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ZBC and private radio stations
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 3/2009
Monday January 19th - Sunday January 25th January
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
January 30, 2009

Growing anxiety over the fate of Zimbabwe's fragile power sharing agreement was reflected by the dominance of the story in the electronic media during the week. See Fig. 3.

Fig 3: Topical Stories distribution on ZBC and private stations

Zimbabweans relying on ZBC for news were, once again, left in the dark about the exact causes and nature of the stalemate between ZANU PF and the mainstream MDC following SADC's latest failure to resolve it.

Rather than giving a fair account of the origins of the impasse and its impact on Zimbabweans, ZBC solely blamed the Tsvangirai-led MDC for the deadlock while exonerating ZANU PF from any responsibility.

ZBC (20/1, 8pm), for example, selectively recorded ordinary Zimbabweans accusing the MDC-T of "lacking commitment" in the dialogue and deliberately "delaying" the formation of an inclusive government without clearly showing how. Notably, all those quoted were at ZANU PF Harare provincial headquarters.

Instead of giving the MDC an opportunity to respond to these accusations, ZBC (22, 23 & 24/1, 8pm) simply reinforced this propaganda by accessing its usual pro-government commentators, such as ZANU PF's Chris Mutsvangwa and Caesar Zvayi, accusing the MDC-T leader of "playing to the tune of his British and American masters" by "continuously changing goal posts to scuttle the implementation of the agreement". ZTV (24/1, 8pm) also failed to question Tafataona Mahoso's suggestion that SADC "should read the riot act" to the MDC-T by "banning its offices in the region" if it failed to comply with SADC's resolution urging it to join a coalition government.

ZBC (23 & 24/1, 8pm) also suffocated the MDC-T's concerns by reporting them mostly from the perspective of ZANU PF's chief negotiator Patrick Chinamasa, who repeatedly described the opposition's demands as "unacceptable''.

ZBC's coverage of other topical stories bore the same hallmarks of bias and distortion.

For example, it failed to provide coherent information about the cholera epidemic. Spot FM (22/1, 6am) reported that cholera cases in Matabeleland South were declining, while Radio Zimbabwe (24/1, 8pm) recorded an increase in cholera deaths in Binga where 30 people had recently died.

However, the broadcaster did air cholera awareness adverts before its main news bulletins and after every commercial break during the week, educating the public about how to prevent the disease.

ZBC also downplayed the problems bedevilling the education sector by reporting analysts and government officials justifying the authorities' failure to release students' examination results on time. Spot FM (21/01 6am), for example, quoted UZ vice-chancellor Levy Nyagura saying the delay was "meant to facilitate quality assurance in the marking, recording and distribution of the results" without testing the validity of his claims.
The privately owned radio stations gave space to the MDC-T to articulate its position on the political stalemate.

Studio 7 and SW Radio Africa (21 & 22/1) quoted the party describing as "hogwash" accusations that it was responsible for the near collapse of the talks, insisting that it was ZANU PF, which was stalling the deal by refusing to equitably share power. These stations also recorded the opposition reiterating that they would not be pressurized to join any coalition until their demands were met.

Studio 7 and SW Radio Africa (20 & 22/1) also reported SA civil society organisations and churches urging SADC to apply more pressure on Mugabe to make concessions, while an international human rights watchdog called on the AU to suspend Zimbabwe citing ongoing human rights violations.

The private stations reported the country's socio-economic crises as worsening as exemplified by the rise in the cholera death toll to nearly 3 000 in the week (SW Radio Africa, 22/1).

Fig 4: Voice distribution on ZBC and private radio stations

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