Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe

Monday 9th July to Sunday 15th July 2001

CONTENTS:
1. Summary
2. Media laws and trends
3. Broadcasting licence fees
4. NDA programme banned
5. Political Violence
6. Zimbabwe Democracy & Economic Recovery Bill
7. Gadaffi’s visit
8. Newspapers wars

1. SUMMARY

The arbitrary and autocratic threats from the Minister of Information,
Jonathan Moyo, specifically to gag the only independent sources of
information available to the Zimbabwean public represent an
intolerable erosion of citizens’ fundamental rights to receive and
impart information freely.
Such threats to stifle free expression and to prevent the private
Press from continuing to report widespread corruption, and human
rights abuses aimed at frightening the population into abandoning
their democratic right to freedom of association (in this, case to a
political party of their choice), severely undermines any claim that
Zimbabwe is a democracy.
MMPZ condemns the present unrelenting levels of harassment and
intimidation by government agencies and their supporters of
individuals, journalists and privately owned media institutions
critical of government policies and activities.
More than adequate laws relating to ensuring good media practice
already exist in Zimbabwe’s statute books. Those seeking redress
from media institutions have ample recourse to justice through
these regulations and government has no need to further proscribe
the rights of Zimbabweans to inform and to be informed.
Only undemocratic governments afraid of being voted out of power
seek to suppress the dissemination of information by the
introduction of repressive media legislation.

2. MEDIA LAWS

In response to a number of recent stories in the private Press,
Information Minister Moyo pledged that government would intervene
and “…do the right thing in the public interest and…will,
without fear or favour, take the democratic and constitutional
route in terms of practices and our laws, and that route is via
Parliament” (ZBC TV 14/7, 8pm). The Herald (14/7) reported that
the government was drafting a new law that will “address
unprofessionalism that has become rampant among some
journalists in the country.”
Moyo cited stories in The Zimbabwe Independent, The Financial
Gazette and The Daily News as examples of unprofessional
conduct that required government intervention.
“We are glad that we are seeing these developments before we
bring to Parliament the Public Access to Information Bill…We
will now take into account this conduct of deliberately
creating non-existent clashes (between members of the
Executive) using headlines to mislead the public, using
newspapers to violently intrude upon the privacy of people, be
they public officials or individuals…turning everything into a
cheap political competition.” (ZBC TV 14/7, 8pm).
Neither The Herald nor ZTV made any effort to ask the minister
why he believed existing laws were insufficient to protect the
reputation of individuals and government. Nor did they provide the
newspapers with an opportunity to defend their stories. As has
become common in the state media, coverage of these ministerial
statements remained unquestioning reportage.
The outburst appears to have been especially provoked by a story,
accompanied by aerial photos, the previous week of the properties
belonging to the publisher of The Zimbabwe Mirror, Ibbo Mandaza,
which Moyo had described in an earlier attack as “manifestly
grotesque and patently malicious”, according to The Daily News
report (13/7). The Herald (13/7), The Daily News and ZBCTV (12/7,
8pm) reported Moyo as saying The Daily News story was an
invasion of Mandaza’s privacy and that his department had taken
the matter up “in the public interest” to ensure that the
“obnoxious conduct exemplified by The Daily News through
the article…does not recur ever again”.
The Herald quoted Mandaza at length but did not question the
Editor of The Daily News, while The Daily News did quote its own
Editor, Geoff Nyarota, but did not again attempt to obtain a
comment from Mandaza following the publication of its original
story.
As Nyarota pointed out, the story has nothing to do with the
government or Moyo, and if Mandaza had a grievance, he should
seek legal redress.

3. BROADCASTING

The Herald and Radio 1/3 (13/7) reported that the government had
announced licence fees for private broadcasting companies. There
was no analysis, or even a comment from the minister in any of the
state media. The only dissenting voices were aired during ZBC’s
phone-in programme, Enkundleni, on Radio 2 (13/7, 8.30-9.30pm),
which discussed the Broadcasting Act, but with more emphasis on
the feasibility of the 75% programme content. Most people who
called and some panelists were against exorbitant broadcasting
fees, which they described as highly restrictive.

4. NDA PROGRAMME BANNED

The Herald and The Daily News (14/7) reported that ZBC had
banned Radio 1’s NDA sponsored live discussion programme,
Spotlight, usually held on Tuesdays between 6:30pm–7.30pm.
Both papers quoted a letter from the corporation’s director of
marketing and programmes citing “the restructuring process
currently underway at ZBC” as the reason for dropping the
programme. But neither paper sought independent comment from
the broadcasting corporation. The move comes less than a month
after the banning of a similar live television phone-in programme,
Talk to the Nation. ZBC failed to notify its audiences of this latest
effort to silence the opinions of the people on public radio. The only
hint listeners had that something was amiss was that the
Spotlight slot was filled with a music programme.

