Back to Index

This article participates on the following special index pages:

Weekly Media Update 2008/14
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
June 01, 2008

General comment
As this report was being compiled news that seven senior journalists at the national public broadcaster had been sent on forced leave provided more evidence that the government-controlled media was being transformed into a fully-fledged propaganda machine for ZANU PF ahead of the June 27 presidential election run-off between MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and President Mugabe.

The seven included general manager of television production at ZBC, Robson Mhandu; TV production manager, Lawrence Maphosa; news editor, Patrice Makova; producers Sibonginkosi Mlilo and Monica Gavera; and three reporters. The suspensions come amid earlier reports that ZANU PF had demanded a total monopoly of the radio and television airwaves in the run-up to the poll. It also comes hard on the heels of the sacking of ZBC's chief executive, Henry Muradzikwa, for allegedly failing to provide sufficient support for ZANU PF's campaign in the March 29 elections, and defying ministerial orders to deny the MDC favourable coverage. Happison Muchechetere, a war veteran and staunch ruling party supporter, has since replaced Muradzikwa.

The private online publication, ZimOnline (5/6), reported that no official reasons were given for the suspension of the seven, except that they "failed to act in a manner that is in accordance with their contracts". However, the agency contended the journalists were suspended for "failing to run a favourable campaign for President Mugabe's government, which lost elections to the opposition in March". It quoted Zimbabwe Union of Journalists' president, Matthew Takaona, saying the suspensions were "irrational" and "seemed motivated by political considerations".

Local media watchdog, MISA, also expressed its "gravest concerns" over the "deliberate purging of journalists at the state broadcaster for the purposes of partisan political expediency on the part of those that are still in charge of the state media". It said it viewed the move as part of an "orchestrated campaign to intimidate not only state media personnel, but the media fraternity as a whole" ahead of the election. MISA also said that it had noted "a sharp turn for the worse" in media freedom violations through intimidation, arrest and conviction of journalists since March 29.

ZBC remained silent on the matter while the government papers carried the news as a brief on page two (The Herald, 5/6). MMPZ is also obliged to condemn in the strongest terms this latest arbitrary and authoritarian assault on media freedom, which underlines the authorities' hijacking of the public media and subverting their public mandate to ensure their content solely reflects the truth and philosophy according to ZANU PF.

The government's determined drive to silence all alternative sources of information from reaching Zimbabweans ahead of the election run-off has seen the arrest and harassment of all manner of individuals, including the MDC's presidential candidate and other opposition party officials, human rights defenders from civil society and a number of media workers from the private and international media in recent days. In one such case, lawyers representing three South Africans convicted of illegally possessing broadcasting equipment the state says belongs to Britain's Sky News TV, had appealed against what was described as a harsh six-month jail term imposed on the three.

Election focus
THE government media gave a narrow perspective of the country's electoral environment in the run-up to the June 27 election run-off between MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and the incumbent president, Robert Mugabe. They continued to make nonsense of the country's electoral laws and regional guidelines governing the conduct of democratic elections by providing extensive and favourable coverage to ZANU PF campaign activities while vilifying the MDC.

There was also no holistic coverage of the widespread political violence in the country, which they exclusively blamed on the MDC, or any informed coverage of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission's preparations to hold the poll. This was evident in all the 154 reports that they featured on the topic: political violence (38), parties' campaigns (104) and electoral management (12). Only the private media gave critical updates on these issues in 159 reports of which 88 were on political violence, campaigns (43) and poll administration (28).

Political violence
THE official media narrowly attributed all cases of political violence to the MDC while censoring prevalent private media reports of state-sponsored attacks against suspected opposition supporters. They mainly restricted themselves to amplifying ZANU PF and police accusations of the MDC as a violent party without making any attempt to independently verify these claims.

As a result, all nine incidents the government media recorded blamed the MDC with ZANU PF supporters the victims. They comprised five arson attacks, assaults and two fatal shootings. Only the killings were fresh cases, while the rest were only given currency through follow-up features, especially in the wake of official visits to the victims and scenes of the violence.

The official media's desperation to portray the MDC as being responsible for the violence was illustrated by The Sunday Mail's coverage (1/6) of the shooting of ZANU PF supporters in Mutoko. It accused the MDC of the violence in a front-page headline: MDC gunmen kill two ZANU PF supporters, despite carrying no evidence linking the opposition party to the crime.

