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Weekly Media Review - Issue 7
The Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
Monday February 14th 2011 - Sunday February 20th 2011
February 25, 2011

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Anti-MDC-T propaganda dominates state media

The propaganda blitz by ZANU PF and the media it controls against the MDC formation led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, assumed yet another new dimension during the week.

In previous weeks these media blamed the fresh wave of political violence, mostly in Harare, on MDC-T - linking it to statements made by Tsvangirai in an interview with an American news channel, Fox News, last month (See Weekly Media Reviews 2011-5/6).

This week they contrived yet another conspiracy by the MDC-T by misrepresenting attempts by some MDC-T-run ministries to instil accountability in some arms of government as designed to sabotage Zimbabwe's troubled coalition to please the party's perceived Western masters.

This was reflected in all the 42 stories that the government media carried on the subject and related developments during the week.

Major targets of the official media's misinformation campaign included Finance Minister Tendai Biti and Public Service Minister Eliphas Mukonoweshuro, savaged for trying to infuse transparency in the sale of controversial Chiadzwa diamonds and recruitment of civil servants respectively.

While professional journalistic practice dictates fair presentation of facts by giving both sides of the story, the MDC-T officials were barely given right of reply in these media. And in the few cases their comments were sought, these were either suffocated or dismissed out-of-hand.

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