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The
Media Monitoring Project
Monday
July 25th – Sunday July 31st 2005
Weekly
Media Update 2005-28
CONTENTS
1.
GENERAL COMMENT
2. THE
URBAN PURGE AND TIBAIJUKA’S REPORT
3.
ECONOMIC ISSUES
THE
government media’s reluctance to expose the ruling party’s undemocratic
tendencies and intolerance of the opposition was illustrated again this week by
their suffocation of the continuing harassment of MDC officials by ZANU PF
activists.
For
example, ZBH (28/7, 8pm) and The Herald (29/7) censored the alleged
assault and harassment of MDC MP for Mbare Gift Chimanikire by ZANU PF youths
and officials during the re-opening of Mbare Retail Market, forcing him to leave
the event. Instead, the paper only focussed on vice-president Joseph Msika’s
speech in which he claimed that “government will not discriminate against
members of the opposition” in its operation
Garikai.
Only
The Daily Mirror (29/7) revealed that Chipangano, a notorious mob aligned
to ZANU PF, had assaulted Chimanikire and his aides in the “presence of
the police”, although the Zimbabwe Independent (29/7) also
referred to the incident in their story on the raid on the MDC’s election
expert, Topper Whitehead. According to the Mirror, the police detained
Chimanikire instead of arresting the assailants when he went to report the
assault at Mbare police station.
The
papers quoted police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena saying Chimanikire was arrested
for possessing “two rifles in his car”, a matter the police were
“investigating”.
Studio 7
reported the story in its evening bulletin on the same
day.
In their
stories about the raid on Whitehead’s home The Daily Mirror, the
Independent and Studio 7 (29/7) all reported that police had confiscated
material that could have provided evidence showing how the 2002 presidential
election was allegedly rigged. According to these media, the police pounced on
Whitehead’s home at “night” claiming that they were looking for
“subversive materials” such as photographs and videotapes filmed
during Murambatsvina.
Although
The Herald (30/7) reported the raid, it carried the story as a news brief
buried on page 10. While the private Press viewed the police action as yet
another incident of harassment of the opposition and the authorities’ attempts
to disrupt the MDC’s efforts to analyse the 2002 election material, The
Herald steered clear of such observations and merely quoted Bvudzijena
saying the police had raided Whitehead’s home in search of “aggressive
documents”.
Meanwhile,
The Daily Mirror and SW Radio Africa (26/7) revealed that the Supreme
Court had dismissed ZANU PF Gokwe South legislator Jaison Machaya’s appeal
against a High Court ruling nullifying his victory against MDC candidate Lameck
Muyambi in the 2000 parliamentary elections. The paper quoted Muyambi’s lawyer
saying the Supreme Court judgment, which was delivered on February 4 this year
and “made available” on July 25, had become “academic and
overtaken by events since new polls have been held” adding that had it
“come out on time…fresh elections would have been called for the
constituency”.
The
government media ignored this latest example of how the administration of
justice in the country has been subverted.
UNITED
Nations special envoy Anna Tibaijuka’s report on Operation Murambatsvina
continued to attract heavy media attention during the
week.
The
media carried a total of 153 stories on the matter. Of these, 73 were carried by
ZBH (ZTV [34], Radio Zimbabwe [20], Power FM [19]), 20 by Studio 7, 30 by the
government-controlled Press, while the remaining 35 stories were published in
the private papers.
But
while the private media carried fairly investigative and balanced reports on the
topic, the government-controlled media’s coverage was rigid, characterised by
shrill defence of government’s implementation of Murambatsvina while
simultaneously parading the clampdown’s mop-up successor, Operation
Garikai, as a worthy programme.
For
example, ZBH devoted 31 stories (42%) out of the 73 stories they carried on
Murambatsvina to condemning Tibaijuka’s findings. The broadcaster and its
print counterparts passively peddled as fact unsubstantiated conspiracy theories
by government officials and their sympathisers that Tibaijuka’s damning report
on Murambatsvina was instigated by British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
ZTV
alone carried at least five stories propagating this
agenda.
For
example, ZTV (25/7,8pm) quoted Information Minister Tichaona Jokonya accusing
Tibaijuka of having come to assess the clampdown “without an open
mind” and saying “she was
on a mission to satisfy Tony Blair’s agenda”.
It was
in this context that The Herald and Chronicle (25/7) reported
President Mugabe as having invited UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to visit
Zimbabwe “to see for himself the situation on the ground” because
as he told ZTV (26/7, 8pm), The Herald and Chronicle
(27/7), Tibaijuka’s assessment of Murambatsvina was
pre-determined.
The two
papers (27/7) quoted him alleging that Tibaijuka had told him “her hands
were tied” because “certain people had been planted in her
assessment mission to ensure that the report was
damning”.
Without
independently ascertaining the veracity of Mugabe’s allegations, the government
Press simply magnified them in 10 other reports they carried on the subject.
