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Weekly Media update 2010-10
Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe
Monday March 15th - Sunday March 21st 2010
March 26, 2010

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Comment

Distortion sours PM's s ZMC meeting

THE Sunday Mail (21/3)'s heavily editorialized front-page news story of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's meeting with members of the new Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) to ensure that it begins its work of licensing new media products without delay, vividly exposed the negative sentiments of the newspaper's managers to media reforms.

Instead of actually reporting on the meeting, the story, headlined 'One step at a time Mr Prime Minister', claimed Tsvangirai "got more than he had bargained for" when he was allegedly "told that the registration of other newspapers will not be a hurried process", citing unnamed sources. In its efforts to give this unsubstantiated headline some credibility, the paper relied on its faceless commentators accusing Tsvangirai of violating protocol on the grounds that he had convened the meeting before Media, Information and Publicity Minister Webster Shamu had had the chance to meet the commission.

This so-called news story then resorted to total editorial fiction by stating that "It is understood . . . the MDC-T is panicking that elections are around the corner and is desperate to have The Daily News registered", without even bothering to attribute this absurd comment to anybody.

Instead of seeking some informative comment from ZMC chairman, Godfrey Majonga, on the outcome of the meeting, or even from the Prime Minister, the paper again resorted to unidentified sources claiming that Majonga had told Tsvangirai the commission needed to "understand their mandate" before licensing new media products and would need to consult the media ministry and the Attorney-General "so that he can explain the meaning of the new law under which the commission would be operating".

Readers of The Sunday Mail's competition however, would have got a completely different impression of the meeting. The Standard carried a happy picture of the Prime Minister surrounded by beaming members of the commission, and none other than the information minister himself, Webster Shamu, and his deputy, Jameson Timba. The presence of the ministry's most senior officials was completely suppressed by The Sunday Mail. The Standard at least reported Tsvangirai advising the commission to "ignore opponents of media reforms in the inclusive government" who were trying to frustrate the licensing of new media products.

The government paper's grossly unprofessional distortion about news of this meeting involving its own officials precisely illustrates the urgent need for more alternative sources of credible information.

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