Back to Index

This article participates on the following special index pages:

Weekly Media Update 2009-7
Monday February 16th 2009 - Sunday February 22nd 2009
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
February 27, 2009

1. General comment

In recent days the domestic media have provided ample evidence of its utter failure to inform Zimbabweans adequately, particularly regarding political developments since the formation of the new government.
While it is possible the private weekly press miss important developments due to their deadlines, the same cannot be said for the government-controlled daily media, which have evidently wilfully suppressed this information.

The most contemporary of these shortcomings was the blatant censorship by the national broadcaster, ZBC (25 & 26/2), and the government dailies (25/2) of a Press conference by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Wednesday February 25th rescinding President Mugabe's unilateral appointment of permanent secretaries to most ministries of the inclusive government in an apparent breach of the Global Political Agreement and the Constitution.

Only private radio stations and online news agencies (25 & 26/2) alerted their audiences on this important development, which clearly indicates an escalation in the power struggle already threatening the inclusive government.

Similarly, except for The Zimbabwean On Sunday (22/2), the rest of the papers remained silent on alleged MDC retributive attacks on ZANU PF activists accused of spearheading the brutal campaign against President Mugabe's opponents in the run-up to the June 2008 presidential run-off.

It was only in the electronic media (ZTV, Spot FM and the privately run news website, The Zimbabwe Times) that the issue received some coverage.

However, ZTV (18 & 19/2, 8pm) tried to mask the motive behind the violence with its reporters vaguely revealing that political violence had erupted in Mutoko East and Bindura where suspected MDC supporters had attacked ZANU PF activists. They avoided providing a context to the attacks, preferring to leave that responsibility to the victims who told the station that their attackers had accused them of taking part in ZANU PF's violent campaign during last year's elections.

Likewise, while Spot FM (19/2) reported that ZANU PF supporters were attacked in what MDC activists "termed 'pay-back time'", it did not give any useful background information about the violence.

The government papers ignored these incidents with The Herald (23/2) only fleetingly referring to the violence in the context of the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee's imprecise condemnation of "some party supporters" who were "taking the law into their own hands by attacking rival party supporters in revenge for alleged acts of violence" ahead of the presidential re-run. The paper also failed to provide background information on the issue, which was buried in a report on JOMIC's meeting over detained civic and MDC activists.

Thus, those who had not accessed the electronic media might have been left wondering what exactly JOMIC was commenting on.

The failure by The Herald and the Chronicle to cover this evident threat to the spirit of tolerance enshrined in the ZANU PF/MDC political accord tallied with their censorship of other stories exposing the continued rights abuses and obstructions to the administration of justice since the inauguration of the new administration.

For example, while the government papers carried nine follow-up reports on the court appearances and continued detention of human rights and MDC activists, they were all detached from the typical state-sponsored abuses of ZANU PF opponents, which independent observers have pointed to as being one of the major threats to the transitional authority.

ZBC's five stories on the subject adopted a similar trend.

It was against this background that the government media suffocated the decision by the Attorney-General's office to invoke Section 121 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act to block the release on bail of some of the detained MDC activists accused of recruiting people to commit acts of banditry. Neither did they expose the state's repeated defiance of court rulings ordering that detained activists receive medical attention. Similarly, these media censored news of a new wave of farm invasions, which according to the private and international media have seen the seizure of about 70 farms since the beginning of the year.

These issues appeared in the 59 reports the private media carried on rights abuses.

2. The Public and Private Press

The inclusive government's first week in office drew widespread interest in all the Press, outmatching all other contemporary issues in the week (See Fig 1).

Fig 1: Topical issues in the print media

However, the Press' hype over the new political set-up, characterised by its concerted efforts to lure civil servants back to work and set the tone for economic recovery, did not necessarily translate into effective coverage in the government papers.

These generally restricted themselves to hailing the new administration, passively reporting its pronouncements and isolated short-term programmes of intent without balancing such optimism with any realistic assessment of the inclusive government's task of reversing the economic downturn.

For example, there was no attempt to verify whether the US$5 billion emergency support being sought by the new government would be enough to kick-start economic recovery in an environment where public and health service delivery had virtually collapsed, or even how government had arrived at such a figure. Neither did the official Press investigate whether the coalition had already drawn up back-up, or long-term economic revival blueprints.

Instead, they merely cast an aura of purposefulness around the new political set-up without posing hard questions about its frailty, given public signs of serious tension.

For example, the official Press did not decisively report on the fight for control of economic policy in between Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara and Finance Minister Tendai Biti on the one hand, and Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono, on the other, and its implications on the new government's capacity to deliver and restore investor and donor confidence.

Moreover, there was no reconciliation of this latest confrontation with Biti's earlier decision to let civil servants exchange their US$100 vouchers for cash, effectively rescinding the old government's initial proposals that they be used as shopping vouchers at selected shops.

Mechanical too was the government Press' earlier coverage of the swearing-in of deputy ministers and five additional ministers of state, inflating Cabinet to 41 ministers and 19 deputies, without highlighting the burden this would inflict on the fiscus. Neither did they question the constitutionality of the bloated Cabinet or the reasons behind it, particularly as it violated provisions of the Global Political Agreement (GPA), which stipulates 31 ministers and 15 deputies.

The Herald (20/2) passively quoted President Mugabe saying the parties had agreed "to have three more Ministers of State to promote national healing and reconciliation" without seeking collaboration from the other parties. Equally, no comment was sought from JOMIC, set up under the GPA, to oversee strict adherence of the accord's provisions by the inclusive government. The public Press also failed to remind its readers of previous violations of the GPA, mainly by ZANU PF, and their repercussions on the viability of the inclusive government, nor ask JOMIC what had been done to remedy these violations.