However, these allegations contradicted those by Annan’s spokesman. He told
Studio 7 (27/7) that Tibaijuka had produced the report on her own authority
saying, “ the report is clear, complete on the situation on the ground and
on the humanitarian situation”.
Other
analysts quoted on the same bulletin also dismissed government’s denial of the
UN findings. Director of African Policy Studies, Princeton Leman, told Studio 7
that the government strategy was “to discredit the report and deny what is
actually happening”. Added Leman: “It’s not the first time he
(President Mugabe) has done this. He denied there was a food crisis last year
then turned around of course for food aid…”
In
fact, The
Financial Gazette
(28/7) quoted unnamed ZANU PF sources revealing that Tibaijuka had told Mugabe
not to “expect
nothing short of a bad report given the situation on the
ground”.
The story also revealed that due to divisions within the ruling party over
Murambatsvina,
some party members had “nicodemously”
provided Tibaijuka with information to “recant
what they would have said in broad daylight”.
The
Sunday Mirror
(31/7) concurred, saying there was no “collective
inter-ministerial drive”
on the operation. It claimed that Harare City Council initially planned the
operation, which later “spun
out of control”
when Chombo took the Harare “clean-up”
to Cabinet level.
The
government media steered clear of these matters.
Their
preoccupation with portraying Britain as the brains behind Tibaijuka’s
unflattering findings even resulted in them distorting the circumstances leading
to the presentation of her report to the closed-door session of the UN Security
Council.
For
example, The Herald (28/7) wrongly gave the impression that London had
bulldozed the report onto the agenda of the Council instead of clearly stating
that its tabling was as a result of a procedural vote in which the Council voted
9:5 in favour of the report’s presentation. Instead, it narrowly portrayed the
vote as having been only conducted to determine whether or not Zimbabwe should
attend Tibaijuka’s briefing.
Similarly,
although the Chronicle (29/7) acknowledged the Council’s decision to have
the report presented over opposition from China, Russia and African countries,
it maintained that Britain and the US had to “force a briefing”
after their “spirited campaign” to have Zimbabwe “foisted on
the agenda of the UN organ” was “thwarted” by other
members.
Still,
despite government’s strident initial criticism of the UN’s ‘biased’ report,
government media’s audiences would have been confused when ZTV (27/7, 8pm) and
The Herald (28/7) passively quoted Deputy Information Minister
Bright Matonga denying government had “condemned” the report. They made no
effort to explain this represented a contradiction of government’s previous
position.
Similarly,
the same reports failed to reconcile the authorities’ attacks on the UN report
with invitations to the UN from Vice-President Joyce Mujuru and Matonga to
complement government efforts in realising its “national reconstruction
programme”.
Not
surprisingly, the government media’s attempts to ignore Murambatsvina’s
devastation and project government as committed to providing shelter and vending
stalls to the victims of its purge exactly mirrored the official focus on
reconstruction.
To this
end the official media carried 50 glowing stories on
Garikai.
The
stories were hardly informative as none of them gave a detailed inventory of the
government’s reconstruction programme. These media just bombarded their
audiences with meaningless statistics and projections that were sometimes at
odds with reality.
For
example, ZTV (26/7,8pm) did not question government’s claim that it would
complete building “100 houses in four weeks” in Victoria Falls
“despite fuel shortages” crippling the country.
Neither
did ZTV (28/7,8pm), Radio Zimbabwe (29/7,6am) or Power FM (29/7,8pm) question in
what capacity Acting Commander of Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) Perence Shiri
was commenting on issues pertaining to Garikai, an allegedly civilian
exercise. The stations merely reported him as commending “the commitment
shown by Mashonaland East Province in the construction of houses, factory
shells…under the current reconstruction programme” and urged it to meet
government’s August 31st deadline. There was no attempt to discuss
the practicability of this deadline.
Rather,
ZTV (25/7,8pm) and The Herald (26/7) passively reported Acting Foreign
Affairs Minister Stan Mudenge saying the deadline was “achievable”
and “real people who were staying in shacks are going to live in real
houses”.
The
government media’s partisan approach in handling the topic was evident in their
sourcing pattern, which was dominated by official voices. See Fig 1 and 2.
Fig 1.
Voice distribution in the government Press
Govt. |
Foreign |
Ordinary
People |
Local
govt. |
Jonathan
Moyo |
MDC |
Police |
Unnamed |
19 |
10 |
5 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
The 10
foreign voices quoted in the government Press were supportive of government
while Moyo and the MDC’s voices were only quoted in the context of ZANU PF MPs’
response to their motions in Parliament.
Professional |
Govt |
Opposition |
Foreign
|
Ordinary
People |
Local
Govt |
ZANU
PF |
Alternative |
Army |
4 |
43 |
1 |
27 |
16 |
2 |
2 |
10 |
1 |
Nearly
all the ZBH sources were quoted rubber-stamping Garikai or vilifying the
UN report.
Except
for 10 reports in the Mirror stable, which echoed the official media’s
position, the rest of the 45 stories carried by the private media endorsed the
UN report.
