MEDIA MONITORING PROJECT ZIMBABWE

SUMMARY

Ø Ø The state media smothered criticism of President Mugabe
by American Secretary of State, Colin Powell, with
dismissive responses by government spokesman and
“analysts”. ZBC censored the sound from its footage
featuring Powell and never told its audiences what he had
actually said. The Herald (26/5) broke up and buried
Powell’s comments by extensively quoting the Secretary
for Information, George Charamba, dismissing the criticism
and launching his own attack on Powell. The Daily News
carried a news agency story that simply reported Powell’s
comments in its report of his visit to Africa.

Ø The state media continued to ignore or play down the
continuing political violence that saw two MDC MPs and a
candidate for a council election beaten, abducted or
terrorized in one way or another in the week. The Herald
only carried one story relating to clashes between MDC
and ZANU PF youths in Masvingo and continues to give
the impression that the MDC is a violent party by
repeatedly referring to previous incidents, particularly the
assault on Chief Chiweshe.

MAHACHI’S DEATH

ZBC announced Mahachi’s death in its 8pm bulletins (26/05). The
report focused on details of the accident and confirmation by
Manicaland Governor, Oppah Muchinguri. News bulletins the next
day were swamped with stories relating to Mahachi’s death but,
unlike The Sunday Mail, barely managed to give an adequate profile
of the man or a full obituary, revealing the broadcaster’s limited
ability to respond promptly to breaking news. The only detail –
repeated throughout the day – was about Mahachi’s role in helping
Mugabe and Edgar Tekere escape into Mozambique during the
war. The same report was repeated throughout the day with little or
no additional information save for condolence messages from the
President and others.
ZBCTV’s evening news bulletins (27/5) were flooded with stories of
Mahachi’s death. For example, seven of the 11 items aired on
Nhau/Indaba, focused on the topic. And on the 8pm bulletin, 16
minutes (43%) out of the 37 minutes given to the main news and
business news slots, concerned stories relating to Mahachi’s
death.
Six (67%) out of nine stories on Radio 2/4 focused on the topic,
while Radio 1/3 had six (60%) out of 10 items (27/5, 8pm).

The treatment of Mahachi’s death in the Sunday press revealed the
polarity between them. Zimpapers glorified his life, portraying him
as a “consistent and dedicated cadre and revolutionary”. The
Sunday Mail also picked up his wartime assistance to Mugabe and
Tekere and carried lengthy eulogies from senior ruling party officials
in a separate story under a headline which featured an unforgivable
typo: “Nation shocked, devasted”.
The Standard (27/5) on the other hand, got Mahachi’s age wrong
and was quick to point out his involvement in the arrest and
subsequent torture of its journalists, Ray Choto and Mark
Chavunduka, by the army. The Standard also noted that Mahachi’s
election to Parliament last year was being challenged in court by
the MDC. But it didn’t mention the constituency he represented.
While it provided only the briefest outline of his political activity
since independence, The Standard did report condolences from
MDC officials as well as from the ruling party.

RESPONSE TO COLIN POWELL’S STATEMENT

General Colin Powell’s comments criticizing President Mugabe for
clinging to power and terrorizing Zimbabweans attracted wide press
coverage. But only The Daily News' Reuters report (26/5) carried
his comments as a straightforward story, albeit deep inside the
paper.
In refuting Powell's allegations, the public press was dismissive of
his entire trip to Africa. The Herald (26/5) carried three front-page
articles that tried to portray Powell’s visit as unpopular. One story
dismissed Powell’s criticism of the president as baseless, relying
heavily on Charamba defending Mugabe who he described - quite
accurately - as a democratically elected leader, but avoided the
question of the violent intimidation altogether. The second story
focussed on the South African students who labeled Powell an
“Uncle Tom” and “White House nigger”. The third story, together
with a colour photograph, featured a small group of demonstrators
protesting against his visit to Kenya. Television was enlisted to
reinforce this impression by carrying footage of the Kenyan demo
(26/5).
Like Zimpapers, ZBC only carried Powell's criticism in the context
of the government discrediting it. Despite screening CNN and
SABC’s news clip of Powell speaking, ZBC denied its audience the
opportunity to hear what he had to say about President Mugabe
(26/5; 1.30pm and 8 pm). Instead, audiences were only provided
with a voice-over of the responses from Charamba, political analyst,
Prof Mwesiga Baregu and Zimbabwe’s High Commissioner, Simon
Khaya Moyo, all criticizing Powell (25/5, 6am to 26/5, 8pm). ZBC
merely reported them saying that President Mugabe’s eligibility for
political office was a matter for Zimbabweans and that Powell’s
comments revealed his lack of understanding of the situation in
Zimbabwe.
Baregu, a Tanzanian, has become a leading commentator on
ZBCTV and was accorded six minutes and 30 seconds to attack
Powell (26/5, 8pm). Baregu linked the American's visit to what he
claimed were increased CIA activity aimed at destabilizing the
region. Borrowing from The Herald's stories, Baregu also claimed
that Britain and the United States were looking for "Uncle Toms"
and “field niggers” in the region to do their work. There was no
attempt to seek official comment from the British or Americans to
balance Baregu’s onslaught.
In an effort to portray Powell as someone with double standards,
ZBCTV's 8pm bulletin (26/5) also quoted an anonymous
government official questioning Powell’s visit to Uganda, which
stands accused of killing civilians in the DRC.

