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Weekly Media Update 2009-30
Monday July 27th 2009 - Sunday August 2nd 2009
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
August 07, 2009

General Comment
Nothing more clearly affirms The Herald's status as a messenger of ZANU PF propaganda than its fabricated story contriving an alleged conspiracy in Parliament's selection of candidates for the Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC).

In its report of the selection process the paper (4/8) falsely claimed that Parliament's Standing Rules and Orders Committee (SROC) had "abandoned" interviews to choose ZMC commissioners after ZANU PF officials led by Paul Mangwana raised objections over the alleged "fraudulent" selection process. It said this was after "a team of human resources experts that drafted the questions and MDC interviewers failed all candidates perceived to be sympathetic to Zanu PF while passing pro-MDC applicants".

Citing anonymous "impeccable sources", it also claimed that a "deadlock" had been declared and had resulted in the SROC "agreeing that all the names of the 27 candidates interviewed be forwarded to the President without ranking them", leaving him with a "torrid task" of choosing 12 nominees for the ZMC and the remainder for the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ).

Except for ZANU PF's objections to the rejection of its loyalist candidates, the paper's allegations were blatant lies meant to encourage the authorities to reject the selected candidates and thereby stave off the appointment of a fairly independent media regulatory authority.

According to those who attended the candidates' interviews, the process was not abandoned and SROC and the leaders of both Houses of Parliament agreed on the final list of 12 most suitable candidates for submission to the President for the selection of the nine candidates who will constitute the ZMC.

This account tallies with private media reports on the interviews.

ZimOnline (5/8), for example, revealed that although Mangwana had tried to overturn the nominations alleging unfair treatment of those perceived to be ZANU PF sympathisers, the parliamentary committee had rejected his allegations and "resolved to forward names of the nominated people to Mugabe."

The full list of the interviewed candidates and their scores appeared on SW Radio Africa (4/8).

However, like The Herald, the private news outlets did not expose the irregularity of the SROC's arbitrary decision to select nominees for the BAZ from the same list of candidates interviewed for the ZMC positions.

The original parliamentary advertisement calling for applications for the ZMC posts (and three other constitutionally established commissions) gave no indication that aspiring BAZ board members would also be considered. Besides, the legal framework for the establishment of the two regulatory bodies and the requisite qualifications for their members are different rendering SROC's decision technically and procedurally irregular.

As MISA noted in a letter to the Speaker of Parliament, while the ZMC is to be established in terms of the Constitution, the BAZ board is not a constitutional body and can only be set up under statutory regulations providing for its establishment contained in the Broadcasting Services Act.

Rather than discuss these issues, The Herald (5/8) allowed Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa to attempt to discredit SROC's selection of ZMC commissioners in favour of partisan politics, suggesting that the committee disregards the list and "negotiate on the basis of the political realities" given that "we are . . . political animals with political biases".

This evident attempt to scuttle efforts to democratise Zimbabwe's restrictive media environment contaminates the recent news of a letter by a government-appointed Special Board Committee granting the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) permission to seek a licence from "the relevant authority" to resume its publication of The Daily News and its Sunday sister paper.

This is because without the ZMC, whose establishment ZANU PF is trying to block, there is no legitimate regulatory authority to licence ANZ.

MMPZ believes that this example of government "magnanimity" illustrates that while restrictive laws governing the operations of the media remain on Zimbabwe's statute books they will continue to be used to arbitrarily control media activity. Zimbabweans do not need a licence to express themselves; all laws controlling - rather than regulating - media activity must be scrapped in any new constitutional reforms, including the ZMC.

The Public and Private Press

Impressions of a united government finally working towards instituting democratic reforms as envisaged in the Global Political Agreement (GPA) dominated the print media's coverage of the inclusive government this week. See Fig. 1.

Fig 1: Topical news distribution in the print media

However, the government papers barely tested the sincerity and timing of the authorities' sudden flurry to comply with some of the GPA provisions, reflected in the lifting of the ban on demonstrations; the decision to allow the BBC, CNN and The Daily News to resume their operations; and the convening of the first meetings of the Council of Ministers and the National Security Council (NSC). As a result, there was no attempt to assess the real value of this purported reform agenda in the context of next month's SADC meeting, which is expected, among other issues, to evaluate the first six months of the transitional arrangement.

Instead, 74% of the 35 stories they carried on the inclusive government simply reported these developments as well as President Mugabe and MDC leaders' attendance of a Global 2009 Dialogue in Uganda in the context of depicting the coalition as unquestionably united while ignoring indications of increasing friction. The rest either ridiculed Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara's perceptions on how Africa should be re-branded, or defended Mugabe's unilateral appointments of central bank governor Gideon Gono and Attorney-General Johannes Tomana.

As a result, the official dailies (28,29/7 &1/8) did not relate Mugabe's claims of a united government to the MDC's complaints over his unilateralism, the selective prosecution of its MPs and continuing human rights violations, which Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai reportedly raised in his meeting with SADC chairman and SA President Jacob Zuma.

Notably, the papers ignored the objectives of the meeting between Tsvangirai and Zuma by reporting this news only in the context of Zuma's intention to contact Mugabe over the unity government's operations.

The government papers continued to ignore the GPA's power-sharing provisions by promoting the idea of Mugabe as having a monopoly on executive power in the unity government by constantly addressing him as Head of State and Government and Commander-in-chief of the Defence Forces". Seventeen of their stories on the inclusive government carried this excessive honorific.

