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Weekly Media Update 2009-19
Monday May 11th - Sunday May 17th 2009
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
May 22, 2009

General comment

While the Media Monitoring Project welcomes the rare acknowledgement of its activities by the state media and government, it deplores their selective use of its reports to deflect criticism of the public media's evident violation of their public service mandate, particularly in covering the activities of the parties in the coalition government.

For example, as this report was being compiled, ZBC stations (19/5, 4-8pm) widely reported Information Minister Webster Shamu citing, out of context, a section of MMPZ's Weekly Media Update No.18 to dismiss as "untrue" and "unjustified" the MDC-T's complaints over the public media's unfair coverage of its activities.

They recorded him narrowly quoting the public media's sourcing patterns as contained in the MMPZ report, showing that the official media gave more space to government officials from the MDC-T as compared to other parties in the coalition authority in the week of May 4th to May 10th 2009.

The minister then claimed it was "astonishing" for the MDC-T, which was represented in the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC), to issue "parallel statements when JOMIC has acknowledged the role the public media is playing in supporting the inclusive government".

While it is true that the official media quoted the MDC-T more than its government counterparts that week, Minister Shamu was guilty of separating the quantitative statistics of the report from its inseparable qualitative analysis, thus distorting our findings on the media's adherence to acceptable journalistic standards in covering the coalition partners' activities in the unity government.

An honest read of MMPZ's contextual analysis clearly shows that while the MDC-T was the dominant voice in the state media, it was largely quoted in the context of these media's thrust to portray the new government as united over the source of country's problems and requisite solutions. Expressions of impatience with the coalition's inability to fully implement the conditions of the Global Political Agreement were largely censored.

In fact, this professional distortion of the facts has characterized the state media's coverage of the coalition government since its inception and has distorted the realities of instability in the government, its causes and the exact positions of the parties.

MMPZ views this abuse of its findings as an attempt to give credence to the unethical conduct of the state media, which have, so far, failed to fully abide by the GPA's demands that they provide "balanced and fair coverage to all political parties".

The public and private Press

Anxiety over the coalition government's failure to resolve its protracted differences and harness its energies towards rebuilding the country remained a widely debated issue in the media, although stories on Zimbabwe's socio-economic problems were numerically a more popular subject. See Fig 1.

Fig 1: Topical issues in the print media

The government papers continued to play down this political friction despite their crippling effects on government operations by magnifying the qualified impression given by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai that most disputes had been addressed.

As a result, they dismissed concerns by the MDC-T, civil society and the West over delays in the resolution of outstanding issues under the Global Political Agreement and other fresh differences as unwarranted and part of the West's "illegal" regime change agenda in Zimbabwe. No proof of this was given.

One of the most blatant examples of this was The Herald's attempt (18/5) to portray as premature an MDC-T resolution appealing to SADC and the AU (guarantors of the power-sharing deal) for arbitration following what the party considered to be ZANU PF's reluctance to deal decisively with the outstanding issues. Notably, none of the government papers gave a full account of the resolutions issued following an urgent meeting of the MDC-T national executive council, or assessed the validity of its concerns.

The Herald's headline, 'Tsvangirai bows to party pressure on sticking issues' (18/5) appeared intent on isolating the MDC-T leader from his party by suggesting he had been pressurized into toeing the party line against his better judgment. To support this perspective the story used Tsvangirai's earlier remarks dismissing reports that his party had given the three political principals a "deadline" to solve the outstanding issues to illustrate the premature nature of the party's decisions. The paper also reminded its readers that Tsvangirai had stated that "95 percent" of these issues had been resolved and an announcement was due to be made soon. However, the paper failed to reconcile this perspective with a series of failed meetings between the coalition partners to resolve their differences and Tsvangirai's own contemporary comment that "I totally agree with the decision that has been made by my party . . . "

While The Herald (11/5) defensively reported that the scheduled announcement on the resolutions to the disputed issues had been delayed because "President Mugabe was hosting a delegation from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea", the paper censored news of the earlier meetings between the principals, let alone informing their readers that they had ended in deadlock.

Later in the week (14/5), in their reports on the official launch of the government's 100-day action plan, The Herald and the Chronicle made no attempt at explaining who Tsvangirai was referring to when he expressed his annoyance over "retrogressive elements . . . who "should not be allowed to sabotage the work of the inclusive government." The papers refused to allow such comments to qualify their impression that the Prime Minister regarded the "sticking issues" as nothing more than trivial.

And instead of honestly reporting the reasons for the reticence of the international community in providing budgetary support for the government, the official papers glossed over the coalition's failure to adhere to the conditions of the GPA and resolve the outstanding power-sharing disputes with 21 public relations stories that selectively depicted the inclusive government as gaining the unconditional confidence of the international community. They cited the visits by separate delegations from North and South Korea and extension of more credit lines to the country by regional investors as examples.

The Sunday Mail (17/5) also accused international donors who bypassed the discredited Reserve Bank with their financial aid of "fanning conflict" in the government meant to "oust" ZANU PF from power.

