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Weekly Media Update 2009-27
Monday July 6th 2009 - Sunday July 12th 2009
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
July 17, 2009

General Comment
Evidence of the extent to which the national broadcaster, ZBC, has become the slavish mouthpiece of ZANU PF was provided on Monday (July 13th) by their dishonest coverage of the party's disruption of the first day of the All-Stakeholders Constitutional Conference.

Instead of reporting honestly on the circumstances and motive behind the disruption, ZBC's evening bulletins (13/7, 8pm), for example, blamed the MDC, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and the Zimbabwe National Students Union for "leading in disrupting the proceedings" forcing the "police to move in to avert the riotous situation".

No evidence of this was provided.

The broadcaster deliberately confused scenes of indulgent party rivalry that occurred before the welcome address by the Speaker of Parliament Lovemore Moyo with the seemingly planned interruption of his speech by ZANU PF supporters.

It falsely claimed that the chaos started when delegates' demands for the hoisting of the national flag and singing of the national anthem went unheeded adding that this was compounded by sloganeering "MDC-T supporters who were wearing T-shirts written 'no to the Kariba draft'" and Moyo's open-hand greeting of the delegates.

This version was a complete distortion of the truth.

MMPZ attended the event and witnessed what happened. Initially it was Joseph Chinotimba and a group of his colleagues who interrupted proceedings by demanding that the national anthem be sung and the delegates responded to this by singing the anthem. But shortly afterwards, just as Moyo was attempting to address the convention, scores of ZANU PF supporters streamed towards the organizers' table singing threatening songs and dancing, apparently on cue from ZANU PF's MP Patrick Zhuwao and another unidentified party "point man". There was no provocation for this disruptive behaviour but the effect was that it completely drowned Moyo's delivery.

On their way to the podium the unruly ZANU PF mob collected plastic water bottles and began hurling them at the occupants of the high table forcing them to flee and bringing the proceedings of the first day of the conference to a premature end.

Contrary to ZBC's account, Moyo only waved at the delegates at the end of his speech and well after the rowdy ZANU PF supporters had started their sloganeering and toyi-toying.

In fact, rather than being incensed by his gesture they seemed to celebrate his departure.

The Herald (14/7) did not quite echo ZBC's gross distortion of the event, since it blamed the chaos on an unidentified "section" of "rowdy delegates" who "burst into song and dance and pelted dignitaries at the high table with an assortment of missiles, including bottled water".

The story also focused on the condemnation of the disruption by the three principals to the coalition government.

But in its leader page editorial, the paper blamed the chaos on the MDC's alleged "U-turn" on the Kariba draft and its refusal to disclose the source of funding for constitutional reform.

Only the private media, including the Chronicle (14/7), gave fairly accurate accounts of the matter.

The Public and Private Press

Growing opposition to ZANU PF's plans to impose the Kariba draft constitution on Zimbabweans and unending power struggles in the coalition government hampering its reconstruction drive remained topical in the print media. Fig. 1 illustrates this.

Fig 1: Topical news distribution in the print media

However, readers of the government papers were poorly informed on the differences between government and civil society over constitutional reform as the official Press simply magnified ZANU PF's position while suffocating those opposed to it or dismissing them as agents of imperialism.

The Sunday Mail (12/7), for example, passively cited President Robert Mugabe "warning" against "foreign" interference following plans by the parliamentary constitutional committee to invite South African businessman Cyril Ramaphosa and a Rwandese lawyer to the All-Stakeholders Constitutional Conference. It did not seek clarity on why Zimbabwe could not draw lessons from the region but simply quoted Mugabe insisting that the country would not "accept foreign partnerships that come with sinister motives". Neither did it view his statement that the outcome of the exercise "should not weaken the country's sovereignty" or undermine the land reform programme as tantamount to imposing his party's benchmarks on the process.

Earlier, The Herald (7/7) unquestioningly reported MPs as having "roundly" crtiticised the invitation of the two on the grounds that the outcome would not be "homegrown" but did not provide evidence to support the alleged consensus.

The government papers censored sentiments advocating democratic rule and exposing ZANU PF's misrule.

For example, they blacked out calls by US President Barack Obama during his visit to Ghana emphasizing democratic reforms in Africa, including his commendation of Zimbabwe's electoral watchdog, ZESN, for championing democratic elections in Zimbabwe while denying ZANU PF's claims that the West was "responsible for the destruction of Zimbabwean economy over the last decade".

Instead, the dailies (8/7) approvingly reported Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara justifying the controversial appointment of central bank governor Gideon Gono and Attorney General Johannes Tomana saying the two "have the highest qualifications for office" in isolation of the new government's reformist agenda.

Like in the previous weeks, these papers continued to give superficial coverage to the country's socio-economic situation, which they presented as improving without linking it to symptoms of widespread socio-economic decay.

Their 10 stories on human rights violations did not record new incidents but stemmed from court cases involving MDC-T activists facing political violence and banditry charges and follow-ups on alleged human rights violations in Chiadzwa diamond fields.

Notably, while The Herald (11/7) commendably highlighted criticism of the torture of suspects in police custody by Judge President Rita Makarau, the official Press has hardly acknowledged its existence before.
The private papers' provided informative coverage of these issues. They gave space to civil society to express its position on constitutional reform and identified Mugabe's reluctance to genuinely share executive powers with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai as another source of conflict in government. They also reported Tsvangirai as under pressure from his party for downplaying the problems plaguing the inclusive government.

