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ZANU-PF is reportedly continuing with its violent campaign against supporters of the opposition, particularly in Gutu North where a parliamentary by-election was scheduled for February 1-2. Not only that, the ruling party is also being accused of using traditional leaders to frustrate the campaign activities of the MDC. "Only the private media revealed these barbaric tactics, which the ruling party has unashamedly employed in every election since the entrance into the political arena of the opposition MDC in late 1999," said the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe in their latest update.

The Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
Monday January 19th - Sunday January 25th 2004
Weekly Media Update 2004-03

Contents
* General comment
* Inflation and monetary policy miracles
* Selective interpretation of the law
* Distortions

1. GENERAL COMMENT

Despite persistent claims by South African President Thabo Mbeki and
Nigeria's, Olusegun Obasanjo's that the country's two main rival
political parties were on the verge of resuming formal talks to resolve
the country's crises, the situation on the ground continues to
deteriorate.
For example, ZANU-PF is reportedly continuing with its violent
campaign against supporters of the opposition, particularly in Gutu
North where a parliamentary by-election is scheduled for February 1-2.
Not only that, the ruling party is also being accused of using traditional
leaders to frustrate the campaign activities of the MDC.

Only the private media revealed these barbaric tactics, which the ruling
party has unashamedly employed in every election since the entrance
into the political arena of the opposition MDC in late 1999.
Recently, the police raided the MDC offices in search of what they
described as "subversive" material, The Standard and The Sunday
Mirror (25/1).
Members of civic organisations have not been spared from this
repression. Studio 7 (21/01) The Daily News and The Daily Mirror
(23/01) reported that the police broke up a meeting of Harare residents
organised by the Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) to
discuss the increase in rates by Harare City Council by 600 percent.

The government-controlled media predictably ignored these incidents
highlighting the extent of State-tolerated repression in the country.
Instead, ZBC chose to drown its audiences with stories about the
Zimbabwe national soccer team's journey to Tunisia for the African
Nations Cup soccer tournament. For instance, ZTV devoted 30
minutes or 24 percent of its total news time (excluding business,
weather and sport segments) allocated to 8pm bulletins in the week to
soccer. Songs such as Go Warriors Go composed by Information
Minister Jonathan Moyo accompanied some of the news items. In
addition, the station's current affairs programmes such as the 30-
minutes-long Behind the Camera and the-hour-long Face the Nation
discussed soccer. Its Monday evening programming was also
suspended to pave the way for live coverage of the team's departure to
Tunisia.
However, this overly generous devotion to soccer did not translate into
a critical examination of Zimbabwe's preparations for the tournament
but represented mere jingoistic puff pieces for the national team. The
broadcaster ignored the chaos that surrounded the departure of the
national team supporters to Tunisia and the shameful attempts by
ZANU PF functionaries such as the war veterans' leader, Joseph
Chinotimba, to hijack the event into a ZANU PF affair.

It was only the private media that revealed this. For example, The Daily
News on Sunday (25/01) reported that Chinotimba distributed T-shirts
inscribed Sendekera Mwana Wevhu, ZANU PF's latest slogan for the
land reform programme, amongst supporters and announced that
those intending to travel to Tunisia should wear the T-shirts. Perceived
MDC supporters and some journalists working for the private media
were reportedly barred from traveling to Tunisia.
The government Press also turned a blind eye to this. Rather, The
Sunday Mail (25/01) tried to give government mileage out of the
national team's success. Said the paper: "We salute those in
Government who put their heads on the block to pump a lot of
resources into the Warriors' campaign, chartering a plane for the
boys when everyone else was arguing that the money should be
spent on food".

Such immoral attempts to politically hijack a popular sport clearly
demonstrates the extent to which the authorities will go to try and win
the support of Zimbabweans, who are becoming increasingly frustrated
with the government's failure to restore some stability to Zimbabwe's
social, political and economic existence.

