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Weekly Media Update 2009-26
Monday June 29th 2009 - Sunday July 5th 2009
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
July 10, 2009

General Comment
MMPZ notes with concern the public media's increasing disregard for the terms of the Global Political Agreement (GPA), which obliges them to accord fair, complete and equitable coverage to all parties in the coalition.

After pretending to embrace the spirit of tolerance and inclusivity as enshrined in the GPA following the inauguration of the unity government, the public media have recently displayed disturbing signs of returning to its partisan and unprofessional role as propaganda outlets for ZANU PF.

In recent weeks these media have dishonestly misrepresented the problems plaguing the coalition as stemming from the MDC-T and the relentless pursuit by Western nations of their so-called illegal regime-change agenda, while presenting President Mugabe as a magnanimous and long-suffering leader executing his executive authority in a politically hostile environment.

This image has completely subsumed the 'power-sharing' imperative of the GPA and has resulted in the executive powers of the Prime Minister being diminished in the public media to the point where he is portrayed exclusively as a titular leader who owes his position to the president's benevolence.

For example, between June 29 and July 8, the public papers featured six stories that portrayed Mugabe as the sole executive arm of government while ignoring the fact that Article 20.1.1 of the GPA clearly states that executive authority resides in both the President and the Premier's offices.

It states: "The Executive Authority of the Inclusive Government shall vest in, and be shared among the President, the Prime Minister and the Cabinet, as provided for in this Constitution and legislation".

The public Press' campaign to assert Mugabe's authority over Tsvangirai has also become apparent in their coverage of the two leaders' activities.

For example, of the 33 articles the papers carried on the two, 17 were on Mugabe and 16 on Tsvangirai. However, 10 of their stories on Tsvangirai were editorials vilifying him or his party for its Cabinet boycott or for failing to convince the West to lift economic sanctions against the country during Tsvangirai's recent visit to Europe and the US. In contrast, virtually all the stories on Mugabe were uncritical, positive reports on his activities.

In addition, eight of the nine front-page reports on Mugabe were accompanied by his picture, while only one picture accompanied Tsvangirai's eight stories.

ZBC has evidently been enlisted to reinforce this impression.

For example out of the 66 news stories it devoted to the two leaders, 43 were positive reports on Mugabe while 23 were on Tsvangirai and his party. Of these, 16 portrayed the Prime Minister as Mugabe's ineffectual messenger who had failed to raise adequate budgetary support or lift "sanctions".

Moreover, almost all reports on Mugabe described him as "Head of State and Government" but never referred to Tsvangirai's executive powers.

The recent reincarnation by The Herald (4/7) of the vituperative Nathaniel Manheru to join other pro-ZANU PF columnists' vitriolic attacks on the Tsvangirai-led MDC reprsents a disturbing indication of a new direction these newspapers have set for themselves.

In his comeback column, Manheru refers to Tsvangirai as " . . . a pathetic anti-Christ figure who dares to make a sermon on the mountain, without feeding the hungry . . . "

Such offensive and disrespectful imagery has no place in the public media, especially in a country attempting to make a success of a unique joint governance experiment that seeks to restore democracy and heal the wounds of violent political polarization that has so traumatized the nation.

It remains to be seen whether the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC) established to monitor the implementation of the GPA, will ever break its silence and " . . . ensure that the public media provides balanced and fair coverage to all political parties" as agreed in the GPA.

The Public and Private Press

Incessant friction in the inclusive government illustrated by the MDC-T's decision to boycott a Cabinet meeting and disagreements over the framework for drafting a new constitution dominated the print media, together with reports analyzing Morgan Tsvangirai's efforts to re-engage Western nations. See Fig. 1.

Fig 1: Topical news distribution in the print media

However, the government papers either downplayed the relevance of these disputes or blamed the MDC-T while presenting ZANU PF as the magnanimous and tolerant component of government. As a result, these papers presented a lop-sided view of the causes for the conflicts, their extent and influence on government's efforts to revive Zimbabwe's prostrate economy.

