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Weekly Media Review - Issue 5
The Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
Monday January 31st 2011 - Sunday February 06th 2011
February 11, 2011
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State
media steps up the violence propaganda lie
The fresh wave of organized
violence that has erupted in Zimbabwe's capital and its suburbs
in recent weeks has provided the state-controlled media with another
opportunity to intensify its propaganda offensive against Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC-T party.
Just as they did in their
2007 "terrorist bombing" propaganda campaign leading up
to the 2008 elections, and before that, with the "anthrax terror
campaign" ahead of the 2002 presidential election, ZBC and
its television news broadcasts are leading a new state media war
on ZANU PF's old political opponents in an effort to publicly discredit
the MDC-T ahead of fresh elections that President Mugabe has stated
must be held this year.
Now, as then, these media
are being provided ample support by senior ZANU PF officials and
the police in blaming the MDC-T for this most recent spate of violence.
This time, the revolutions
in North Africa, Tsvangirai's comments about these events, and the
European Union's impending annual review of its targeted sanctions
appear to be the incentive and the excuse to portray the MDC-T as
a violent party with no evidence yet, beyond police accusations,
to support the claim.
The fear of spontaneous
national uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt spreading to Zimbabwe appears
to have been a catalyst in this latest wave of unrest, which the
private media and many civic groups have blamed on ZANU PF supporters
and officials.
Although stories of politically
motivated violence and intimidation around the country have been
consistently reported in the private media for many weeks stretching
back before Christmas, the latest reports talk of threats, intimidation
and "clashes" between rival party supporters in Harare's
suburbs as ZANU PF invades the MDC-T's urban strongholds as part
of its election campaign.
These culminated 10 days
ago in the violence reported in Mbare and Epworth and coincided
with a well-organized ZANU PF demonstration against Harare City
Council, ostensibly for slashing urban maize crops.
While the state media
refused to identify the political affiliation of the demonstrators
then, the spark that provided the state media with the opportunity
to open the propaganda floodgates appears to have been Tsvangirai's
comments to an international news agency about events in North Africa
on January 28th.
These were deliberately
and dishonestly distorted by ZANU PF officials to mean that the
MDC-T party and its leader - together with its Western masters -
were agitating for violent, unconstitutional "regime change".
These observations were
then repeated and amplified in the state media, which adopted this
description to re-energize ZANU PF's old allegations portraying
the MDC-T as a violent party seeking illegal regime change.
While the police initially
avoided attributing blame for the latest violence that resulted
in the looting of shops in the Gulf shopping complex of Harare's
CBD, ZTV's reports in its bulletins on February 8th corroborated
this perspective of the violence that has shocked the nation.
ZTV (8/02 8pm) quoted
police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena commenting on the recent violence,
saying: "Police records show that 11 cases of violence have
this year been recorded, with the MDC-T being implicated while Zanu
PF sympathizers were the targets,"
He added: "The MDC-T
is an active participator and instigator of violence . . . It is
clear that the MDC is orchestrating the political violence in which
they cry victim . . . Recent statements by the MDC leadership
on the issue of violence appear to suggest that any degeneration
of order is welcome in the country. Such language is not expected
of leaders. It boggles the mind why some politicians harbour ascendance
to leadership through violence destroying the same people they seek
to lead . . . "
This allowed ZTV's reporter,
Tafara Chikumira, in his report of the violence and looting that
affected Harare's CBD, to introduce the topic with the following
grossly unprofessional comment: "The MDC-T party is known for
its quest for violence . . . Only last week . . . Mr Morgan Tsvangirai's
plan to incite members of his party to stage an unsanctioned demonstration
against the establishment was thwarted by the country's security
forces".
His comments referred
to an earlier piece of complete fiction reported on ZBC (all stations
3/2) that claimed "a plan by . . . Tsvangirai to address his
party's youths at Town House and incite them to carry out violent
demonstrations against the government flopped yesterday." (Spot
FM, 8am). It claimed "confirmed reports say . . . Tsvangirai
had planned a march from Harvest House to Town house to address
his party's youth league under the guise of addressing urban transport
operators and touts" and "incite them to follow the Tunisian
and Egyptian-style of violent demonstrations the government . . . "
which ZTV later said " . . . he is ironically part of".
No evidence to support any of these statements was ever presented.
ZBC reported the police as "thwarting" the "unsanctioned"
meeting. The official media also accused suspected MDC-T supporters
of "petrolbombing"
stalls belonging to a
ZANU PF official at Mbare's Siya-So market without providing a shred
of evidence (The Herald, 7/2). They then reported senior ZANU PF
Mbare official Innocent Maseko warning: "We want the opposition
leadership to teach their youths to stop violence. They are indulging
in violence . . . but when we retaliate they put the blame on us".
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