderai Ndira - kidnapped by armed agents from his Mabvuku home the previous week - in a Harare hospital mortuary. They reported the MDC as saying the latest killings put the death toll of its party members from state-sponsored violence at 45.

Party campaigns
The official media made nonsense of equitable election reporting regulations under the country's electoral laws by relaunching a full-blown propaganda campaign for ZANU PF ahead of the presidential election run-off. For example, 35 of 46 reports the government papers carried on the parties' poll preparations favoured ZANU PF while the remainder were mainly editorials viciously and falsely attacking the MDC and its leader Morgan Tsvangirai through the use of hate messages and inflammatory language.

All ZBC's 58 stories on the topic were used as ZANU PF campaign platforms in which either party leaders, or those from other political parties, denigrated the MDC and its alleged Western allies for agitating for illegal regime change. This blatant support for ZANU PF was illustrated in the way the national broadcaster disrupted normal programming to devote more than three hours of live coverage to President Mugabe's official launch of his election campaign at the party's headquarters in Harare on Africa Day. That night, ZTV broadcast highlights of the campaign launch, spanning 1 hour 21 minutes soon after its 8pm news bulletin. Prior to that, the station had dedicated seven minutes 20 seconds of 33 minutes 50 seconds of its 8pm bulletin (excluding sport, business and foreign news) to reporting ZANU PF's campaign launch. However, this overkill coverage did not translate into any informed coverage.

ZTV (25/5, 8pm) passively reported Mugabe kicking off his campaign with aggression and bluster, blaming the country's problems on Western interference. It quoted him dismissing the MDC as "mere fronts", saying the run-off actually pitted him against the country's former colonizers. The station also approvingly reported Mugabe threatening to "kick out" the US ambassador to Zimbabwe, James McGee, if he continued to interfere in Zimbabwe's internal affairs, and chiding Tsvangirai for responding to "orders" from McGee for him to return to Zimbabwe. This was apparently based on two severely distorted reports in The Herald earlier, first claiming that McGee had "ordered" Tsvangirai to "end" his "self-imposed exile and return home" for the run-off (22/5) and the next day interpreting Tsvangirai's revelations to Zimbabwean victims of xenophobic attacks in South Africa that he would be returning home as evidence that he had "complied" with the US ambassador's "directive".

The same story (23/5) also claimed that Tsvangirai's reference linking South Africa's xenophobic violence to Zimbabwe's political crisis "seems to confirm suspicion that the violence was orchestrated by certain elements intent on fuelling anti-Zimbabwe sentiment in the region" and "forcing Zimbabweans in South Africa to return home and vote for him". But the story provided no evidence for this editorialization.

The government dailies used hate and inflammatory language both in its news stories and editorials against the MDC and Tsvangirai, contravening Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Act provisions that "print publishers (must) ensure that their news media avoid language that . . . encourages or incites violence . . . or is likely to lead to undue public contempt towards any political party, candidate or class of persons in Zimbabwe". Herald columnist David Nyekorach-Matsanga, for example, described the MDC's secretary-general, Tendai Biti, as a "mad man" for telling a meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, that MDC was afraid there were plans to assassinate Tsvangirai on his return to Zimbabwe (29/5). He also accused Biti of having a "small mind . . . whose length of lies is only equated by Satan", adding that in the event that the MDC won next month's poll, they would, among other things turn Zimbabwe into a "market place where deranged men walk".

The private media covered three campaign rallies during the week, two by the MDC and one by ZANU PF. Otherwise, their reports mainly focused on the general campaign environment in the country in which they highlighted ZANU PF's use of violence as a campaign tool and the dominance of the party's campaign advertisements in the state media. The Financial Gazette (22/5) reported the MDC accusing government of denying it democratic space by banning its rallies and blacking out its advertisements in the state media, while the Zimbabwe Independent (23/5) viewed the violence as part of ZANU PF's strategy to win the run-off. The Independent reported Mugabe as having urged his party to establish a "warlike leadership to conduct a military-style campaign" during the run-off, which he described as a "sink-or-swim election". ZimOnline (23/5) reported the MDC saying the "sustained violence by ZANU PF militia and soldiers" against its structures and supporters had "crippled" its campaign for the run-off as ZANU PF was decimating its "structures from the very lowest levels".

Administrative issues
Both the public and private media paid little attention to important electoral issues affecting the run-off. They barely assessed the financial and administrative capacity of ZEC to conduct the plebiscite smoothly and ensure that the problems that characterized the previous election did not recur. This was particularly so in light of ZEC's announcement that there would be no major changes to the number and location of polling stations and the invitation of observers and journalists. The government papers simply regurgitated official opinion on the matter. This was illustrated by The Herald's coverage (24/5) of a ZEC meeting between ZANU PF and the MDC under the multiparty liaison committee. The paper did not provide useful detail on the meeting's deliberations except citing the committee's chairperson, Sarah Kachingwe, saying the parties held "frank and constructive discussions".
Similarly, the Sunday News (25/5) merely reported ZEC as having "stepped up" preparations for the plebiscite by holding meetings with provincial election officers "in an effort to reduce the number of complaints against the electoral body" without clarification.

The private media continued to question the chances of a free and fair election in the country, particularly in view of the ongoing violence. They reported various organisations demanding the early deployment of observers to stem the violence. For example, Studio 7 (23/5) reported Tsvangirai calling on SADC to deploy elections monitors "right away" to ensure peaceful polls, while ZimOnline (22/5) revealed that Human Rights Watch had written a letter to the AU asking it to "immediately dispatch monitors . . . to help deter political violence . . . " In addition, the Independent and ZimOnline (23/5) reported the MDC as having written to ZEC expressing "loss of confidence" in its capacity to ensure a free and fair run-off. The MDC cited, among other issues, the delays in announcing the presidential results, the controversial recounts in some constituencies and ZEC's refusal to verify the presidential results.

Figs 1 - 4 show the voice sourcing patterns in the public and private media.

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

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