The story just reported police spokesman Oliver Mandipaka narrating the events leading to the killing of the two by unidentified gunmen, only noting that their "preliminary investigations show that these are politically motivated cases".

The government media's coverage of the other incidents of politically motivated violence were also biased and preoccupied with highlighting the victims' loyalty to ZANU PF and their bravery in light of the alleged MDC attacks rather than attempting to establish the circumstances leading to the violence.

For example, The Herald (31/5) did not establish the reasons behind the alleged MDC attack on ZANU PF activists in Shamva except for its own speculation that it "was apparently sparked by a well-attended ZANU PF meeting . . . which riled opposition youths, who had wanted people to ignore the meeting". None of the victims of the violence were cited confirming this. Neither did the paper query the plausibility of claims by one of the victims, Gorezvarimwa Chiyanikwa, that he had single-handedly "confronted" the 100 MDC attackers at his home, who then "fled". Instead, the paper widely quoted Chiyanikwa telling President Mugabe and his wife, Grace, who were "visiting the victims of the violence to assist in rebuilding" their lives, of his unyielding support for ZANU PF even in the face of the attacks.

In another incident, Spot FM (27/5, 1pm) and ZTV (28/5, 8pm) reported six ZANU PF activists as battling for their lives at Murambinda hospital after having been "brutally attacked" by MDC supporters in Buhera. No evidence was provided linking the MDC to the violence, nor was police corroboration sought.

In contrast, the private media gave more detailed accounts of the violence. They published 42 incidents of political violence during the week. Of these, 38 named ZANU PF militia, war vets and state security agents as being responsible, while four accused the MDC.

In addition, they reported the MDC alleging that the violence had so far claimed 50 lives and displaced more than 25 000 of its supporters. Studio 7, SW Radio Africa (28/5) and The Zimbabwe Times (29/5) recorded the UN Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, expressing "shock" at the "escalating politically motivated extra-judicial killings".

In fact, despite the Zimbabwe National Army's repeated denials that soldiers and other state security agents had been deployed in the rural areas to intimidate villagers to vote for President Mugabe, The Financial Gazette (29/5) reported the High Court as having ordered the deployed soldiers to be recalled. The paper said the interim order followed an application by Buhera West MP-elect Eric Matinenga claiming that the presence of the soldiers in the rural areas, especially in his constituency, was unconstitutional and violated the provisions of the Defence Act. This important court ruling was censored by the government media.

Party campaigns
Barely three weeks before the run-off, the government media remained impervious to the country's Electoral Act, which compels them to give equitable coverage to contestants in an election. They continued to give ZANU PF massive publicity while blacking out the electoral preparations of the MDC. The official media carried 91 positive reports on ZANU PF campaign activities, while all its 13 stories on the MDC were mostly in the form of unsubstantiated conspiracies, presenting the opposition as a Western front without providing any credible evidence.

All ZANU-PF's electoral preparations were reported ingratiatingly favourably. This was evident in the official media's approving coverage of Mugabe's presidential election launch on Africa Day and his tour of scenes of alleged political violence against his party supporters, where they extensively reported him lashing out at his opponents and critics using inflammatory and derogatory language.

ZTV (26/5, 8pm), for example, passively quoted him likening US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Fraser to a "prostitute" for allegedly celebrating the MDC's March 29 poll victory during a tour of some SADC countries. Other ZANU PF officials such as Emmerson Mnangagwa, Vice President Joseph Msika and Elliot Manyika were passively cited making similar comments.

The Herald (26/5) and ZTV (26/5, 8pm), for example, reported Msika describing Tsvangirai as the "worst sell-out to emerge" from Africa's "entire history". No evidence of this was given except for Msika's claims that the opposition leader was moving from "one country to another selling out".

Similarly, there was no querying the service chiefs' continued disparaging utterances against the opposition whilst simultaneously campaigning for ZANU PF despite their high public office standing.

The Herald (31/5) reported a senior ZNA officer, Martin Chedondo, ordering soldiers to support Mugabe in the run-off or "remove that uniform". The paper failed to test the veracity of his claims that under the country's constitution soldiers were obliged to support their commander-in-chief, President Mugabe, against Tsvangirai in the run-off. It passively quoted Chedondo saying: "Soldiers are not apolitical. Only mercenaries are . . . We have signed and agreed to fight and protect the ruling party's principles of defending the revolution".

