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Weekly Media Update 2009-29
Monday July 20th 2009 - Sunday July 26th 2009
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
July 31, 2009

General Comment
This week The Sunday Mail (26/7) reported the Information Ministry announcing that international news organisations the BBC and CNN were "free" to resume their operations in Zimbabwe as long as they abided by the "country's laws".

According to the report, this followed meetings between the ministry and representatives of the two news networks, which "resolved the sticking points around the organisations' coverage of Zimbabwe."

While in principle this is a welcome development that would allow greater access of the Zimbabwean story by a wider international audience, which the old government has tried to block since 2002, MMPZ remains sceptical about the authorities' political will to see it work.

This is especially so, as there are no guarantees that these media would be allowed to execute their duty without undue obstacles.

Already, the odds are heavily stacked against the free flow of information given the continued existence of the very same battery of restrictive laws the authorities have previously used to frustrate the media they considered hostile from covering Zimbabwe.

For example, foreign media are still required to meet stringent registration regulations under the repressive Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act before they could operate. The same Act also criminalizes the abuse of "journalistic privilege" and imposes stiff penalties, including imprisonment, for such offences.

Extra-legal hindrances may prove to be yet another obstacle to these media's activities in some parts of Zimbabwe considering that ZANU PF has for long lumped them together with those it considered 'enemies' of the state.

Disturbing too, is the fact that even as the government appeared to partially relent on its stranglehold on the media, the same issue of The Sunday Mail was still exposing the residual fear of uninhibited information flow within official circles.

It quoted unnamed 'sources' alleging that the West had "intensified efforts to destabilise the inclusive Government" by planning to "set up a digital infrastructure that will beam negative images of the country internationally" through a "Twitter-based platform." This, the sources added, would see "local cellular service providers" being used as "conduits".

No evidence was provided to substantiate this alleged conspiracy. Neither did it explain why the West needed to first establish an elaborate infrastructure to execute its allegedly sinister plot when individuals with access to the Internet can simply sign up to Twitter for free and send any material they wished.

Instead, the paper appeared to concur with its 'sources' claiming that the same technology was recently used in Iran as a "rallying tool to convey messages . . . to malign the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad" following disputed presidential elections there.

Based on this, its anonymous sources then claimed: "This technology highlights danger because images can be cooked up to damn the Government."

MMPZ deplores this evident attempt to encourage the imposition of more media restrictions on new communication opportunities provided by modern digital technology, especially to communities subjected to information darkness such as Zimbabwe, as retrogressive and against spirit of the GPA.

The Public and Private Press

The country's uneasy power-sharing government, inherently antagonistic since its inception, remained an intensely debated issue in the Press following renewed flare-ups over how to achieve a smooth transition.
Fig 1 illustrates the issues that remained a source of friction in the coalition.

Fig 1: Topical news distribution in the print media

The official papers' coverage of the activities of the new government mostly favoured ZANU PF. None of their 46 reports on the matter exposed the former ruling party's breaches of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) despite overwhelming evidence on the ground, which has seen the two MDC principals petitioning SADC chairman Jacob Zuma for help.

In fact, the government Press appeared to fan tensions in the coalition by presenting ZANU PF's position on government operations as taking precedence over its MDC partners.

This was demonstrated by their latest attempts to project Mugabe's executive powers as undiluted under the new government by shifting from their traditional address of him as President to a new patronizing, long-winded title of "Head of State and Government and Commander-in-chief of the Defence Forces" in disregard of the GPA that diluted some of his powers to be shared with Cabinet and the office of the Prime Minister. They carried seven reports that propagated this misconception.

In contrast, they carried 10 reports on the inclusive government that contrived to portray Prime Minister Tsvangirai and his party as working to undermine Mugabe and Cabinet. These included efforts to present Tsvangirai's alleged quest to implement Cabinet reforms reflecting the new executive roles of his office and Cabinet as enshrined in the GPA, and the alleged submission of a draft ICT Bill to Cabinet Chief Secretary Misheck Sibanda by MDC-T Information and Communications Technology Minister Nelson Chamisa as tantamount to usurping Mugabe's powers.

The Herald (23/7), for example, quoted unnamed analysts criticising Tsvangirai's proposed Cabinet reforms as "a deliberate attempt to kill the Presidency and strengthen the Prime Minister's Office". Earlier, The Herald (22/7) claimed that by attempting to "re-order the functions of at least three ministries" through the ICT Bill the MDC-T was "hell-bent" to "usurp" Mugabe's authority as he is the "only" person with such a prerogative.

No coherent evidence for these conspiracy theories was given. Neither did the official papers explain that it was actually an old ZANU PF government Bill, nor tell its audiences - as did the independent parliamentary watchdog, Veritas - that "the much-talked about Bill" was still a "departmental Bill, the principles of which have not yet been sanctioned by Cabinet".

Despite this campaign against the MDC component of government, the government Press used the party's participation in the commemoration of the "National Peace Days" proclaimed by Mugabe as a reflection of a united government. In this light, they only stressed the principals' general calls for reconciliation and an immediate end to politically motivated violence without exposing their sharp differences over how this should be achieved. For example, while they reported Mugabe as basically calling for blanket amnesty for the perpetrators of political violence, they censored Tsvangirai's divergent views, calling for justice as a prerequisite to national healing and reconciliation.