5. POLITICAL VIOLENCE

The Herald (11/7) beat The Daily News (13/7) in the publication of
an extract from a paper delivered in Norway by the former Chief
Justice Anthony Gubbay, (and, according to The Herald, published
in The Sunday Times) about the need for human rights to be
respected by governments. The article provided some clarity to the
decisions of the courts under his jurisdiction and outlined some of
the abuses of power exercised by the government. However, The
Herald also carried a response from a government spokesman
attacking his “utterances” as an indication of “his inherent
hatred for the government…and the ruling party…”
The Daily News (13/7) carried a story about the Attorney-General
ordering the police to investigate the murder of two MDC activists
during last year’s election. It was one of at least 12 stories the
daily carried during the week reflecting the ongoing political terror
campaign in the urban and rural areas. It also reported the arrest
and interrogation of the ZCTU’s Wellington Chibhebhe (12/7), as did
The Herald (12/7) under the headline, Chibhebhe Nabbed, as if he
had committed a crime.
The Financial Gazette (12/7) reported that 27 MDC officials had
been arrested in Bindura and Kwekwe in what it described as “an
organized police crackdown on the opposition party…ahead
of three parliamentary by-elections…”
However, The Herald (13/7) reported that MDC supporters from
Harare were responsible for the violence in Bindura, quoting police
and some of the victims of the violence who were ruling party
supporters.
The Financial Gazette also carried a harrowing eye-witness
perspective of the terror campaign in the constituency that is due
to hold a by-election at the end of the month. It claimed that Zanu
PF youths had set up “torture centres” in the district and that its
news team was forced to flee when it attempted to verify the stories
it had heard from victims of violence.
The only story ZBC carried about political violence was a one-sided
report of a white commercial farmer in Odzi who had allegedly
deliberately run over and killed a settler (all stations 15/7, 8pm) in
cold blood.
But the circumstances surrounding the incident were not clear and
ZBC only gave the settlers’ and war veterans’ account of what
happened.

6. ZIMBABWE DEMOCRACY & ECONOMIC RECOVERY
BILL

ZBC’s only reference to the progress of the Zimbabwe Democracy
Bill through the American Senate was made in relation to the death
of the settler in Odzi. The state broadcaster only hinted at the Bill’s
progress in a white copy story claiming that the farmer had killed
the settler to celebrate the passing of the Bill “in style” (ZTV 15/7,
8pm).
Viewers who had not read the story in The Standard that day were
not told what Bill the presenter was referring to.
However, The Standard’s story was also somewhat confusing. The
headline, US approves Zimbabwe Bill, suggested that it had been
passed into law, but then explained that the “proposed law”
would “sail unopposed through the House of Representatives.”
The paper gave no reason for coming to this conclusion. Nor did it
tell us when the House was due to consider it, or indeed, when the
Bill was expected to become law. The paper also failed to access
comment from the Zimbabwe government.
The confusion introduced by the loose headline provided the
government and state media with the opportunity (the following
week) to deny that the Bill had become law.

7. GADAFFI’S VISIT

Libyan leader, Muammar Gadaffi was showered with praise by the
state media following his flamboyant arrival in the country by road
from Zambia. The state media completely ignored the city-wide
rush-hour gridlock his 80-vehicle entourage caused, but The Daily
News (13/7), used it as its lead story, but confined itself to this and
Gadaffi’s elaborate security precautions. ZBCTV (12/7, 8pm) strove
to give its viewers the impression that Gadaffi’s arrival by road had
been a surprise even to Zimbabwean security agents, but carried
footage of his arrival at Chirundu and of his brief stop-overs in Karoi
and Chinhoyi where he was greeted by Zimbabweans wearing
Gadaffi T-shirts and waving Libyan flags. Could this have been a
surprise, or a conspiracy between the government and its media
organs to glamorize the “enigmatic” leader?
Zimpapers’ daily titles (13/7) descended to straight hero-worship,
claiming that Gadaffi “…could only but earn hero status among
Zimbabweans.”
The papers reported that he set an “electrifying atmosphere” and
addressed “an appreciative crowd.” The article also tried to show
Gadaffi’s humility by reporting that “unlike most leaders, who
prefer the comfort of flying, Col Gadaffi opted to drive in his
customised bus…” and also that he “presented a major
headache to his security personnel when he decided to mix
and mingle freely with people.”
ZIMPAPERS (14/7) also capitalized on the Libyan leader’s racist
remarks on land to popularize and condone the current government
land invasions.
The Herald and The Chronicle carried separate stories announcing
the possibility of a fuel deal and quoted President Mugabe as
saying that Gadaffi came by road to assess for himself the fuel
situation in the country.
The Daily News (14/7) missed the inflammatory remarks made by
the Libyan leader, presumably because they had not been invited
to the dinner where they were made.

8. NEWSPAPER WARS

The childish war between The Herald and The Daily News
escalated in the week, with the papers glorifying themselves at the
expense of informing their readers. The Daily News (11/7) carried
an appalling “story” claiming that the new-look Herald was not
commanding supremacy on street sales as implied by a distinctly
unfunny cartoon in The Herald (9/7). And the privately owned daily
carried five photographs in an effort to prove this. In addition, The
Daily News (12/7) fine-tuned The Herald (9/7) cartoon with the
message that in spite of its new look, the paper had not improved
its content. The Herald (14/7) then carried a front-page story
claiming that the new-look titles had resulted in Zimpapers’ shares
doubling, attributing this to “a rise in circulation and
advertising”. This was used as a yardstick to measure its
performance.
The Minister of Information, Jonathan Moyo, and his department
have also fuelled the war, particularly his efforts to rescue Ibbo
Mandaza (The Herald (13/7) and The Sunday Mail 15/7) from the
media glare he received in The Daily News (6/7).
Separately, The Zimbabwe Mirror (13/7) used its column Behind
the Words to attack The Daily News, and its editor-in-chief in
particular, for publishing the story on its editor’s properties.
In a separate development, The Daily News (10/7) reported that the
Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference had banned the latest
issue of the Catholic Church News, because the bishops
considered two of its stories to have been offensive. MMPZ
condemns this attempt by the Church to prevent its journal’s
readers from knowing about pertinent events and activities affecting
the Catholic Church.
Ends

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