Monday June 20^th – Sunday June 26^th 2005

Weekly Media Update 2005-23

CONTENTS

1. GENERAL COMMENT

2. URBAN PURGE CONTINUES

3. FUEL SHORTAGES AND ECONOMIC ISSUES

1. General comment

THE media’s disturbing dereliction of duty has made itself evident again after their failure to inform the public of the enactment of yet another repressive law, the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act.

The law was gazetted on June 3^rd, but surprisingly none of the media has reported on this piece of legislation, which tightens the gag on the public’s voice, among other provisions that further erode the country’s democratic space.

For instance, Clause 31 of the Act imposes a fine of $5 million or a jail sentence of up to 20 years or both for anyone who “ who publishes or communicates false statements” that are perceived to be “prejudicial to the State”.

Clause 33 of the Act also imposes stiffer penalties for anyone convicted of “publicly” making or publishing a statement (including any act or gesture) that is deemed as “undermining the authority of or insulting” the presidency.

These two alarmingly vague and sweeping clauses introduce truly draconian penalties for similar offences already contained in the repressive Public Order and Security Act (POSA) and Access to Information and Privacy Act (AIPPA).

For instance, under POSA communicating a false statement perceived to be a threat to the State’s interests attracts a fine of $100 000 or a five-year jail term or both, while AIPPA’s penalty for “publishing or communicating falsehoods”, which is also punishable under Section 31 (b) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, is a fine of $400 000 or a maximum of two years in jail.

Notably, none of the media informed the public of this latest assault by the authorities on the citizenry’s right to freedom of expression.

However, The Daily Mirror (23/6) did expose how such repressive laws have been used to deny citizens their right to access media of their choice when it reported that the government-appointed Media and Information Commission (MIC) had “reserved judgment” on the application by the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe - publishers of The Daily News and The Daily News on Sunday – for an operating licence and the re-licensing of The Tribune.

The papers were closed for violating sections of AIPPA.

While the MIC continues to delay making a determination on these important public issues, Zimbabweans who have been subjected to incessant propaganda from the government controlled media, remain starved of diverse alternative sources of information.

2. Urban purge continues

AS the debate on government’s Operation Murambatsvina continued, the official media stepped up its propaganda portraying the authorities as humane and sensitive to the needs of the operation’s victims.

For example, almost all 129 reports that ZBH (Power FM [41], Radio Zimbabwe [34] and ZTV [54]) carried portrayed government as addressing homelessness caused by the exercise by providing alternative shelter for the victims. As a result, the scale of the humanitarian crisis triggered by Murambatsvina was suffocated.

Neither did the broadcaster expose the confusion surrounding the objective of the exercise following the announcement that the operation would be expanded to include banning offices in residential areas and peri-urban farming. Instead, the government broadcaster continued to seek comments from pro-government sources to endorse the exercise.

The government Press adopted a similar stance in its 46 stories on the topic.

These papers passively premised their reports on the authorities’ justification of the operation presenting Murambatsvina as a “noble” exercise according to Deputy Minister of Information, Bright Matonga (The Herald 24/6) that would provide better homes for the poor and rid the country of illegal activities.

These papers also stifled the human misery the operation has caused.

In fact, in an effort to sanitize the humanitarian crisis, ZTV (20/6, 8pm), Power FM and Radio Zimbabwe (21/6, 8pm) claimed that living conditions for “2,000 families” resettled at Caledonia Farm “continue to improve as NGOs have joined government in providing basic needs…”

There was no discussion on what percentage of Murambatsvina’s victims the resettled families represented. Neither did ZBH provide information about the living conditions of other victims of Murambatsvina and where they were settled. Instead, the following day, ZTV (21/6, 8pm) quoted police Inspector Eunice Marange downplaying the rights violations arising from the mass forced evictions. She claimed that the treatment of the victims was in accordance with international law as Caledonia Farm settlers enjoyed “every human right” under the UN Charter and lived “just like any person with a home”.