2. INFLATION AND MONETARY POLICY MIRACLES

The government-controlled media's enthusiasm to portray the sickly
Zimbabwean economy as finally recovering from its myriad ailments
found expression again this week through its narrow and simplistic
interpretations of the effects the recently announced Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe's monetary policy has had on the country's economy.
A decrease in inflation in December by 20.8 percent to 598.7 percent
from the November rate of 619.5 percent was the latest economic
indicator the government-controlled media used to support its
arguments that the country's economy was on the mend.
Such fixation with the drop in inflation, as if that on its own was the key
to success, without relating it holistically to other yet unresolved
economic fundamentals, deprived audiences of the government media
a greater insight into the complications the economy has to overcome
if it is to recover.
As a result these media devoted most of their time to praising the
Central Bank governor, Gideon Gono, for inducing a drop in inflation
instead of questioning whether government would abandon its
disastrous policies, which have largely been blamed for the country's
economic troubles, to complement the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's
(RBZ) efforts.
Although The Herald (22/1) half-heartedly touched on the subject,
when it noted that "most economic analysts feel it could be still too
soon to predict (the economic) recovery course as more focus
will be on assessing government's credibility and consistency in
its policy implementation", its slant was largely unquestioning as it
sought to present the drop in inflation as an illustration of the
effectiveness of the monetary policy.
Likewise, ZTV (20/01, 8pm) pointed out that the drop in inflation
showed that the "economy has begun to respond positively to the
monetary policy" adding (21/01, 8pm) that this was a clear indication
the "country's economy is on the path to recovery."
However, the private media disputed this. For instance, Studio 7(22/01)
quoted economic commentator Tony Hawkins attributing the drop in
inflation to the fact that prices of goods went up by "11 percent in
December" compared to October and November last year when
prices increased by over 32 percent. He described government-
controlled media's attempts to directly link the RBZ's fiscal policy to the
decline in inflation as "nonsense because figures were compiled
before the monetary policy was even announced."
The Zimbabwe Independent (23/01) agreed, and observed that even
the excitement over the drop in inflation rang hollow because the
country's inflation was still "600 percent higher than our trading
partners".
In its comment, Gono's magic wand won't do the trick, the paper
observed that all the positive publicity about Gono's strategies were
likely to fizzle out because the country was not only failing to attract
tourists and foreign investment, but also lacked badly needed financial
support from key multilateral financial institutions.
Said the paper: "He (Gono) may tinker at the margins" but "sooner
or later he will have to face the hard facts that under the current
regime a mismanaged economy, macro-economic distortions,
corruption and shortages have become a way of life."
The Sunday Mirror (25/01) concurred. It pointed out that leading
economists "remained pessimistic as to whether the problem of
inflation has finally been averted" arguing that unless all
stakeholders are fully committed and collaborate to complement
current central bank efforts "the current 'honeymoon' would soon
hit a brick wall".
The Daily Mirror (21/01) and The Daily News (23/01) shared the same
view.
The government media would still not factor in these aspects in their
reports.
Besides, it also seemed to escape the professional logic of journalists
from these media, as illustrated by The Herald (20/1) and ZBC (20/01,
8pm), that the availability of basic goods, although expensive, was a
result of government abandoning price controls rather than the RBZ's
monetary policy alone.
It was this obsession with promoting the monetary policy as a magic
potion for the economic revival that saw ZBC (20/01, 8pm) claim that
as a result of Gono's measures prices of commodities were tumbling.
There was no attempt to look at other reasons outside the monetary
policy that could have led to prices of some commodities going down.
For example, it is common practice that retailers have clearance sales
in January when business is usually low.
As a result of such simplistic attempts to sell the monetary policy, the
government-controlled media also found themselves glossing over the
effectiveness of the foreign currency auction system, which The
Zimbabwe Independent reported as coming "under fire" from the
same businesses that wanted it introduced because of its "unviable
low" auction prices.
SW Radio Africa (20/01) also quoted Hawkins doubting the success of
the auction system. Commenting on the firming of the local currency
Hawkins said: " This is a very artificial situation because the level
of the amount of transaction in the market is tiny. It's been about
$2million an auction whereas a normal auction would have to be
about $15 million an auction. So you can't read anything into
these figures at this stage".
However, the government-controlled media unquestioningly allowed
government to identify itself with Gono's attempts to revive the
economy, ZBC (21/01, 8pm), The Herald (19/1&22/1) and Chronicle
(23/1).
The Herald (19/1) carried a public relations story in which ZANU PF
tried to own Gono's financial sector clean-up, a move only questioned
and interpreted in the private media as government's way of shoring up
its waning support ahead of the 2005 parliamentary polls.
The Business Tribune (23/1) comment queried why Gono would only
meet ZANU PF MPs and not legislators from the opposition because
"...the MDC cannot be wished away as they represent a large
chunk of voters."
The Standard (25/1) dismissed ZANU PF's purported new crusade
against graft as "cosmetic" meant "to hoodwink voters."
But the government media steered clear of this angle. Instead, The
Herald (19/1) attempted to summarily apportion blame for the country's
financial mess to former RBZ governor Leonard Tsumba, whom it
described as a "textbook economist", while glorifying Gono.
The paper achieved this via a simplistic comparison of the
performance of the two during their tenure at the central bank,
concluding that, "Dr Gono has the full support of Government and
President Mugabe." But it remained silent over whether Tsumba
enjoyed the same support during his tenure.

