MEDIA MONITORING PROJECT ZIMBABWE

The private press dwelt on the socio-economic crisis gripping the
country and used this as a base to assess Zanu PF’s 21 years in
power.
Political violence returned to the headlines with the assault on
Chief Chiweshe receiving prominence in all the media. However,
none of the state-owned media ever report incidences of violence
against political opposition supporters and officials, a job the
private Press – and particularly The Daily News - has been doing
diligently since it became a common phenomenon last year.
Industrial violence and the threat of it, perpetrated by war veterans
posing as arbitrators in labour disputes could also be found only in
the private press.
Controversy sparked by Information Minister, Jonathan Moyo’s
vitriolic denial of a Daily News story that Vice-President Msika had
invited Edgar Tekere to rejoin the ruling party, also featured in the
week and provided a clear example of how severely compliant the
state-controlled media is. It also provided more evidence of Moyo’s
campaign to intimidate the privately owned Press and the
journalists working for it.

B.

1. INDEPENDENCE DAY

ZBC spearheaded the government’s national mobilization campaign
to encourage Zimbabweans to attend Zimbabwe’s 21st
Independence anniversary celebrations. Apart from independence
documentaries, 32% of ZTV’s bulletins monitored between Monday
and Wednesday concerned themselves with independence issues.
This included a number of historical features with no news value,
which found their way into the news line-up. Radio bulletins were
similarly dominated, while Zimpapers carried historical land
features over the period to support its stories on President
Mugabe’s statements and on the newspaper group’s interpretation
for the “astounding” success of the event (The Herald 19/4).
While The Herald (19/4) carried the president’s stadium address at
length as its lead story without criticism or comment, it carried a
story reporting the Independence Day message from the MDC
leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, the previous day (18/4) with heavy
intercessions from unnamed “political commentators” and
“analysts” who described Tsvangirai’s comments about the
“obscene” land ownership imbalance as a “political gimmick by
a desperate party…”
ZTV’s hour-long interview with Mugabe on the eve of independence
reappeared at length in Zimpapers’ titles the next day (18/4)
without any comment from the British authorities, which he
accused of launching an international propaganda campaign to
isolate Zimbabwe; a theme he returned to the next day at the
National Sports Stadium, where he also attacked the white
community and blacks who were being used as “fronts”.
Zimpapers reported his upbeat assessment of his government’s
efforts to restore the country’s social and economic fortunes
without question.

However, The Daily News (19/4) led its Independence Day report
with a story headlined, Mugabe threatens to take over firms,
without actually substantiating this statement. The headline seems
to have been interpreted from the single comment that, “any
closures (of mining or manufacturing enterprises) will have to
have the assent of government. The welfare of the workers
will, in every case, be the decisive or determining factor.
Government will not tolerate any closures.”
The story then sought comment from the MDC and quoted a CZI
survey, which reported that 400 companies had folded last year.
But nowhere was the threatened “take-over” clarified. The privately
owned daily made no other reference to the President’s speech or
to the national event.

The Herald (19/4) however, carried a number of stories, including a
round-up of the regional celebrations freely quoting attendance
figures without any corroboration, even from the police. Nor did any
of the other media. Thus The Herald stated that at least 50 000
people attended the event at the National Sports Stadium, while
the Zimbabwe Mirror estimated the crowd at 45 000, and The
Zimbabwe Standard quoted 35 000, all without any corroboration.
Nor did any of the media make a serious attempt to find out why
Zimbabweans had attended the event in such large numbers,
beyond the odd anecdotal sample. The Herald (19/4) provided
meaningless assessments in its propaganda report, including such
comments as: “The celebrations….saw probably the largest
attendance at the sports facility in a long time,” and, “The
astounding attendance in the scotching (sic) heat and
revolutionary messages….”

