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Weekly Media Update 2009-22
Monday June 1st 2009 - Sunday June 7th 2009
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
June 12, 2009

General comment

The official media's unwillingness to expose ZANU PF government officials' reluctance to embrace democratic ethos envisaged in the unity deal was clearly illustrated by their coverage of a High Court ruling granting journalists permission to cover the just-ended COMESA summit without accreditation.

This followed a court application by four freelance journalists challenging the legitimacy of the abolished Media and Information Commission (MIC), which the ZANU PF-run information ministry had misleadingly insisted remained a legal media regulatory authority that would accredit journalists for the summit. Instead of openly reporting on Justice Bharat Patel's judgment that MIC was legally defunct after last year's amendments to AIPPA and therefore had no authority to accredit journalists, ZTV (5&6/6, 8pm) and the official dailies (6/6) presented it only in the context of the State's intention to appeal against the ruling.

No attempt was made to view the matter as another indicator of lingering intolerance of a free media by the ZANU PF arm of government, which poses a serious threat to genuine media reforms that MDC officials are championing.
Neither did these media view the information ministry's failure to abide by Justice Patel's order that it should publicly rescind its order compelling journalists to seek accreditation with MIC by putting notices in the media as contemptuous of the court. This is particularly so given that Justice Patel ruled that his judgement would stand regardless of an appeal while interdicting Information Minister Webster Shamu and his secretary George Charamba as well as "their agents and any person purporting to act on their behalf or with their authority from making statements, publishing notices, or attempting in any other way to compel the four and or any other journalists to accredit for the Comesa summit, or assuming any functions of the [proposed Zimbabwe Media Commission] including the levying of accreditation fees."

The official media censored this aspect of the ruling, which appeared in The Standard (7/6) and online agencies.
It is against this background that The Herald (8/6) did not view the subsequent barring of "several people" without accreditation from covering the COMESA meeting by "security officials" who "were in charge of accrediting journalists at the summit venue" as illegal and in contempt of court. Instead, it resorted to ironic comment by trying to shift the blame for the authorities' own intolerable conduct against the media to the High Court, by suggesting that the court's ruling could have "inadvertently . . . led to a number of media practitioners failing to cover the Comesa summit". It did not explain how it might have been responsible for this nor did it ask under what authority security agents accredited journalists.

The Public and Private Press

Disillusionment with the inclusive government's inability to reform and fully adhere to the terms of the Global Political Agreement (GPA), a prerequisite to crucial political and socio-economic renewal, continued to dominate newspaper space.

Fig 1 illustrates the frequency of coverage of these issues in the Press.

Government papers never attempted to give a fair and balanced picture of the causes of paralysis in the coalition government. They simply arrogated to themselves the role of ZANU PF publicists, echoing and amplifying the party's position on the problems afflicting the unity government in disregard of the facts and alternative opinion.
Accordingly, they remained fixated with ZANU PF's sanctions rhetoric, presenting the matter as the only outstanding issue under the GPA that was hampering international funding of government's regeneration drive. No coherent evidence of this was provided.

The official papers also failed to provide a proper context in which the West's targeted sanctions, which they continued to misrepresent as a national economic embargo, were imposed on the ZANU PF leadership and its circle of associates. As a result, they did not expose how the party was deliberately confusing the purported effects of the smart sanctions on the country with the disastrous ramifications of government's own administrative shortcomings, caused by its long-term failure to service huge external debts (running into billions of US dollars) and its refusal to honour the power-sharing agreement. For example, the government media steered clear of how the government's failure to comply with the GPA - especially in restoring civil and political liberties, including property rights - continued to scare away potential donors and investors, in pursuit of their propaganda that sanctions were central to Zimbabwe's problems. They carried 14 reports that presented this misconception.

In one of these, The Herald (2/6) contrived to portray Britain's first steps to repatriate its elderly citizens living in the country due to harsh economic conditions as proof that "Western-imposed economic sanctions have hit (British) pensioners hard". It quoted "observers" criticising Britain for "double standards as it showed that London was acknowledging the ruinous nature of the sanctions, yet it was keen to maintain them against black Zimbabweans".
Notably, the paper also extensively used comments by one of the repatriated British citizens, Anne Budden, that first appeared in the UK-based Telegraph of May 28 without attribution. Neither did it publish the response from the British Embassy setting the record straight and accusing the paper of "peddling gross distortions and misinformation". This only appeared in private papers.

The government papers however, did carry four reports in which MDC-T officials' alleged calls for the lifting of sanctions were further used to justify the legitimacy of ZANU PF's sanctions removal campaign. The official Press also carried 13 reports that passively backed Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono's continued tenure, saying his efforts during his stint with the old ZANU PF government had saved the country from 'sanctions'. They said nothing about his ruinous economic policies or viewed his unilateral reappointment by President Mugabe as a violation of the GPA. Neither did they interpret Gono's continued stay as a source of conflict in the new government and another reason why international donors were reluctant to entrust their money to the new administration. The government Press published two stories on human rights issues. These comprised court updates on two Independent journalists accused of publishing falsehoods and that of a white commercial farmer in Chegutu, arrested for allegedly refusing to vacate his farm.