3. SELECTIVE INTERPRETATION OF THE LAW

The continued selective interpretation of laws by government worsened
by the biased reporting of the same, especially by the media it controls,
threatens to severely compromise the effective delivery of justice in the
country.
A recent example of this happened during the week when ZANU PF
MPs breached Parliamentary procedures to bulldoze a second reading
of the Land Acquisition Amendment Bill despite an adverse report by
the Parliamentary Legal Committee (PLC) that the proposed law was
unconstitutional.
The controversial amendment, which would make it easier for
government to seize more land, mainly seeks to make preliminary
notices in the government Gazette as constituting service of notice in
writing upon the owners of the land that government wants to acquire
as compared to the 30-day written notice that presently pertains.
While both sections of the Press reported on the event, especially the
flare-up between MDC and ZANU PF MPs during consideration of the
adverse report, none of the newspapers unequivocally pointed out
what implications the ZANU PF MPs' disregard for parliamentary
procedures meant to the rule of law.
Neither did they reconcile Parliament's role - to make laws that do not
infringe the Constitution and Bill of Rights - with this latest assault on
landowners' liberties.
ZBC was even more unprofessional because it failed to fully expose
the circumstances leading to the Bill going for its second reading. For
instance, ZTV (22/01, 7am) merely quoted the leader of the House,
Patrick Chinamasa as having said, "the land reform programme is a
political exercise that cannot be resolved through the courts"
without analyzing the underlying implications of this statement. This
alarming declaration clearly exposes government's disrespect for the
law and the judicial process on matters that have a bearing on its
political survival.
The Herald (22/1) also carried Chinamasa's comments and tried to
blame the "disorderly conduct" of the MDC MPs for the disturbances
while it remained silent on the racial attacks against MDC MP David
Coltart by Chinamasa. This came after Coltart alleged that some 38
ZANU PF MPs owned farms and should not be allowed to debate the
Bill because under parliamentary procedures, members with financial
interests in matters under debate must declare them and recuse
themselves.
Such double standards were unearthed by SW Radio Africa (22/01),
The Tribune (23/1) and The Zimbabwe Independent (23/1). The
Tribune, for example, also reported how ZANU PF chief whip Joram
Gumbo "crossed the floor to confront Coltart" and "had to be
dragged away by the sergeant-at-arms, Nicholas Marufu".
In the same vein, The Zimbabwe Independent reported that ruling party
MPs had accidentally "voted in favour of the (committee's) adverse
report, which said the Bill breached constitutional provisions on
property, but were asked to vote again when chairman of
committees Lazarus Dokora realized the mistake."
The government-controlled media's selective reporting of issues also
manifested itself in the way they covered the legal battle between the
Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) and Information Minister
Jonathan Moyo in conjunction with the Media Information Commission
(MIC).
The Herald, Chronicle (23/1) and ZBC (23/01, 7am), for example,
merely promoted Moyo's arguments in their stories by endorsing them
as the law in themselves without verifying them independently.
Even arguments in The Herald (23/01) and The Sunday News (25/01)
that the court rulings allowing the ANZ to resume publishing should be
shelved since MIC had appealed against that in the Supreme Court
were simplistic as they lacked independent corroboration on
regulations governing appeals.
In fact, none of the media probed whether MIC, ruled as "improperly
constituted" by the Administrative Court, has any legal or moral right
to take the ANZ to court. In other words how valid are its appeals?

4. DISTORTIONS

Claims by government opponents, especially the opposition MDC, that
the government Press frequently falsifies or distorts their viewpoints
were vindicated this week when High Court judge Justice Paddington
Garwe ordered The Herald to retract a story in which the paper (22/01)
blatantly distorted MDC leader Tsvangirai's testimony in his long-
running treason trial.
Garwe made the ruling after Tsvangirai's lawyer, Advocate George
Bizos, submitted that the newspaper should be found in contempt of
court for misrepresenting the court proceedings, Studio 7 (22/01), ZTV
(22/01, 8pm) The Business Tribune, The Zimbabwe Independent, The
Sunday Mirror, The Standard and The Daily News (23/01).

The High Court judge concurred and noted that the headline,
Tsvangirai implicates US Govt in coup plot, including the first part of
the article implied that Tsvangirai was admitting to the treason charge
to which he had pleaded not guilty.

The private Press quoted Garwe as saying: "For the avoidance of
doubt, the accused denied the existence of such a plot. The
reporter should ensure that a suitable correction of the report is
made and the Attorney General should liaise with the editor of the
paper to correct the misrepresentation."

While the paper carried a retraction the next day (23/1) it did not carry
it with the same page one prominence as the original distortion - and
nor did it tell its readers that the correction was made as a result of a
court order.
Ends

The Media Update is produced and circulated by the Media Monitoring
Project Zimbabwe, 15 Duthie Avenue, Alexandra Park, Harare, Tel/fax:
+263 4 703702, E-mail: [email protected]

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