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Weekly Media Update 2009-23
Monday June 8th 2009 - Sunday June 14th 2009
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
June 19, 2009

General comment

MMPZ is deeply concerned about the short deadline for the submission of applications for commissioners' posts in the proposed Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) given lack of full public and civil society participation that would have ensured transparency in the appointments.This has a bad precedent.

It is a public record that narrow political interests that informed the discriminatory manner in which the abolished Media and Information Commission was established resulted in partisan regulation of media activity and severely dented the credibility of the regulatory body. It is therefore imperative for the inclusive government to create a genuinely representative ZMC by establishing a consultative and transparent framework for the selection and ultimate appointment of its commissioners.

Otherwise, failure to do so would expose the ZMC as another charade meant to gloss over the very legal instruments used to muzzle the media in the past and still exist in the country's statutes.

In fact, MMPZ does not believe that the establishment of the ZMC alone, without repealing the legislative framework under which it would operate, would restore media freedom and Zimbabweans' right to free expression grossly eroded by the old government. This is because the commission, implanted into the constitution by parties to the Global Political Agreement without any consultation of the media and the civil society, could still be used to enforce the authoritarian provisions of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA). Section 100P subsection (1) (e) of the Constitutional Amendment No.19 actually empowers it to do so.

It is in this light that MMPZ calls for the urgent repeal of AIPPA and the derogation of ZMC's accreditation and disciplinary roles to the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe. Further, provisions in laws such as the Broadcasting Services Act, Public Order and Security Act and Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, which impose severe restrictions on free expression, should also be repealed if the new government's promise to democratise the media is to be fulfilled.

However, it is not only the legal instruments that pose threats to government's pledge to nurture and protect Zimbabweans' freedom of expression but the extra-legal constraints too, especially the police's continued abuse of authority to hinder the free flow of information.

For instance, SW Radio Africa (8/6) reported that a senior reporter for the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions-run newspaper, The Worker, Chris Mahove, was "arrested and assaulted" by the police while covering a demonstration by the Harare City Council Workers' Union.

According to the journalists' union representative Mathew Takaona, when Mahove's editor Ben Madzimure went to Harare Central Police station to inquire about the arrest he was also apprehended and assaulted together with his reporter while in "detention".

Reportedly, the two were subsequently released without charge after the intervention of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.

The Public and Private Press

The enormity of the unity government's reconstruction drive, underscored by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's three-week tour of the West to woo crucial political and economic support for the country after nearly a decade of isolation, continued to dominate debate in the Press. See Fig 1.

The government papers continued to suffocate tensions in the unity government and the slow pace of reforms caused by violations of the Global Political Agreement (GPA). Consequently, they disfigured the reasons behind the coalition's continued failure to attract international budgetary support and why the power-sharing arrangement remained partially implemented four months after its completion, crippling its effectiveness.

The official Press only prioritised ZANU PF and its sympathisers' sentiments on how the new government should operate while downplaying and ignoring those of the MDC. It was in this context that they misrepresented Tsvangirai's European and US visits.

While Tsvangirai himself was on record as saying his trip was aimed at "engaging" and "normalise relations" with the West and "not about going around with a begging bowl", the government papers and officials linked to ZANU PF still tried to portray it as a campaign to "call for the lifting of economic sanctions" and "restoration of the country's credit lines" (The Herald 9 & 10/6).

The official papers also tried to position Mugabe for the sharing of accolades in the event of a successful Tsvangirai mission by presenting the trip as being carried out at the express instructions of President Mugabe and Cabinet. However, once the countries that Tsvangirai had visited appeared reluctant to offer direct government funding until the inclusive government had democratised and implemented economic reforms, the papers then turned around and tried to present the visit as a personal failure.

Examples of such reports include "Dutch government turns down Tsvangirai" (The Herald, 9/6); "PM Tsvangirai hits another brickwall in US" (The Herald 13/6) and "Tsvangirai's mission impossible" (The Sunday Mail 14/6).

No comment was sought from either Tsvangirai and his delegation or the MDC on the matter. Further, there was no attempt to measure the alleged failure of Tsvangirai's mission against its objectives.

Otherwise, the West's resolute demands for more progress on reforms by the power-sharing government before aid and investment could resume was contrived into an offence and added into the official papers' propaganda on sanctions, which they continued to portray as the major cause of the country's economic collapse.

The officials reflected this sentiment in 25 stories. Moreover, the West's decision to bypass government and channel all humanitarian aid through NGOs became a subject of conspiracy theories in the government Press, which accused Tsvangirai of indirectly channelling funds to his MDC through NGOs aligned to his party.

The official papers also misled their readers on the reasons behind the stalemate over some of the outstanding issues of the GPA. The Herald and Chronicle (12/6), for example, tried to justify Mugabe's unilateral appointments of Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono and Attorney General Johannes Tomana on the basis that the GPA was "silent" about their engagements and that these had been made before the formation of the inclusive government and hence the MDC could not be consulted on the matter.