The government-controlled papers carried seven reports on human rights abuses, mostly by state security agents, but did not view them as such. They comprised the conviction of MDC-T Chipinge East MP Matthias Mlambo on obstruction of justice charges and updates on court cases involving civic and MDC-T activists facing banditry and terrorism charges.

Notably, the official papers censored the arrest of human rights lawyer Alec Muchadehama on allegations of obstructing the course of justice.

The private papers blamed alleged ZANU PF hardliners and deep-seated mistrust among the principals of the coalition parties for the delays in the resolution of the outstanding issues. They quoted analysts contending that the problems were distracting the inclusive government from its core business of reversing the country's socio-economic crises.

The Standard (17/5), for example, cited political activist Paul Siwela questioning Tsvangirai's ability to stop ZANU PF from violating the GPA, while the Zimbabwe Independent featured an opinion piece by Independent MP Jonathan Moyo (15/5) contending that government's 100-day action plan was likely to fail due to inadequate funding, among other problems. The Independent also viewed the conflict between ZANU PF and the MDC-T over the control of donor funds as indicative of serious problems in the new administration.

However, The Financial Gazette (14/5) downplayed these problems by misleading its readers that the principals had finally resolved them despite evidence to the contrary.

The private papers reported the arrest of prominent human rights lawyer Alec Muchadehama and the conviction of MP Matthias Mlambo as evidence of hardliners within government attempting to restore the old regime's authority.

Fig 2: Voice distribution in the Press

ZBC and private radio stations

Although ZBC gave significant space to the inclusive government as shown in Fig. 3, this did not translate into fair and balanced coverage.

It misleadingly projected the coalition partners as having almost resolved the outstanding issues under the Global Political Agreement (GPA) while suffocating news of the friction that blighted the government's first 100 days, forcing the MDC to refer the disagreements to the guarantors of the unity pact, SADC and the AU.

Fig 3: Topical issues on ZBC and private stations

Nearly all the ZBC stories on the matter either passively reported official statements that appeared to gloss over cracks in the government or simply projected visits and pledges of help by some countries and international organisations, including North Korea, as a sign of international confidence in the new administration.

ZTV (13/5, 8pm), for example, selectively quoted Prime Minister Tsvangirai describing the inclusive government as "irreversible" and that the principals had made "significant progress" in resolving outstanding issues while launching the new 100-day economic plan. However, it censored his criticism of "retrogressive elements" within government of undermining the coalition government. Neither did ZBC test the veracity of Tsvangirai's statements with the disunity in government, nor reconcile them with a subsequent resolution by his party to refer the stand-off over power sharing to SADC and the AU.

Consequently, ZBC audiences were left in the dark about the causes and extent of the problems bedeviling government, including their negative ramifications on its quest for economic renewal.

In fact, 10 of the 46 stories the national broadcaster carried about the government's activities downplayed the implications of the problems plaguing its economic programmes by presenting foreign dignitaries' visits to the country and their promises of investment as indicative of government's success.

In addition, the national broadcaster reported symptoms of the country's socio-economic decay, illustrated by poor service delivery, dilapidated infrastructure, low productivity, labour unrest, and the high cost of living in isolation of government's economic interventions.

Similarly, the broadcaster's three stories on human rights violations, which included the arrest of human rights lawyer, Alec Muchadehama, for allegedly obstructing the course of justice, were presented as the normal practice of law enforcement and not an example of government's failure to institute democratic reforms and restore the rule of law as prescribed by the GPA and demanded by Western nations.

Only those with access to the private radio stations were informed about the conflicts in government, their source and implications on the country's economic recovery. For example, they revealed that although there appeared to have been some progress in resolving the appointment of ministerial secretaries and ambassadors, President Mugabe had remained unyielding over his unilateral appointment of the central bank governor and the Attorney General.

They also revealed that the donor community's plans to channel funds through the MDC-T-run finance ministry and not the central bank had angered ZANU PF, which feared the move could boost the MDC-T's political fortunes.

The stations also interpreted the country's persisting economic distress and human rights abuses as examples of the government's failure to implement the GPA in its first 100 days.

Their nine stories on rights violations included two fresh incidents, including the arrest of Muchadehama and the conviction of MDC-T MP for Chipinge South Mathias Mlambo.

Fig 4: Voice distribution on ZBC and private radios

Online Publications

News coverage of the private online agencies also focused on the coalition government's power struggles and their impact on the country's ailing economy.

Fig 5: Topical stories on online news agencies

The agencies quoted independent commentators arguing that although the inclusive government had registered some notable achievements, especially on the economic front, there was little progress in instituting genuine democratic reforms as illustrated by the continued selective use of the country's repressive laws against the media and civic activists. In fact, the agencies carried 22 reports highlighting the country's poor human rights situation, two of which were incidents similar to those carried by other private media.

However, despite these democratic setbacks, the online agencies cited analysts noting that recent statements of guarded cooperation by officials from Western countries, including Britain, signaled the thawing of hostilities between the West and Zimbabwe.

Fig 6: Online agencies - Voice distribution

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