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Weekly Media Update 2009-6
Monday February 9th - Sunday February 15th 2009
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
February 20, 2009

1. Comment

Those with access to the Internet and international media were again exposed to the contagion effect of the authorities' hatred of a free Press exposing their lavish lifestyles.

The Agence France Presse news agency reported (15/2) that barely a month after being assaulted by President Mugabe's wife, Grace, and her bodyguards while covering her trip to Hong Kong in January, journalist Tim O'Rourke was again set upon by some individuals allegedly linked to the first family.

AFP reported that "two men and a woman" attacked O'Rourke and another journalist Colin Galloway and "seized a camera" when they tried to take pictures of a US$5.8 million mansion, which the British-based Sunday Times claimed Mugabe and his wife secretly bought in Hong Kong's affluent Tai Po district.

This latest incident appears to be yet another manifestation of the authorities compulsive fear of robust journalism that threatens to expose their excesses.

The recent instalment by The Herald's vituperative columnist Nathaniel Manheru (14/2), widely believed to be Information Secretary George Charamba, also illustrated this point.

While expressing his disapproval of the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee's meeting with the media, he appeared to threaten the private media's coverage of part of the MDC's proposed programme of action in the new government saying they "should not cry when 'JOMIC' or some creature pays them a visit" as they had brought "into the home logs infested with ants".

He did not explain how exactly the private media's rightful duty to report on MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai's promises and his party's plans to replace the governor of the Reserve Bank translated into these media "seeking a throwback to the days of conflict".

Otherwise, his argument appeared to be aimed at intimidating journalists into self-censorship, especially on stories that exposed the fragile nature of the coalition government.

However, Zimbabweans' rights to inform and be informed are not the only rights to have been threatened since the formation of an inclusive government.

During the week the private media carried 30 stories on other rights abuses, which recorded five new incidents. These comprised the arrest of Roy Bennett, the MDC's Agriculture Deputy Minister designate, and his supporters in Mutare, scores of WOZA activists, and the invasion of Mazowe Estates and several other farms in Matabeleland North by ZANU PF officials and supporters. The remaining stories were mainly follow-up reports on the continued detention of human rights activists and MDC supporters accused of terrorism.

However, the domestic private media did not give a comprehensive picture of the new wave of farm seizures, which the international media reported as nationwide. Neither did they probe the reasons behind them.

The government media completely ignored these incidents, restricting themselves to reporting the court appearances of the detained civic and MDC activists. This was in line with their attempts to give a façade of normalcy following the formation of an inclusive government.

2. ZBC and Private Radio Stations

Zimbabweans' great expectations of renewal, tentatively revived by the eventual formation of an inclusive government following five months of tense and acrimonious power-sharing bargaining between ZANU PF and the two MDC formations, was well reflected in the news programmes of both the public and private radio stations. The development eclipsed all other contemporary issues in the week. See Fig 1.

Fig 1: Topical Stories on ZBC and private radio stations

In an uncharacteristic display of professionalism and political tolerance, the national broadcaster, ZBC, restricted itself to providing straightforward reports on the political developments, which included the historic swearing-in of MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai as Prime Minister and his deputies Thokozani Khupe and Arthur Mutambara.

ZBC's stance resembled a significant change from its previously biased coverage of the subject aimed at tarnishing the image of the MDC (Tsvangirai) by blaming it for the inordinate delays in the formation of the coalition while overlooking ZANU PF's culpability in the matter.

For example, ZTV (11/2, 8pm) gave uninhibited coverage to Tsvangirai's celebration rally at Glamis stadium soon after being sworn-in as prime minister, which ran for two minutes and 45 seconds. The coverage included footage of the huge crowd, as well as a rare positive sound bite of Tsvangirai urging civil servants to return to work and promising them salaries in foreign currency.

But beyond that, ZBC maintained its professionally supine posture. It made no attempt to give expression to the pitfalls that still litter the route of the inclusive government's long march to reversing Zimbabwe's political and economic slide.

For example, it failed to question ZANU PF's continued political acts of deception even as the inclusive government was being launched. These comprised the controversial arrest of MDC Agriculture Deputy Minister designate Roy Bennett on terrorism and banditry charges and ZANU PF's attempts to sneak in an additional seven ministers at their swearing-in ceremony in contravention of the Global Political Agreement with its MDC counterparts.

For example, ZTV (13/2,8pm) only mentioned that five ZANU PF ministers attending the ceremony at State House were not sworn in without giving details. Neither did it explain why a total of 35 ministers were eventually appointed to Cabinet instead of the agreed 31. Nor did the national broadcaster question the practicability of so many ministerial portfolios, several of which clearly overlap, and their expected drain on the fiscus.

ZBC's coverage of the cholera epidemic and the crumbling health and economic sectors also largely remained piecemeal.

The private radio stations provided critical coverage of the inclusive government.

They highlighted continued international scepticism about the viability of the new government and the obstacles that threaten to derail it. For example, they reported Bennett's arrest, ZANU PF attempts to swear-in more ministers than its allocation, and its falsification of provisions of the National Security Council Bill, which aims to reform the operations of the country's state security agencies, as illustrating ZANU PF's lack of commitment to the coalition government.

In one report, SW Radio Africa (12/2) quoted MDC-T chief whip Innocent Gonese claiming that Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa had tampered with the Security Council Bill by increasing its proposed membership of 11 to 21, reduced its recommended fortnightly meetings to once a month, and proposed that the vice-president should chair the council in the absence of the President, a move seen as trying to undermine the Prime Minister.

The private electronic media gave useful reports on the country's worsening humanitarian and economic crises too.