In one interesting development, The Herald (21/2) suddenly began referring to Biti and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai as "Cdes", a term previously reserved for ZANU PF officials and their inner circle of friends. No explanation has so far been given on whether this represents new editorial policy or was simply an oversight, especially as the next day The Sunday Mail (22/2) continued addressing them as "Messrs".

The official papers gave minimal coverage to health issues, which were largely limited to issuing isolated updates on infections and deaths from the cholera epidemic.

A more robust coverage of the political developments appeared in the private Press, which continued to warn against the obstacles facing the inclusive government. Not only did they present the bloated government as an albatross to the economy and a concern to the international community, which would be reluctant to fund it, they also exposed how it contravened the GPA.

The private Press also highlighted how struggles for supremacy between ZANU PF and the MDC, characterised by the Biti/Mutambara and Gono clashes, the continued detention of MDC Agriculture Deputy Minister designate Roy Bennett, and other MDC and civic activists on banditry and terrorism charges, among others, continued to undermine the effectiveness of the inclusive government.

The Zimbabwe Independent (20/2), for example, viewed the friction between Biti and Gono as reflecting a "broader ongoing political struggle for control between President Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai which might be played out in several other key government institutions".

While both the public and private Press appeared to have given MDC ministers preference, the critical nature of their ministerial portfolios meant they were more in the news than their ZANU PF counterparts.

Fig 2: Voice distribution in the print media

3. ZBC and Private Radio Stations

Efforts by the newly formed government to revive the country's collapsed socio-economic sectors, the most evident indicators of ZANU PF misrule, dominated the electronic media during the week. See Fig. 3.

Fig 3: Topical stories on ZBC and private stations

Although ZBC uncharacteristically gave fair coverage to activities of both MDC and ZANU PF ministers, it still demonstrated its typical passivity. For example, it simply gave updates on various meetings between the ministers and labour and business representatives, among others, without subjecting their policy positions or undertakings to scrutiny. There was no attempt to test the adequacy of government plans to address problems in the civil service. Neither did the broadcaster test the sufficiency of the US$5 billion aid package Prime Minister Tsvangirai was reportedly seeking in South Africa. ZBC also failed to investigate apparent policy contradictions between ZANU PF and MDC arms of government, particularly regarding the payment of civil servants and the legitimacy of the budget and monetary policies ZANU PF presented before the formation of the new administration.

For example, ZTV (18/2, 7am) passively reported Finance Minister Tendai Biti as having "modified" the US dollar voucher payment of civil servants into cash without viewing this as contradicting his predecessor Patrick Chinamasa's proposal in the 2009 national budget. Similarly, ZBC did not reconcile Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara's calls on business to ignore the monetary and fiscal policies announced by the old government as they were subject to review by the new administration with the central bank governor's insistence that the two policies were still legitimate.

Such supine journalism also manifested itself in the broadcaster's reports on the swearing-in of more ministers and deputy ministers without categorically noting that the development had resulted in the expansion of the Cabinet to 41 ministries, a violation of the agreement between the parties and Constitutional Amendment No.19 that provided for only 31 portfolios.

ZBC's coverage of the country's economic and humanitarian crises as mirrored by the worsening cholera epidemic, the collapsed health delivery system and chaos in the education sector, was also not informative. For example, there were no incisive updates on the situation at schools, the health sector or on the cholera outbreak, leaving ZBC audiences ignorant of the rising cholera casualties.

Instead, ZTV & Spot FM (19/2, 8pm) wasted an interview with new Health Minister Henry Madzorera by not asking how he intended to achieve his vision of having a "fully functioning health delivery system" with "visible signs of improvement by the end of the year".

In contrast, private radio stations continued to question the sustainability of the bloated Cabinet and its stability, pointing out the continued detentions of civic and MDC activists, and the ZANU PF-instigated expansion of Cabinet in violation of the agreement as evidence of ZANU PF's lack of commitment to the success of the transitional authority.

They also quoted independent commentators doubting the new government's chances of getting international financial aid, arguing that most donor countries would remain reluctant to assist unless there were genuine policy reforms. However, they failed to investigate the circumstances leading to the appointment of new ministers or discuss the constitutionality of the development.

However, they continued to report on the country's economic decline; Britain's intention to "resettle" its elderly nationals from Zimbabwe; the chaos at schools; and the spreading cholera epidemic.

For example, Studio 7 (18/2) cited WHO statistics revealing that cholera infections had risen by nearly 19,000 in the week to 78,888 people with 3,712 deaths and that Mashonaland Central and Harare's Budiriro suburb were the worst affected.

ZBC's even coverage of both MDC and ZANU PF ministers was mirrored by its sourcing pattern, shown below.

Fig 4: Voice distribution on ZBC and private stations

4. Online Publications

The newly formed government also proved topical in the online news agencies:

Fig 5: Topical stories in the online agencies

The agencies noted ZANU PF's chicanery in appointing extra ministers and the continued detention of civic and MDC activists, among other issues, had become the main obstacles to the new government's success.

In addition, they argued that the appointment of extra ministers with "vague or no responsibilities" was not driven by the desire to address the country's problems but to appease "disgruntled ZANU PF members from the previous administration" who had been left out of the new government (The Zimbabwe Times, 19/2).

Fig 6: Online agencies - Voice distribution

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