For example, The Financial Gazette (9/7)'s columnist Tendai Dumbutshena attributed the conflict between ZANU PF and the MDC-T to a "fundamentally flawed" political agreement that did not "regard" Tsvangirai "as President Mugabe's equal in the inclusive government". He noted that under the political deal Mugabe was both head of state and government and that "all executive powers" were "in his hands" while the Tsvangirai-chaired Council of Ministers was "useless and irrelevant" as it allegedly had "no bearing whatsoever on executive decision-making in the country".

Although the private papers acknowledged government's efforts to revive the economy, they identified labour unrest, poor service delivery and rising cost of living as some of the indicators of continued economic distress.

Their 21 reports on rights violations were in the context of highlighting the coalition's failure to restore the rule of law.

Four of these were fresh incidents emanating from the murder of a white commercial farmer in Gweru by unknown assailants; the disruption of mining activities in Bikita and the attack of an MDC activist in Muzarabani by alleged ZANU PF activists; and the alleged victimization of suspected MDC supporters by a traditional leader in Zaka.

Fig 2: Voice distribution in the print media

ZBC and private radio stations

Although ZBC gave significant coverage to the inclusive government, constitutional reform and the socio-economic crises as shown in Fig 3, it suffocated civil society and the MDC's views on the constitution making process and downplayed the conflict in government, which has affected its economic revival plans.

Fig 3: Topical issues on ZBC and private stations

For example, six of the 17 stories ZBC carried on constitutional reform promoted the Kariba draft while the rest rehashed official statements calling for public participation in the parliament-driven constitution re-writing exercise. None examined or provided alternative views on the matter.

ZBC (6 & 10/7, 8pm), for instance, quoted ZANU PF officials such as Didymus Mutasa, Andrew Langa and Olivia Muchena urging Zimbabweans to "adopt" the Kariba draft as a framework for crafting a new constitution on the grounds that it was agreed to by the coalition partners without disclosing its contents. Neither did it (7/7, 8am) view Muchena's comments that the new constitution should "uphold the country's legacy" or war veterans' demands that it should "acknowledge the role they played in the liberation struggle" as equivalent to imposing ZANU PF's wishes.

ZBC continued to legitimize ZANU PF's unilateral decision making, which remains the major threat to government's stability. For example, ZTV (8/7, 8pm) passively quoted Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara endorsing the controversial appointment of central bank governor Gideon Gono by "urging" Prime Minister Tsvangirai to "work with Gono" to "ensure the country's economic prosperity" despite a Press release by the MDC-T on the same day protesting against the slow resolution of the outstanding issues. Rather, it conveniently allowed Mutambara to downplay the enormity of the dispute by claiming that the coalition leaders had the capacity to resolve it "without approaching SADC".

Notably, the broadcaster censored the MDC-T statement.

There was also no improvement in ZBC's coverage of the country's socio-economic situation.

For instance, 18 of its 64 stories on the matter promoted the Zimbabwe Investment Conference, depicting it as adding impetus to government's turnaround initiatives without relating it to the country's unfriendly investment environment. The rest highlighted symptoms of socio-economic collapse mirrored by fuel shortages, price increases and low production outside the mammoth task facing government.

In an attempt to conceal the existence of human rights violations in Zimbabwe, ZBC censored an interim report by the Kimberly Process review team exposing gross rights violations by state security agents in the Chiadzwa diamond fields. Consequently, their three reports on the matter were mostly on promises by Mines Minister Obert Mpofu that government would comply with the recommendations of the team without disclosing its findings.

In contrast, the private radio stations critically analysed these issues.

They viewed escalating tensions in government arising from the failure to resolve outstanding issues and differences over constitutional reform as detrimental to the coalition's effectiveness.

For example, the stations (7 & 8/7) reported the MDC-T complaining about the arrests of its members; delays in the swearing in of Roy Bennett as deputy agriculture minister and the failure by the National Security Council to meet as evidence of continued violations of the political deal.

Further, SW Radio Africa (8/7) quoted the party criticizing Mutambara's suggestions that Gono and the AG Johannes Tomana should remain in office. The station interpreted Mutambara's utterances as a "shift" in position given that he, alongside Tsvangirai, had recently written to SADC urging it to intervene in the matter.

The stations carried 11 reports on human rights violations, which recorded three new incidents. These comprised the murder of commercial farmer Bob Vaughan in Gweru by unknown assailants; the attack of an MDC activist in Muzarabani and the disruption of mining operations at Bikita Lithium mine by suspected ZANU PF supporters. The rest were follow-ups to previous cases of human rights abuses.

Fig 4: Voice distribution on ZBC and private stations

Online news agencies
Continued tensions in government over rewriting of the constitution and the partial fulfillment of the political agreement were also popular topics on private online publications.

Fig 5: Topical stories in the online agencies

The agencies attributed these conflicts to ZANU PF's disregard for the political agreement and mistrust among the coalition partners.

They cited the alleged boycott by senior MDC-T officials of the burial of national hero Akim Ndlovu and President Mugabe's graveside admission that his party "differed on policy matters" with the MDC-T because it "was too friendly to the West" as proof of the discord in government.

Moreover, they linked the continued economic distress to inadequate budget support for government's reconstruction programmes.

Their stories on rights violations were similar to those carried by the rest of the private media.

Fig 6: Voice distribution on online agencies

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