The government media carried eight stories on human rights violations, none of which exposed the selective application of the law. For example, while they reported on the conviction of MDC-T Zaka North MP Ernest Mudavanhu for abusing subsidized farming inputs, there was no follow-up on the fate of the other five ZANU PF and MDC-T MPs - who, according to The Herald (15/4/2009) - had their cases consolidated into a single trial with Mudavanhu because "the elements constituting the alleged offences were similar".

Similarly, there was no probing why MDC-T MPs appeared to be the only targets of the rule of law, especially relating to cases of politically motivated violence given the well documented campaign of violence in last year's harmonised elections for which ZANU PF was blamed.

In contrast, the private papers gave informed coverage of the issues. They exposed the government Press' disinformation campaign on Tsvangirai's proposed Cabinet reforms. They quoted analysts justifying the need for Cabinet reforms to mirror the new institutions of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers created by the GPA.

They also questioned the basis of leaking the document to the public media, a development they interpreted as having sparked fresh tensions in the transitional government. The private Press also updated their audiences on the battle to resolve the outstanding issues under the GPA.

The Standard (26/7), for example, reported Tsvangirai as planning to ask Zuma to urge Mugabe to address all the outstanding issues in a meeting between the two.

The private papers also questioned the morality of celebrating reconciliation without first bringing justice to the victims of politically motivated violence. They doubted ZANU PF's commitment to this issue, citing ongoing political violence and other rights violations against the MDC and other perceived opponents.

They carried three fresh incidents of rights violations arising from the assault an MDC-T activist, Ebba Katiyo, by ZANU PF supporters in Masvingo and the fining of two other MDC-T activists, Sabina Murinye and Patricia Maphosa, by traditional leaders for their party affiliation and reporting ZANU PF activists to the police for having committed violence.

Fig 2: Voice distribution in the print media

ZBC and private radio stations

ZBC suffocated more evidence of cracks in government mirrored by the leakage of Cabinet documents to the media and the selective prosecution of MDC MPs with stories that projected the coalition as solid.

Fig 3: Topical issues on ZBC and private stations

None of the broadcaster's 73 stories on the inclusive government (See Fig 3) openly reported on these symptoms of friction or analysed their implications on the fragile coalition.

Instead, 58 of the stories simplistically projected the launch of government's national reconciliation initiative and its plans to craft a National Vision document as illustrating unshakeable cohesion in the coalition. The remaining 15 were on continuing calls for the removal of alleged Western sanctions against Zimbabwe; responses to former British Premier Tony Blair's calls for the ouster of President Mugabe and the routine accreditation of new ambassadors.

Although ZBC extensively covered the launch of "national peace days", there was no critical examination of government's reconciliation plan. For example, none of the reports examined the prudence of the authorities' proposed national healing process given that it is only beginning almost a year after the signing of the political deal.

Neither did they reconcile the official rhetoric on reconciliation with reports on continued incidents of political violence.

Against this background ZBC (24/7, 8pm) censored excerpts of Tsvangirai's statements during the reconciliation days' launch calling for peace and justice as prerequisites for reconciliation.

Also censored was the conviction and suspension from Parliament of MDC-T MP Ernest Mudavanhu on corruption charges and its implications on the party's majority in Parliament.

ZBC's coverage of constitutional reform remained premised on official statements. For instance, seven of the 10 reports it carried passively quoted ZANU PF loyalists and Clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma attributing the disruption of the constitutional conference two weeks ago to alleged "external influence" while the remainder were on the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee's endorsement of the Kariba Draft as a document of reference for re-writing a new constitution.

There was some improvement in ZBC's coverage of the country's socio-economic crisis as it tried to examine some of the policy pronouncements by government.

For instance, eight of the 27 follow-ups ZBC carried on the mid-term budget review quoted business criticising the decision to extend by six months the statutory instrument providing for a duty-free importation of basic commodities as detrimental to local industry.

However, this critical approach was more pronounced in the private radio stations. Not only did they highlight symptoms of tension in the coalition, they also analysed their ramifications on government stability. These comprised the failure to resolve outstanding issues; the controversy surrounding the leaking of Cabinet documents; conflicts over the framework for rewriting the constitution; the selective prosecution of MDC-T legislators and continued human rights violations.

Against this record, the stations questioned the likely success of government-driven national healing process.

However, like the other media, the stations did not provide coherent details on the origins of the ICT Bill, which the government media presented as a manifestation of MDC-T's clandestine attempts to seize some portfolios under ZANU PF-run ministries.

The private stations' stories on the socio-economic crisis and human rights abuses were in the context of highlighting the government's failure to fulfil pledges it made under the political agreement.

They recorded two new incidents of rights violations arising from alleged attacks on MDC-T activist Ebba Katiyo in Uzumba and party official Nqobizitha Mlilo's mother in Mvuma by suspected ZANU PF loyalists.

Although ZBC quoted the MDC-T more than any other party in government as shown in Fig 4, its officials were mainly cited in the context of reinforcing the notion of a united government.

Fig 4: Voice distribution on ZBC and private stations

Online news agencies
Online agencies also paid significant attention to tensions in the inclusive government, which they argued paralysed its economic turnaround plans. See Fig. 5.

Fig 5: Topical stories in the online agencies

They reported the inclusive government as under pressure from civil society to democratise the constitutional reform process; promote transitional justice for victims of political violence; stop the selective prosecution of MDC-T MPs and hold by-elections for all the vacant seats as required by law.

They published seven reports on rights violations.

Except for reports claiming that ZANU PF had deployed war veterans and militia across the country to promote the Kariba Draft, the rest were similar to those carried by other private media.

Fig 6: Voice distribution on online agencies

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