However, its on record that the two positions were filled after the signing of the political deal whose Section 20.1.3p clearly obliges Mugabe to make "key" government appointments "under and in terms of the Constitution or any Act of Parliament" only in "consultation" with Tsvangirai.

The government papers carried four reports on human rights abuses none of which recorded new incidents. These included court updates on the MDC activists facing terrorism and banditry charges and the dismissal of allegations of planned assassination of some MDC officials made by the MDC Minister of State for National Healing, Sekai Holland, in a BBC report.

Only the private papers continued to highlight the disharmony in the inclusive government reflected by mistrust and power struggles. They also gave straightforward accounts of Tsvangirai's tour, its objectives and outcomes and the West's reception of the Prime Minister and their terms for assisting the country.

The private papers carried 13 stories on human rights violations, which recorded three incidents. These included the arrest of two journalists from The Worker for covering a demonstration by Harare City Council workers and the eruption of farm violence in Headlands that resulted in the arrest of a white farmer.

Fig 2: Voice distribution in the print media

ZBC and Private Radio Stations

While the rest of the media covered intense debate on the likely success of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's 're-engagement' tour of the West, ZBC largely ignored it in its 36 news stories on the inclusive government (See Fig 1).

Fig 1: Topical issues on ZBC and private radio stations

The broadcaster aired only four stories on the trip while devoting the rest to propagating the notion that the coalition government was a success story that has seen countries such as China, Cuba and Russia joining a growing list of other international states that have expressed their unconditional support for the transitional authority.

Worse, the four stories ZBC carried on the tour were repeats of US' pledge to provide US$73 million for humanitarian assistance in the wake of Tsvangirai's visit, which were buried in the broadcaster's main news bulletins.

For example, Spot FM and Radio Zimbabwe (13/6) relegated the matter, which was tied to US' retention of its sanctions on Zimbabwe, to the end of their 8pm bulletins. There was no cogent explanation on why Washington was reluctant to lift the sanctions.

In line with its unwillingness to expose donor countries' concerns over the government's partial implementation of the power-sharing agreement - which they have cited as reason for the withholding of budgetary support - ZBC ignored Tsvangirai's meetings with his Netherlands counterpart and US officials, who all expressed disquiet over the slow-paced democratic reforms.

Otherwise, the broadcaster carried 32 stories that glossed over the West's worries by projecting government as united and in compliance with the political agreement thereby depicting donors' concerns as baseless.

It is against this background that ZBC (10/6, 8pm) passively reported on attempts by ZANU PF MPs to delay constitutional reforms on grounds that government had no resources for the process without examining its implications on government's credibility given current international skepticism about its willingness to reform.

Neither did the broadcaster reconcile ZANU PF's position with a subsequent announcement (ZTV, 12/6, 8pm) by parliamentary constitutional reform committee's MDC-T Co-Chairperson Douglas Mwonzora that provincial consultative meetings would commence on June 24.

ZBC reports on the socio-economic problems were largely reported in isolation of the new government's interventions while its human rights violations stories stemmed from unsubstantiated claims that former white farmers were causing havoc at Mount Carmel Farm in Chegutu with the help of foreign journalists who then wrote false reports on the situation on farms. No corroboration was sought from the accused farmers or the police.

Only those with access to the private radio stations were better informed about the import and likely outcome of Tsvangirai's visit to the West; persistent power struggles in government and ZANU PF attempts to stall constitutional reform.

SW Radio Africa (8/6), for example, quoted commentator Isaac Dziya contending that Tsvangirai was unlikely to get the required aid but "sympathy and assurances that massive aid would be injected once the country reforms."

The station and Studio 7 (8/6) reported Dutch Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenede vindicating Dziya's observations saying Zimbabwe must first implement genuine political and socio-economic reforms before it could get budget support from the Netherlands. The stations noted that this was likely to be the response Tsvangirai would get from other Western countries.

And unlike ZBC, the private stations presented symptoms of the country's socio-economic woes such as low agricultural production, food shortages, poor service delivery and high cost of living in light of government's failed interventions so far.

Similarly, their 10 reports on human rights violations, which included one incident on the arrest of two journalists from The Worker and court cases involving MDC-T activists, were basically used to illustrate government's failure to uphold provisions of the GPA.

Fig 2: Voice distribution on ZBC and private stations

Online Agencies

Although the online agencies adopted a similar slant to that of the private stations, they published more details of Tsvangirai's tour, including full texts of his speeches. They also reported his party dismissing as false the impression created by the government print media that Tsvangirai was in the West at the behest of President Mugabe.

Fig 3: Topical stories in the online news agencies

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