To further mitigate the cruelty of the purge, ZBH (23/6, 8pm) reported vaguely that “sociologists” had said, “the conduct of police and local authorities are within the law and international standards of fighting crime.” But it only quoted one sociologist; Claude Mararike, an advocate of government policies.

While ZTV repeatedly ran footage of houses allegedly being built for Murambatsvina’s victims at Whitecliffe Farm to show government’s compassion for those affected, it failed to investigate why the authorities had flattened homes built on the stands that the government itself had parceled out just before the presidential elections in 2002.

The official Press was equally silent on this issue. For example, The Sunday Mail and The Sunday News (26/6) carried five passive reports on government’s newly launched $3 trillion reconstruction programme dubbed ‘Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle’, which is meant to “provide residential and business accommodation to deserving people” by the end of August this year.

The two papers failed to question where government would get the funds for the programme or the feasibility of the timeframe within which reconstruction was to be completed, far less explain the criteria that would be used to select “deserving people”.

In fact, the government media’s total failure to question the authorities’ policies resulted in The Herald (24/6) failing to find out why “some” organisations were allowed to continue to operate in CBD offices that Harare City Council had closed for “breach of licensing regulations, overcrowding and health risks”.

Such passive endorsement of Murambatsvina on the basis that it was flushing out “illegality” in urban centres was apparent in most stories featured by the government Press.

For example, in a The Sunday Mail, opinion piece, Dr Obediah Mazombwe accused the Western media of presenting “a mangled, self-serving description of the clean-up”. While he, for example, accused these media of carrying “outright non-truths…suggesting that a significant number of legal, registered, tax-paying companies did business at Bart House”, Mazombwe made no effort to substantiate his claims that the building “housed mostly crooks, conmen and outright criminals”.

Similarly, the vague and generic branding of shack dwellers and informal traders as criminals was earlier reflected in The Herald (22/6), which reported the police as checking criminal records of prospective vendors before they were allocated market stalls by the council. The paper did not clarify what would happen to ex-convicts and whether there were any laws preventing them from attempting to earn an honest living. Neither did the paper explain what the council meant by ominously demanding vendors provide proof of “legal” residence before being licensed.

The totally compromised nature of The Herald’s coverage of Murambatsvina was also reflected by the paper’s failure (24 & 26/6) to give balanced coverage of the parliamentary debate on the operation. Its reports subordinated the MDC’s concerns about the evident suffering caused by Murambatsvina to ruling party MPs’ support for the exercise. ZTV (23/6, 8pm) also failed to package the debate in a professional manner as it only showed footage of MPs debating in Parliament without identifying them or giving any narrative of the issues raised by the legislators. 

In fact, the official media’s partisan coverage of Murambatsvina was reflected by their failure to balance the official comment with independent viewpoints as shown in Fig 1 and 2.

Fig 1 Voice distribution on ZBH

Fig 2 Voice distribution in the government Press

Notably, except for the MDC voices, which were only cited in the context of the questions they raised in Parliament, most of the commentators used by the government media endorsed the operation.

In contrast, apart from three reports carried in the Mirror stable that were sceptical of the West, especially Britain’s concerns on Murambatsvina, most of the 74 stories (Studio 7 [30] and private Press [44]) featured by the private media exposed the cruelty and arbitrary nature of the operation.

The stories condemned the haphazard and callous manner in which the exercise was being implemented and highlighted local and international criticism. For example, contrary to ZBH’s sanitised picture of the humanitarian crisis, Studio 7 (21/6) reported that  “the plight of displaced people in Harare and other areas continued to deteriorate as authorities fail to come up with means to accommodate them”. While ZBH glossed over the poor conditions at Caledonia Farm, the private station revealed that there were “no (proper) sanitation facilities and there are frequent water shut offs, and most people are sleeping in the open”. The station (23/6) revealed that similar circumstances prevailed at a holding camp in Bubi-Umguza, which is used to “hold” victims of the operation in Bulawayo.

It also reported that “thousands of people” had been left homeless and were sleeping in the open in Mutare and Chitungwiza amid fears of an outbreak of disease.