Private papers gave informed background to Zimbabwe's political and economic crises, the reasons behind the West's targeted sanctions and the hurdles facing the unity government in its quest to turn around the fortunes of the country. For example, The Zimbabwe Independent (5/6) cited the flawed 2002 elections, human rights abuses and government profligacy as some of the reasons behind economic decline and the imposition of targeted sanctions, whose objective was to force the then ZANU PF government to democratise. The private papers argued that unless the new government truly reformed, it would still not attract international support for its reconstruction programmes.
It was in this light that these media speculated on whether Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's tour of Western countries would be successful in ending the country's isolation given the tentative pace of government's reform programme.

The private Press recorded two fresh incidents of human rights violations in 17 stories they carried on the subject. They consisted of an attack on six MDC supporters by alleged ZANU-PF supporters and war veterans at a rally in Manicaland, and the alleged abduction of three MDC-T activists who are scheduled to testify against their colleagues facing terrorism and banditry charges by state security agents.

Fig 2: Voice distribution in the print media

ZBC and Private Radio Stations

ZANU PF's reluctance to fully implement the Global Political Agreement (GPA) and enhance the new government's chances of getting donor support for its economic programmes continued to contest for airtime in the broadcast media. See Fig 3.

Fig 3:Topical issues on ZBC and private stations

While private radio stations exposed ZANU PF's obduracy as reflected by President Mugabe's refusal to overturn his unilateral appointments of Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono and Attorney-General Johannes Tomana as threats to government's cohesion, ZBC did not. The public broadcaster continued to report ZANU PF and its sympathisers endorsing Mugabe's decision as legal while dismissing alternative views on the matter as driven by western neo-colonialist interests. For instance, none of the 12 (28%) stories ZBC devoted to the defence of Gono's appointment out of the 43 it aired on the inclusive government explained what the unity deal stipulates on the matter. Neither did they report on the MDC's angry reaction or examine the implications of the impasse over the issue on government's stability and aid mobilisation efforts.

In fact, the broadcaster suffocated the extent of the protest over Gono and Tomana's appointments with 13 reports that rehashed ZANU PF's unsubstantiated claims that western sanctions against Zimbabwe were the only hindrance to the coalition government's reconstruction programme. For example, ZTV and Radio Zimbabwe (4/6, 8pm) passively reported Swaziland's King Mswati urging the "West to lift sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe so that the people can work without obstacle". There was no attempt to honestly explain the targeted nature of the sanctions, the reasons they were imposed and why the West refused to lift them. Instead, ZBC carried 11 stories on modest pledges of development assistance by some countries and multilateral institutions, which it used to reinforce its notion that the international community unconditionally supported the new government. It was against this background that the remaining seven (16%) stories the broadcaster aired on the coalition government merely projected it as already recording success.

This professional ineptitude was also apparent in the 54 reports that ZBC featured on the country's ailing socio-economic sectors. For instance, its reports on signs of the country's economic woes such as poor service delivery, labour unrest and high cost of living were disjointed and divorced from the new government's inadequate interventions. Similarly, there was no useful analysis of the just-ended COMESA summit, particularly its economic benefit to the country.

ZBC carried four stories on human rights violations. These were all a regurgitation of the dismissal by Mashonaland Central governor Martin Dinha of a SADC Tribunal ruling that found government in contempt of its earlier judgment against farm invasions.

In contrast, the private stations provided their audiences with more informative updates on the problems besetting the new government and its constitutional reform. SW Radio Africa (2/6), for example, recorded SADC secretary-general Tomaz Salomao revealing that although the MDC-T had called for an urgent regional summit to resolve the appointments of Gono and Tomana, SADC "will not convene a full summit to tackle the outstanding issues plaguing the coalition government." He did not say why the body would not do so, or how it would address them. That same day the station's Hot Seat current affairs programme featured debate between Constitutional Affairs Minister Eric Matinenga and National Constitutional Assembly leader Lovemore Madhuku on sharp differences between government and civic society over the authorities' plans to rewrite the constitution.

Private radio stations viewed indicators of economic collapse, including the UN's appeal for US$718 million for humanitarian aid for Zimbabwe as an illustration of the huge task still facing the new government, noting that it was against such a background that Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai had embarked on a three-week "re-engagement" trip to the US and Europe. Their 10 stories on human rights violations, which included the alleged abduction of three MDC-T activists and the alleged eviction of a Chegutu farmer by two senior civil servants, were also linked to government's failure to comply with the GPA.

Fig 5: Topical stories on online news agencies

They highlighted the ramifications of the coalition partners' failure to fully implement the GPA, discussed the objective and likely outcome of Tsvangirai's US and European tour, and publicised Britain's response to the official media's dishonest attempts to blame the country's economic calamities on targeted western sanctions. Their 12 stories on the country's socio-economic distress and six reports on rights abuses (which were similar to those carried by other private media) were presented in the context of problems threatening government's reconstruction.

Fig 6: Online agencies - Voice distribution

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