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Report: Media coverage of political violence & human rights abuses in Zim's 2008
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
June 04, 2009

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Foreword

This research reports on the media's coverage of political violence and human rights violations as reported in Zimbabwe's media during the country's March 2008 harmonised elections and the June presidential poll run-off election. The statistics and graphs are accompanied by a qualitative analysis of the nature and content of the reports on the violence in Zimbabwe and seeks to identify where the blame for the violence was mostly attributed.

This research serves as a companion to MMPZ's major work on the performance of the media during Zimbabwe's two elections in 2008, entitled The Propaganda War on Electoral Democracy - Media Coverage of Zimbabwe's 2008 Election Campaigns.

Other books published by MMPZ include: A Duty to Inform; A Question of Balance: The Media and the February 2000 Referendum on the Draft Constitution; The Media War - Media Coverage of the 2000 Parliamentary Elections; Media Under Siege - Media Coverage of the 2002 Presidential and Mayoral Elections; and, Election Voices Silenced - Media Coverage of Zimbabwe's 2005 Parliamentary Elections."

The management of MMPZ wishes to extend its thanks to all those partner organizations who provided the Project with the support necessary for the research and publication of this booklet. And a special thanks goes to the Project's monitoring staff, particularly Sandra Mujokoro, the main researcher, who worked so long and hard in compiling the information that made this publication possible.

Notes to the monitoring and analysis of this report

MMPZ defines political violence as any form of physical, emotional and verbal abuse such as threats, insults, assaults, abductions, murder, attempted murder, torture, rape, forced school closures, coercion, property related-attacks and arson. The Project also recorded other related forms of human rights violations as reported by the media, such as unlawful arrests and detentions, attacks on Zimbabweans' freedoms of association, expression and assembly, and discrimination.

This analysis is divided into two time frames. The first is between January 1 and March 31 2008, which covered the March harmonised election period. The second is from April 1 to June 30 2008, the period leading up to - and just after - the presidential run-off election.

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