For example, instead of reporting the MDC-T's boycott of a Cabinet meeting in response to President Mugabe's unilateral decision to move it a day ahead of its scheduled date to accommodate his trip to Libya as a reflection of the power-struggles affecting the coalition, the official papers narrowly allowed ZANU PF officials and apologists to use the incident to attack the MDC-T.

The Herald and Chronicle (30/6), for example, quoted Information Minister Webster Shamu saying Cabinet had "unanimously deplored the boycott" and described it as "contradicting the spirit of inclusivity."

While this coverage is an acceptable response, the papers relegated the MDC-T's explanation for the boycott to the end of their reports and dismissed them on the grounds that Mugabe had acted within his powers. The clear impression was that the MDC had overreacted to an apparently trivial complaint, but no effort was made to establish whether Mugabe had consulted his partners prior to his decision, as required under the GPA.

Herald columnist Mabasa Sasa (30/6) then used the opportunity to suggest the MDC had acted insolently and falsely argued that the party was in Cabinet thanks to "the good graces of the President" instead of honestly explaining that MDC were in Cabinet as a result of last year's elections and that all parties had agreed to a power-sharing deal.

This echoed the tone of 10 other stories the official papers carried either projecting the Prime Minister as Mugabe's messenger, or vilifying his attempts to re-engage Western nations because he failed to mobilize Western budgetary support.

The Herald's report of Tsvangirai's press briefing (1/7) completely buried his announcement that Finance Minister Tendai Biti had secured US$950 million aid from China - news that would have surely grabbed the headlines had it been ZANU PF. And although it carried Tsvangirai's comments about the friction within the coalition, this was only reported in the context of him reporting to Mugabe on the tasks he had been set by the President under the headline 'PM briefs President on trip'.

The official papers' 10 stories on constitutional reform either promoted the controversial Kariba draft constitution as the document of reference for such reforms, or provided piecemeal updates on the parliamentary constitutional committee's consultative public meetings. There was no detail on the meetings or a holistic picture of the debates, particularly civic society's position expressed at a People's Constitutional Convention in Harare that attracted nearly 2,000 delegates. The government Press initially ignored this major event - that condemned the Kariba draft - and narrowly reported on it two days later in the context of maligning the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA).

Their stories on indicators of the country's socio-economic collapse were also isolated from government's interventions.

The 15 stories they published on human rights violations were mostly in the context of denying them, especially in the context of a visit by the Kimberly Process team to investigate reports of human rights violations in the Chiadzwa diamond fields.

The private papers performed comparatively better. For example, they viewed the MDC-T's Cabinet boycott; contradictory statements over China's alleged US$950 million pledge; and the state media's negative coverage of the MDC-T as evidence of widening cracks in government.

Although the papers did not critically examine the prudence of some of the MDC-T's positions, especially its Cabinet boycott, they provided a platform for the party and civic society to air their views.

For example, the Zimbabwe Independent (3/7) published the NCA's critique of the Kariba draft, while The Standard (5/7) exposed public disapproval of the document expressed during parliamentary consultative meetings and alleged attempts by ZANU PF to intimidate Zimbabweans into endorsing it.

Their 48 stories on the country's socio-economic problems viewed labour unrest, health and education sector problems and the high cost of living as a reflection of government's failure to rejuvenate the economy.

They carried 14 reports on rights violations. Three of them allegations of violations in Chiadzwa, while the rest were updates on court cases involving MDC-T officials facing political violence and terrorism charges.

Fig 2: Voice distribution in the print media

ZBC and private radio stations

Although ZBC continued to give considerable publicity to the inclusive government as shown in Fig 3, this did not translate into a critical examination of the problems besetting it as reflected by the MDC-T Cabinet boycott and discord over economic policies and the constitutional reform process.