The Standard (26/6) reported the Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe estimating that as many as 300 000 children had dropped out of school after their homes had been destroyed. The paper also revealed that the operation had claimed six lives so far, among them four children.

The government Press’ only report on a Murambatsvina-related death was carried by The Herald (23/6), which passively allowed the police to distance themselves from the fatality while apparrently blaming it on the reckless way people were “demolishing illegal structures at their properties”. Notably, the police comments and the paper’s report followed the fatal crushing by rubble of 18-month-old Terence Munyaka, the son of a police officer.

Besides attempting to accurately convey the scale of the humanitarian crisis, the private media continued to give space to growing international criticism of the exercise.

For example, Studio 7 (20/6) reported calls by South Africa’s opposition on President Thabo Mbeki to “speak out and condemn” the operation, and quoted World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz describing Murambatsvina as “inhuman and tragic”.

The government media ignored these reports and only made reference to them in the context of government’s vicious response to the international community’s concerns. They also used South Africa and the African Union’s supportive statements to present criticism as driven by the West’s hatred of Zimbabwe.

For instance, ZBH (24/6, 8pm) reported President Mugabe dismissing Wolfowitz’s statements as “ridiculous” because many “people have been supportive of the programme”, adding that criticism only came from “the West.”

The government Press carried five stories projecting such views.

As a result, the official papers avoided interpreting the visit by the UN special envoy, Anna Kagumulo Tibaijuka, to assess the damage caused by Murambatsvina as a vindication of the international community’s concerns over the exercise. Instead, The Herald (21/6) simply quoted Secretary for Information George Charamba attributing it to the “misplaced hue and cry” over the exercise “and an apparent reluctance by the Western media” to acknowledge that “government has put in place measures to rehabilitate and accommodate” the victims.    

While the government media relied on pro-government voices in a bid to endorse Murambatsvina, the sourcing pattern in the private media was more diverse. All official voices quoted in the private Press supported Murambatsvina while most the other voices were critical. Notably, only diplomats from South Africa and the AU did not query government’s actions. See Fig 3.

Fig 3 Voice distribution in the private Press

3. Fuel shortages and economic issues

THE government media also failed to properly report the intensifying economic crisis, characterised by acute fuel shortages and an increasingly inflationary environment.

For instance, the government Press carried 11 stories on the subject as compared to 30 featured by the private papers.

Notably, most of the stories carried in the government papers were a passive echo of the authorities’ reasons for the country’s economic decline. For example, of the four reports these papers published on fuel shortages, half of them stemmed from government responses to MDC legislators’ questions on the fuel crisis while the remainder were mere events describing how commuters were having difficulties in finding transport.

Likewise, more than half of the 23 stories ZBH (ZTV [8], Radio Zimbabwe [8] and Power FM [7]) rehashed the government’s explanation for the self-evident fuel crisis. The rest were uncritical reports on the impact of foreign currency shortages on government’s projects.

None of the official media’s reports took the authorities to task over how they were going to address the fuel crisis.

Studio 7’s two reports also failed to challenge the authorities on the issue.

It was only the private Press that demanded answers in most of its eight stories on the crisis. Such was the papers’ tenacity that The Daily Mirror (20, 21 and 25/6) carried editorials all criticising government’s silence on the crisis. 

In fact, the Zimbabwe Independent (24/6) revealed that the IMF team currently in the country had learnt that, “Zimbabwe has no plan in place to save the country from the crippling fuel shortage,” and that, “Zimbabwe does not currently have any fuel in reserve as the shortages have continued to bite”.  However, Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono told the paper that, “a solution to the fuel problem was in sight”. He did not elaborate.

Although the private papers’ coverage on the galloping cost of living was almost as thin as that of the government Press, they tried to explain the causes of the economic ills afflicting Zimbabwe. They cited foreign currency shortages, the high inflation and government overspending, which has resulted in it accumulating a ballooning domestic debt of $10 trillion to finance its budget deficit, as some of the main culprits.   

The government Press evaded these matters.

Instead, The Herald (23/6) merely cited Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa telling Parliament that Zimbabwe’s economic crisis stemmed from the sanctions imposed on the country by the international community.

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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