The Standard (22/4) asked the question, What Drove People to the
Stadium? but did not manage to answer it adequately. Although it
quoted Information minister, Jonathan Moyo, saying it was a clear
message of support for government policies, and even war vet
leader Chinotimba, the paper relied too heavily on the speculation
of “analysts” and two named political scientists. Only at the end of
the story did it quote two ordinary Zimbabweans.
If more of those who attended had been polled (50 or so) for their
opinions a more accurate sample could have been obtained.
Estimates of attendance figures on ZBC also appeared arbitrary
and even conflicting:
Radio 2/4: Marondera 20 000 (19/4 1pm); Mutare 25 000 (19/4
6am); The rest were described as thousands or large gatherings.
Radio 1/3: Marondera 5000+, Masvingo 10 000 (18/4 8pm);
Chiredzi 5000+ (19/4 8am);
Television: Television merely said “thousands”.

News of the celebrations dominated ZBC. Although they were a
national event, ZBC’s presentation of the celebrations was
distinctly partisan.
ZBC’s commentary, which chronicled the history of Zimbabwe,
included a whitewash of the Gukurahundi massacres by
government: “…A sad chapter in the history of Zimbabwe was
when some guerillas took up arms against the government.
This sad chapter was closed with the signing of the Unity
Accord in 1998”.
Other commentaries in the form of interviews with analysts
sympathetic to the ruling party also presented only one side of
Zimbabwe’s story. Comments included accusing the private media
of tending to “copy from outside” and not focusing on “things of
real value to us Zimbabweans.”
Through these commentaries ZBC tried to mislead its audiences
by creating the impression that Zimbabweans are of one mind
when in fact there is a wide variety of opinion that ZBC, as the sole
national public broadcaster, has a duty to cover.
Instead viewers were subjected to opinionated and emotional
comments, such as:
“We see a lot of people going to England, business people,
but they are not selling their businesses, they are not selling
their properties. What is it? If they want to go why shouldn’t
they sell their properties and go?”
from their commentator Happison Muchechetere.
Commentator Claude Mararike, said he liked to refer to sections of
the local population who supported white farmers “as partners in
crime”.
Such partisan commentary undermined any idea that the
celebrations should have been presented as a truly national event.
And a comment from Dr Tafataona Mahoso, one of those analysts
interviewed, helped to illustrate this failure. He accused the
privately owned media of selective reporting, describing them as
having “strategically set up people who they always go to as
sources to create a picture of opinion in Zimbabwe which is
not there.”
In their coverage of the celebrations, the state media were guilty of
a similar offence.

ZBC’s news bulletins on the day of the event were rather more
representative. Radio and television reported comments from the
opposition. On ZBCTV, there were 30 voices from the ordinary
people, 18 from Zanu PF, two from MDC, four from war veterans,
five from professionals. This is a divergence from the usual
domination of the voice of officialdom and Zanu PF on news.
Although the reports were mainly about the success of the
celebrations, the dominant view presented was those in support of
the ruling party. Radio 1/3 for example, just quoted an observer
saying the large attendance was an endorsement of President
Mugabe’s leadership (18/4, 8pm).
The Zimbabwe Mirror’s story of the day (20/4) aptly summed up the
state media’s presentation of the celebrations:
“That the 21st Independence celebrations would be used as a
stage to sell the government’s currently uncompromising
revolutionary posture was a foregone conclusion.”
The private Press was sharply critical of President Mugabe’s
announcement that he would run as Zanu PF’s candidate in next
year’s presidential elections (Financial Gazette 19/4, and The Daily
News 20/4), and used the occasion to run bleak commentaries on
the ruling party’s record of governance (The Daily News 18/4, The
Financial Gazette and The Independent 20/4), a sharp contrast to
Zimpapers’ optimism.
In its commentary headlined, Twenty-one Years Lost to Greed and
Deceit, The Independent noted, “Where Zimbabwe once offered
the prospect of a prosperous non-racial democracy, it is now
universally perceived as a prostrate basket case governed by a
gang of thieves who openly espouse racism.”