The government Press carried 14 stories on constitutional reform, eight of which promoted the Kariba Draft, while the rest either criticized those opposed to it or celebrated disagreements between the MDC-T and civic society over the subject.

Although the papers devoted 52 stories on the country's socio-economic crises, they neither highlighted the scale of the problems nor assessed the adequacy of the authorities' interventions.

Their 20 reports on human rights violations did not view the prevalence of the problem as evidence of the authorities' failure to fully implement the political agreement. Instead, they simply presented the selective prosecution of MDC-T legislators as normal without investigating its implications on government stability.

It was left to the private papers to examine these issues more thoroughly. For example, they noted that efforts to fully implement the GPA as reflected by the convening of the overdue meetings of the National Security Council and Council of Ministers; superficial media reforms and the restoration of the Zimbabweans' right to protest as an attempt to appease SADC ahead of its assessment of the coalition.

But underneath the veneer of reform, the papers noted, the coalition was still paralyzed by tensions arising from the prolonged failure to resolve Gono and Tomana's appointments; the undermining of Tsvangirai's authority by ZANU PF ministers; the selective prosecution of MDC-T MPs and persistent human rights violations.

They carried 22 reports on human rights abuses, which included two new incidents. These stemmed from the arrest of 15 villagers in Mutare South for repossessing their livestock confiscated by suspected ZANU PF supporters during last year's violent polls, and Chief Newman Chiadzwa's flight from state security agents who, reportedly, wanted to arrest him for providing the Kimberley Process team with evidence of rights abuses in the Chiadzwa diamond fields.

Fig 2: Voice distribution in the print media

ZBC and private radio stations

ZBC continued to suffocate MDC-T's frustrations over ZANU PF's violations of the political pact with stories that projected the coalition as working cordially.

Fig 3: Topical issues on ZBC and private stations

None of ZBC's 59 stories (See Fig. 3) openly reported on the MDC-T's discontent over unilateral decisions by President Mugabe, the selective prosecution of its MPs and continuing human rights violations.

Instead, nine of the reports simply portrayed the decision to allow the broadcasting giants, CNN and BBC, to resume operations and the first meetings of the Council of Ministers and National Security Council (NSC) as evidence of the coalition's unwavering commitment to implementing the political agreement. The other 12 portrayed Mugabe and the MDC leaders' trip to Uganda for a 'Global 2009 Dialogue' as illustrating harmony in government, while the rest were on calls for unity by coalition partners.

Consequently, ZTV (27/7, 8pm) did not reconcile Mugabe's claims that the coalition was "united" in "moving Zimbabwe forward" with comments by MDC-T official Innocent Gonese on ZTV (28/7, 7pm) current affairs programme, The Legislator, that the coalition had "not moved with the required speed in terms of the goals which the inclusive government has set for itself, especially on the democratization agenda".

Neither did ZBC reveal that the slow reforms had resulted in Prime Minister Tsvangirai seeking the intervention of SADC chairman Jacob Zuma.

ZBC also adopted what is evidently new media ministry policy to reinforce the impression of Mugabe's supreme executive authority by addressing him as "Head of State and Government and Commander in Chief of the Defence Forces." It did this in all the 27 stories on the inclusive government that cited him.

As in previous weeks, ZBC's 15 reports on constitutional reform continued to promote the Parliament-driven process without analysing if it met democratic standards.

None of the six stories the broadcaster aired on human rights violations recorded new incidents. Nearly all of them passively reported on government's warning against unsanctioned meetings and demonstrations.

In contrast, the private stations continued to subject the inclusive government to critical analysis. They highlighted symptoms of tension in the coalition and quoted independent commentators questioning ZANU PF's sincerity in addressing the outstanding issues. They argued that perceptions of reform as mirrored by the convening of the NSC and the decision to allow the BBC and CNN to operate were an attempt to stave off SADC censure at the forthcoming regional summit.

The stations recorded three fresh incidents of human rights violations in 13 stories they aired on the matter. The incidents stemmed from the arrest of an unspecified number of members of the Zimbabwe Restoration of Human Rights for demonstrating against continued political violence; the arrest of an MDC MP Stuart Garadhi for playing a song allegedly denigrating Mugabe, and the sending of a bullet to MDC-T Finance Minister Tendai Biti.

The rest were follow-ups on the selective prosecution of MDC-T MPs.

However, the stations reported superficially on the country's socio-economic crisis with SW Radio Africa only carrying one report on Harare City Council's plans to disconnect water to residents over non-payment of bills.

Fig 4: Voice distribution on ZBC and private stations

Online news agencies
The private online publications also exposed the inadequacy of government reforms. See Fig. 5.

Fig 5: Topical stories in the online agencies

For example, while they presented the meeting of the NSC and Council of Ministers and the decision to allow the CNN, BBC and The Daily News to operate as positive developments, they quoted analysts arguing that the inclusive government was still far from fully complying with the GPA.

The Zimbabwe Times (1/8), for example, reported the MDC-T as being "frustrated" by the slow progress in resolving outstanding issues, while ZimOnline (1/8) revealed that US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was planning to "raise" the matter with Zuma.

The agencies' 19 stories on rights violations were in the context of highlighting the authorities' failure to fully implement the political agreement. Of these, five were new incidents that were similar to those recorded by the rest of the private media.

Fig 6: Voice distribution on online agencies

What they said . . .
"JOMIC is there to receive reports and complaints from the people of Zimbabwe on the implementation of the Global Political Agreement and forward them to our principals. We are not there to monitor" - The Zimbabwean (30/7), Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga, member of the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee.

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