The
Financial Gazette (28/7)
and The Standard called on government to accept its mistakes and
mend fences with the rest of the international community.
In fact,
The Standard reported that despite spirited protestations against
the UN report, ZANU PF’s politburo was
scheduled to meet to discuss the findings “as pressure mounts on President Mugabe to
fully comply” with the UN
recommendations. It quoted unnamed diplomatic sources saying members of the
international community had endorsed the report and were treating its findings
seriously.
In
addition, it also reported that owners of Whitecliff Farm, Eddies Pfugari
Properties, had filed contempt of court charges against Chombo for defying an
earlier court order barring his ministry from building houses at the
farm.
Contrary
to the official Press’ narrow coverage of the clampdown, the private media
continued to highlight the misery caused by Murambatsvina and exposed
government’s continued demolitions and evictions of people in Chipinge and Porta
Farm and the inhumane treatment of those removed from government’s holding
camps.
The
government media ignored this news or focussed on Joyce Mujuru’s announcement
that Murambatsvina was over (The Herald, 28/7). The Herald
(25/7) gave the impression that Porta Farm residents were voluntarily
“relocating” to their rural homes.
However,
Studio 7 (27/7) revealed that church leaders were battling to establish where
government had taken those it had forcibly removed from Porta Farm and transit
camps and that the police were barring civic groups and aid agencies from
assisting Murambatsvina victims.
The
station (26/7) also reported that a 40-year old man had died outside a
Tsholotsho district administrator’s office after he and about a 100 others were
dumped by the authorities following their removal from Bulawayo churches that
housed them.
The
report lacked police confirmation.
The
varied themes the private media covered on the topic and the professional manner
in which they handled the subject were reflected by their diverse sourcing
pattern. See Figs. 3 and 4.
Fig. 3
Voice distribution in the private Press
Alternative |
Zanu
PF |
Govt |
Ordinary
people |
Local
govt |
MDC |
Unnamed |
Lawyers |
Police |
Foreign |
8 |
3 |
18 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
4 |
1 |
17 |
Govt |
Foreign
dignitaries |
Ordinary
People |
ZANU
PF |
Alternative |
MDC |
7 |
9 |
2 |
1 |
12 |
1 |
THE
government media’s reluctance to openly discuss key national issues was
demonstrated by the way in which they covered President Mugabe’s recent trip to
China aimed at shoring up the country’s waning economic
fortunes.
Although
they carried 28 reports ‘hailing’ the trip as ‘successful’ these media provided
very little information to back this up.
For
example, none of the 18 stories that ZBH carried hardly audited the details
surrounding the “number of agreements” signed (ZTV, 31/7,
8pm).
ZBH’s
Reuben Barwe merely reported that China was Zimbabwe’s
“all-weather-friend” without exactly explaining how the “Zimbabwe
and China trade”, which “had grown by at least 40% per annum,
reaching $250 million per year”, had revived the fortunes of the
economy.
Similarly,
the 10 stories that the official Press carried on Mugabe’s trip were scant on
detail and failed to link it to government’s efforts to seek an economic rescue
package.
Rather,
these papers (26/7) merely reported that the country’s mining, transport and
road sectors were set for “a major transformation as Chinese companies
have expressed an interest in investing” in them. The next day
The Herald announced that China and Zimbabwe had signed several
deals, including a US$6 million grant to import grain, the provision of 100
computers to support President Mugabe’s “wish to make technologies
accessible to all people” and investments in the power industry and coal
mining.
The
government media’s supine coverage of these trade agreements reflected the way
they covered the rest of the problems bedevilling the economy. They carried 43
reports that glossed over the country’s food insecurity, the galloping cost of
living, and its purported thawing relations with international financial
institutions.
In
contrast, the private media were more revealing in their 31 stories on the
economic crisis. For example, they linked Mugabe’s visit to China and Zimbabwe’s
appeal for a US$1 billion loan from South Africa directly to the country’s
precarious economic situation.
The
Independent reported that Mugabe had “failed to get a rescue
package he had hoped for” and “entered trade and investment deals
that will not be of any help to the battered economy in the short to medium
term”.
It
revealed that government was so desperate for financial support that it could
“mortgage key national resources” to get it.
Economist
Godfrey Kanyenze agreed on Studio 7 (27/7). He said Zimbabwe was “simply
signing off its wealth without tangible benefits”.
The Gazette (29/7) revealed that Zimbabwe
had even taken its “begging bowl to Namibia…in its increasingly
desperate bid to rustle up urgent financial aid from its dwindling bed of
allies.”
In
addition, the paper reported World Bank director Harwig Schafer saying the
country’s “rapid economic decline” over the
past six years was “unprecedented for a country that is not at
war” with 70% of Zimbabweans living below the poverty datum line.
Ends//
The MEDIA UPDATE was produced and
circulated by the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe, 15 Duthie Avenue, Alexandra
Park, Harare, Tel/fax: 263 4 703702, E-mail: monitors@mmpz.org.zw
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