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Election Watch Issue 3-2012
The Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
March 02, 2012

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It's all about the birthday boy

President Mugabe's 88th birthday celebrations, whose main event was held at Sakubva Stadium in Mutare on February the 25th, dominated news coverage of all the media throughout the month.

But coverage of these celebrations saturated the government media, particularly the national broadcaster's news and current affairs programming in the week of his birthday on February 21st. The highlights of this period were Mugabe's two interviews with the state-controlled media and his address to thousands of Zimbabweans at Sakubva Stadium.

Mugabe's birthday celebrations received attention in 182 stories in the government media: [ZBC (113) and official Press (69)]. The private media covered it in 58 stories.

The media also carried 485 stories on various national issues, such as the constitution-making process; local government affairs; party campaign activities; and security sector reform.

But 182 (38%) of these 485 stories still emanated from Mugabe's birthday interviews and speeches.

Two hundred-and-fifty-nine of these reports (53%) appeared in the government media, while the remaining 226 featured in the private media.

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