The Herald also failed to examine the implications of his declaration to soldiers that "you are going to be given duties to protect parents who are being stabbed, axed and whose houses have been burnt by suspected MDC-T supporters . . . ", especially in view of widespread claims of soldiers' involvement in the violence against opposition supporters.

The government media also made use of falsehoods and distortions to try to link the US to an "illegal" regime change agenda in the country. For example, the two government dailies (28/5) tried to create a furore out of nothing when they falsely reported that US "ambassador" to South Africa, Patrick Diskin, had "sneaked" into Zimbabwe through the Plumtree Border Post to discuss "confidential matters" with McGee. How exactly Diskin's entry into the country could be described as sneaking remained unclear.

The paper simply tried to build a case on the matter by citing an unnamed government official as saying the authorities were "very interested" as they found the "timing and the route used" by Diskin as "very odd". Even when the US embassy pointed out The Herald's mistake through a Press statement, noting that Diskin was not the US ambassador to South Africa, but a regional Food for Peace programme director with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) on a "routine visit", the paper (29/5) would not relent. It merely shifted its focus to accusing Western-backed NGOs of having helped the MDC to campaign in the March 29 elections "using food".

The private media's coverage of parties' campaigns was more balanced: ZANU PF (25) and MDC (18). The reports criticized ZANU PF's use of intimidation, violence and vote-buying to induce voters to vote for Mugabe, and highlighted the difficulties the MDC was facing in its campaigning due to a hostile political environment. The private media also noted the utterances by ZANU PF officials at rallies, which they argued were not only inflammatory but undermined the country's electoral process.

SW Radio Africa (30/5), for example, cited as an example, comments by Mugabe's wife while donating goods to victims of violence in Shamva that even if Mugabe lost the election Tsvangirai, the MDC leader "will never step inside State House . . . Baba (Mugabe) will only leave State House to make way for someone from ZANU PF".

At the weekend, The Standard (1/6) reported commentators criticizing Major General Martin Chedondo's assertions that soldiers should vote for Mugabe in the run-off because he is their commander-in-chief as "mischievous and in breach of the constitution". It cited constitutional law expert Lovemore Madhuku dismissing Chedondo's declaration as "mischief coming from someone who does not understand the constitution". Madhuku said the commander-in-chief of the defence forces of Zimbabwe was not "Robert Mugabe, but the President of Zimbabwe". So the army had to await the outcome of the run-off and "salute and protect" whoever wins "in a democratic process".

Administrative issues
The official media gave little meaningful attention to electoral authorities' poll preparations and changes to electoral regulations. Their 12 reports on the matter barely extended beyond official pronouncements announcing the introduction of new electoral rules, the sitting of the nomination courts, the dates of accreditation of observers and journalists and the arrival date of the Pan African Parliamentary (PAP) observer mission. Consequently, they did not assess the adequacy of ZEC's measures to ensure a free and fair plebiscite.

For example, the official dailies (29/5) and Radio Zimbabwe (29/5, 8pm) simply reported that ZEC had gazetted new election regulations meant to "speed up the release of results" of the presidential election run-off" by ensuring that the "V11 and V23" forms will now be signed by the presiding and ward election officers in the presence of candidates or their election agents without any clarification.

Only the private media assessed ZEC's independence and poll preparations, which they argued remained heavily compromised by inadequate funding and political interference.

The Zimbabwe Times (26/5), for example, reported ZEC as having filed an urgent High Court application to destroy ballot papers used in the March polls so that the commission can re-use the ballot boxes in the run-off citing lack of money to buy new ballot boxes. The publication highlighted that in terms of the Electoral Act ballot papers should not be destroyed for six months after an election. It also reported that the MDC had opposed ZEC's application, arguing that if it was granted this would be "tantamount to destroying critical evidence needed in challenging the election results".

In another report, The Zimbabwe Independent (30/5) revealed that the police had been instructed to manage the "whole voting process" during the run-off, a development in which it quoted unnamed analysts saying "was likely to compromise not only the independence of ZEC by usurping its role, but also the fairness of the election".

Figs 1 and 2 show the sourcing patterns in the official and private media.

Fig 1: Voice distribution on ZBC

Fig 2: Voice distribution in the private papers

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