Fig 3: Topical issues on ZBC and private stations

For example, instead of interpreting the boycott as evidence of disharmony in government, ZBC allowed ZANU PF government officials to attack the party as insolent without according it due right of reply.

ZTV (29/6, 8pm), for example, quoted Information Minister Webster Shamu describing the MDC-T's action as "disrespectful" and "contradicting the spirit of inclusivity and remarkable progress made so far", while Spot FM (4/7, 8pm) reported President Mugabe criticizing it as "ill-timed and ill-advised", adding that Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai had since "apologized" to him over his party's behaviour.

The MDC-T's reasons that it had snubbed the meeting in "frustration over delays in resolving outstanding issues" under the political agreement were presented in the context of dismissing them as unfounded but based on its attempts to paralyze government.

This unbalanced coverage conformed with ZBC's thrust to portray Prime Minister Tsvangirai as an ineffectual subordinate of President Mugabe whose attempts to re-engage the West was a dismal failure. It carried 16 stories projecting this notion.

ZBC (30/6, 8pm) also accused Tsvangirai of trying to "hijack the Look East Policy which was initiated by President Mugabe" by claiming that his party had secured US$950 million aid from China "after realizing his failure to convince the West to remove sanctions and support the country's reconstruction initiatives".

There was no clarity about the nature of the aid, particularly how it was secured and the competition between the MDC-T and ZANU PF to claim it.

ZBC's 19 reports on the constitutional reform exercise also favoured ZANU PF by reporting approvingly on the party's attempts to impose the defective Kariba draft on Zimbabweans and allowing its officials to dismiss civic society's opposition to the document as being hinged on their ignorance of its provisions.

Such professional deceit also resulted in the broadcaster glossing over the scale of the country's socio-economic crisis by painting a positive picture of the situation, which it claimed was due to a battery of measures taken by the government.

During the week ZBC aired eight stories on a visit by a team from the Kimberly Process diamond inspectorate - all highlighting official denials of serious rights abuses in the Chiadzwa diamond fields.

One of its other three reports on human rights issues was a government statement declaring it would not grant amnesty to individuals convicted of committing political violence during last year's elections.

The private stations viewed the MDC-T's Cabinet boycott; the state media's denigration of the party; sharp differences over constitutional reform and continued human rights violations as indicators of friction in government.
However, although the stations extensively covered the MDC-T's reasons for boycotting Cabinet, they did not examine the effectiveness of the move as a means to force President Mugabe to comply with the GPA.

Similarly, while the stations gave fair coverage to the MDC-T and civic society's reservations over the Kariba draft, they failed to give useful updates on the parliamentary constitutional committee's public meetings some of which have been chaotic.

The stations noted that while the economy showed signs of recovery, it would remain precarious unless government instituted genuine democratic reforms.

They carried nine stories on rights violations, four of which were on alleged rights abuses in Chiadzwa by state security agents while the rest were court cases involving MDC-T officials facing political violence and banditry charges. These were presented as an example of government's slow reforms.

Their critical tone was illustrated by SW Radio Africa's attempts to balance ZANU PF's views with those of other coalition partners and independent commentators unlike ZBC, which relied more on the party. See Fig. 4.

Fig 4: Voice distribution on ZBC and private stations

Online news agencies
The private online publications also exposed escalating tensions in government, underlined by the MDC-T's Cabinet boycott and conflicting policy statements.

Fig 5: Topical stories in the online agencies

They quoted Tsvangirai noting that although his party was disillusioned with ZANU PF's violations of the GPA it would not pull out of government.

While ZBC gave the impression that ZANU PF was united over the Kariba draft, New Zimbabwe (29/6) reported ZANU PF parliamentary constitutional committee co-chairman Paul Mangwana saying his team "would not entertain" the imposition of the draft because the move would be undemocratic.

Their human rights reports were similar to those carried by other private media.

Fig 6: Voice distribution on online agencies

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