|
Back to Index
This article participates on the following special index pages:
Zimbabwe's Elections 2013 - Index of Articles
Daily Election Report – Issue 7
The Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
July 21, 2013
Download
this document
- Acrobat
PDF version (242KB)
If you do not have the free Acrobat reader
on your computer, download it from the Adobe website by clicking
here
The
‘balance’ so far…
Since MMPZ started
its daily reports on the media’s coverage
of election issues on Monday, July 15, ZTV, the national public
broadcaster’s flagship television station, has exposed the
extent of its bias in favour of Zanu-PF, granting a total of more
than 90 minutes in its main evening news bulletins in the week to
favourable reports of the party’s activities, compared to
little more than 10 minutes of mostly negative coverage for its
main rival the MDC-T. The MDC-N and other smaller parties, such
as ZAPU and the ZDP have received barely five minutes in coverage
in the seven bulletins monitored.
This is in addition
to at least 24 hours of live coverage ZTV has given to Zanu-PF’s
“star rallies” and its presidential candidate, Robert
Mugabe, during the week, compared to absolutely no live coverage
for any other political party.
However, this
is computed, this grossly biased coverage represents a clear violation
of the Electoral
(Amendment) Act’s regulations governing the media’s
conduct during election periods, especially section 160J (a) which
states that all political parties and candidates be “treated
equitably” by the media “in regard to the extent, timing
and prominence of the coverage accorded to them”.
MMPZ calls upon
the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, responsible for ensuring that
the media adhere to these laws, to curb this unprofessional conduct
from the public broadcaster.
Download
full document
Visit the MMPZ
fact
sheet
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
TOP
|