Fig 2:Voice distribution on ZBC and private radios

3. Online Publications

The formation of the inclusive government was also the most topical issue in the private online agencies as shown in Fig 3.

Fig 3: Stories on Online Agencies

Like the private radio stations, the online agencies provided critical coverage of political developments.

They questioned the logic of Mugabe's retention of most members of his previous administration despite him describing them last year as his "worst" Cabinet ever, and highlighted the controversy sparked by the MDC-T's original Cabinet list that sidelined those from Matabeleland. They also questioned the wisdom of Tsvangirai's promises to pay civil servants in foreign currency, which New Zimbabwe (11/2) believed was tantamount to "speaking himself into trouble", considering Zimbabwe's ruined economy. They also reported ZANU PF's attempted chicanery to increase its influence in the new government as illustrated by its tampering with provisions of the Security Council Bill to dilute the influence of the Prime Minister.

Fig 4: Voice distribution of the online agencies

4. The Government and Private Press

The swearing-in of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, his two deputies and new Cabinet ministers dominated news of the week. For example, 130 (55%) of the 233 stories the papers carried were on the subject, while the remainder covered the country's socio-economic crises and continuing human rights violations. See Fig. 5.

Fig 5: Topical news distribution in the Press

However, instead of exposing the frailties of the inclusive government that included ZANU PF's attempts to boost its influence, the government Press simply glossed over them in a bid to portray the transitional arrangement as an unquestionable cure for the country's ills. Consequently, the official papers did not question the capacity of President Mugabe's ministerial nominees, who were part of his former Cabinet, which he had described last August as being the worst ever. For example, The Herald and Chronicle (12/2) only reported criticism of Tsvangirai's original Cabinet list, for having underrepresented Matabeleland, one of his party's strongest support bases.

They also made no attempt to examine the functions of the new ministries, including the possible duplication of duties. Nor did they investigate the reasons behind Mugabe's attempts to inflate ZANU PF's ministerial allocation or the circumstances leading to his subsequent appointment of only two out of the seven he had intended to smuggle into Cabinet. The official papers fleetingly referred to the matter without viewing it as yet another indicator of ZANU PF's insincerity in the formation of the new government. The arrest of MDC's deputy minister-designate Roy Bennett on old charges of banditry was also presented as a normal exercise. No effort was made to relate his arrest with the acquittal of his co-accused more than two years ago, or to analyse its political implications. In contrast, the private media reported Bennett's arrest as one of the reasons behind the five-hour delay in the swearing-in of ministers because the MDC protested against it, as well as the inflation of ZANU PF's ministerial allocation.

The government papers' attempts to conceal evident upsets in the formation of the transitional government, caused mainly by ZANU PF's chicanery, compounded their attempts to suppress news that the National Security Council Bill had been tampered with before its presentation to Parliament in an effort to dilute the MDC's influence.

And although the papers tried to reflect the spirit of inclusivity by also giving the MDC fair front-page publicity, traces of their usual bias against the party could still be detected in their reports.

For example, The Herald (12/2) gave acres of space to Mugabe's speech at the swearing-in ceremony while relegating to the end of the story snippets of Tsvangirai and Mutambara's inaugural statements. The Herald and Chronicle of that day also buried news of Tsvangirai's rally at Glamis Stadium where he outlined his vision on their inside pages. They also censored most of his promises, including paying civil servants in hard currency, preferring to stress his calls for reconciliation and peaceful co-existence among the parties. His promise only appeared the next day (13/2) in the context of acting finance minister Patrick Chinamasa expanding on it, and teachers' representative Sifiso Ndlovu dismissing it as "void".

That same day Herald columnist Caesar Zvayi downplayed the MDC's contribution in the establishment of the new administration, deceitfully arguing that the new government was not born out of "ideological congruence but Mugabe's legacy of inclusion pursuant to nation building".

The government papers' failure to tackle adequately issues affecting Zimbabweans was more apparent in their coverage of the country's deteriorating socio-economic crises. Except for The Sunday Mail's critical examination (15/2) of government's plans to pay civil servants in foreign currency vouchers, none of their reports viewed the country's economic decline and the chaos in the health and education sectors as symptoms of the old government's policy failures. Neither did they give comprehensive updates on the cholera epidemic and the situation at schools.

The private papers performed better.

They dismissed the enlarged Cabinet as a burden on the country's fiscus; viewed the creation of overlapping portfolios as purely driven by the desire to accommodate the three parties; interpreted the ministerial appointments as hinged more on cronyism than competence, and exposed the confusion and chaos that characterized the swearing-in ceremony of ministers, which they blamed on ZANU PF's dishonesty. They also doubted the new government's viability, saying mistrust among the parties was likely to undermine its success, and gave Bennett's arrest and Mugabe's plans to smuggle extra ministers into the Cabinet as examples of the problems it faced.

However, except for The Zimbabwean (12/2), none of the private papers reported ZANU PF's attempts to alter the agreed provisions of the National Security Council Bill. The weekly reported that the party had expanded council members from 11 to 21; changed the frequency of its meetings to once a month instead of fortnightly, and granted the vice-president powers to chair the council in the absence of the President rather than the Prime Minister.

The privately owned papers also failed to keep their readers up to date with the extent of Zimbabwe's socio-economic catastrophes, including the latest cholera statistics.

Fig 6: Voice distribution in the Press

Quote of the week:

"I will work to create a society where our values are stronger than the threat of violence, where our children's future and happiness is more important than present political goals, and where a person is free to express an opinion . . . without fear of reprisal or repression," Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai - Studio 7 (11/2).

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