2. POLITICAL VIOLENCE

While the private Press has continued to report incidents of
political violence, mainly against opposition political party
supporters, the state media has diligently ignored such events
unless the victims are supporters of the ruling party.
Thus the assault on Chief Chiweshe made news headlines in all
the daily papers.
The Herald (17/04) and the Daily News (17/04) gave front-page
prominence to the attack on the chief, allegedly by MDC
supporters. The Herald story relied solely on ZANU PF national
commissar Border Gezi, who blamed MDC supporters. No
comment was accessed from the MDC.
The Daily News on the other hand, provided some context to the
attack suggesting that the Centenary area was politically volatile. It
also reported that before the attack Chief Chiweshe had disrupted
the funeral of an MDC supporter, Ndoga Mupesa, who had died
following an assault allegedly by ZANU PF militias. The Daily News
quoted both ZANU PF and MDC officials.
The next day, The Daily News and The Herald reported that two
MDC members had been arrested for the assault on the chief.
The Daily News (20/04) comment criticized the politicization of
chiefs and headmen, which it blamed for the attack on Chief
Chiweshe.
In the week, The Daily News carried four stories on political
violence – including the attack on the chief. The other articles
focused on attacks on National University of Science and
Technology and Glen Norah MDC members by the police, as well
as an attack on Cotton Company of Zimbabwe officials in Gokwe
for allegedly recruiting MDC supporters. The Standard (22/04)
reported the resurgence of violence against MDC supporters in
Muzarabani.
ZBC had previously ignored incidents of political violence in
previous weeks. In the week however, it reported the attack on
Chief Chiweshe.
Unlike the press, it did not provide details of the attack but just
quoted Heritage Zimbabwe chair Jocelyn Chiwenga and an
unnamed person condemning the attack and saying that it was an
omen for Zimbabwe (17/4; Nhau/Indaba and ZBCTV, 8pm).

3. TEKERE AND JONATHAN MOYO

The controversy that erupted over The Daily News’ (16/04) front-
page story quoting Vice-President Joseph Msika as having invited
Edgar Tekere to rejoin ZANU PF exposed the extent to which the
state media are so heavily controlled.
Although the story quoted both Msika’s statement and Tekere’s
response, ZBC was quick to issue a Department of Information
denial in its ZBCTV news bulletins the same evening without any
reference to Msika or Tekere.
The Herald expanded on the denial the next day, quoting Minister
of Information, Jonathan Moyo, wearing his party’s deputy
secretary for information hat extensively. He used the opportunity
to launch a vicious and vitriolic assault on The Daily News and its
political reporter, Sandra Nyaira.
Nowhere did The Herald attempt to source a comment from Msika
or Tekere, preferring to run Moyo’s venomous attack at length and
without question.
Part of it read:
“….the outrageous claims by the British-sponsored Daily News
and its political reporter must have come not only as a shock
to the diverse audience at the house-warming party, but also
as clear proof that, as a British sponsored paper, the Daily
News is now beyond redemption as it has lost all capacity to
tell the truth as it is…..
“…Reporters who churn out hogwash and newspapers that
publish trash necessarily lose their claim to freedom of
expression”
Earlier in The Herald story Moyo described The Daily News report
as “a complete distortion of the truth and abuse of journalistic
privilege”.
MMPZ would like to remind the minister that freedom of expression
is a fundamental human right that cannot be reduced to a “claim”
that can be withdrawn at the whim of authority. In addition, there is
no privilege attached to the practice of journalism; it is merely the
exercise of every individual’s right to freedom of expression. There
must be no constraints on who should be allowed to practice
journalism. Sufficient laws guaranteeing the right of redress in
cases of inaccuracy and defamation already exist.
Such wild and intimidating statements from a government minister
do immeasurable harm to Zimbabwe’s claim to be a democracy.
The Daily News (18/04) reported that Moyo had vowed to target
individual journalists. The article also quoted a Daily News driver
who accompanied Nyaira to the Mt Darwin party, saying that Moyo
was not present when Msika spoke about Tekere.
The Herald (20/04) and all the private newspapers (with the
exception of the Standard) carried Tekere’s response to Moyo’s
statement, in which he confirmed that Msika had indeed asked him
to rejoin Zanu PF.
MMPZ notes with concern the unquestioning “statement reports” to
which ZIMPAPERS has subjected its readers to in recent weeks.
While Government and ruling party officials have a right to explain
the policies of the day through the public media, efforts should be
made to access implicated sources in the interest of fairness,
balance and objectivity.
Ends

The MEDIA UPDATE is produced and distributed by the Media
Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ), 221 Fife Avenue, Harare,
Tel/fax: 263 4 734207, 733486, E-mail: [email protected],
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