Demonstrating the close collaboration that now exists within the
state media, The Sunday Mail echoed ZBC's perspective from the
previous night, quoting Information Minister, Jonathan Moyo Simon
Khaya Moyo, and anonymous “analysts” dismissing Powell’s
opinions. The Sunday News reflected similar sentiments, quoting
the High Commissioner at length “blasting” Powell over what he
called “highly undiplomatic and excessively misplaced”
criticism.

The Standard carried a front page story exploring why Powell did
not visit Zimbabwe, quoting the US assistant secretary for African
affairs. The paper also featured a scathing editorial endorsing
Powell’s comments, and took the opportunity to attack government
excesses, the state media and what it called “Mugabe
apologists”

1. POLITICAL VIOLENCE

Publication Stories on political violence
The Herald 1
The Daily News 4
The Standard 1

The Daily News continues to record incidents of political violence
diligently. In the week, it reported that a managing director, Alfred
Fashet, a German businessman who was forcibly taken to ZANU-
PF offices following a labour dispute. He was reportedly released
after the intervention of the German ambassador to Zimbabwe. The
war veterans’ spokesperson Stalin Mau Mau however, denied that
ex-combatants were involved.

The Herald (22/5, and also in The Daily News) only reported one
incident of political violence: clashes between MDC and ZANU-PF
supporters in Masvingo. The Daily News (24/5) reported that the
MDC’s MP for Kambuzuma, Willas Madzimure, was attacked,
allegedly by war veterans and ZANU-PF supporters.
Zimpapers ignored the incident. And although ZBC did initially
report the incident (23/5 8pm, Radio 2/4) it claimed it was not
politically motivated. Furthermore, ZBCTV only reported the
incident a day later (24/5) in its 8pm bulletin.

In other cases of political violence, Joel Sithole, the MDC candidate
for Plumtree council elections and Abednico Bhebhe MDC’s MP for
Nkayi, were reportedly abducted in two separate incidents by The
Daily News (26/5) and The Standard respectively.
In a follow-up to the Sithole story, The Sunday Mail tried to deny
Sithole’s alleged abduction, relying entirely on a statement from an
unnamed “senior Mashonaland West provincial executive” that
he had defected to the ruling party. The over-reliance on a single
anonymous source without attempting to obtain comment from the
MDC, compromised the article’s authenticity, which proved to be
well-founded judging by The Daily News story the following day
reporting that the councillor had been found and had denounced his
kidnapping.
ZBC ignored the abductions of Sithole and Bhebhe, reported in the
private press.
ZBC has ignored incidents of political violence since last year's
parliamentary elections unless MDC is the accused party. As a
public broadcaster and the only broadcasting station, ZBC is duty-
bound to provide coverage of such incidents, especially for those
who do not read or cannot afford to buy all newspapers. This failure
to report incidents of political violence buttresses calls for an
alternative national broadcasting station.

Separately, the government denied The International Rehabilitation
for Torture Victims report that mass psychological torture had
worsened since the run up to 2000 parliamentary elections. In
addition to quoting Jonathan Moyo playing down the impact of
political violence, The Herald (25/5) tried to counter the report by
adding that the opposition had “several arrests and pending
court cases … including murder and attempted murder of
Chief Chiweshe.”

NEW CFU INITIATIVE

The public press announced that the Commercial Farmer’s Union
(CFU) had withdrawn all litigation against the government as part of
its effort to resolve the current land impasse. The Herald and The
Chronicle (25/5) reported that CFU had offered 1 million hectares of
productive land for immediate resettlement of 20 000 landless
people. However, the government was reportedly dismissive. The
papers quoted an anonymous government official and the Minister
of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement Joseph Made,
dismissing the offer. Their responses sharply contrasted with
comments from Vice-President Joseph Msika and Jonathan Moyo
in The Herald/Chronicle (26/5). Msika was quoted as saying “the
proposals contained in the document are a step in the right
direction”, while Moyo said the government was happy to engage
anyone in dialogue.
The Herald (26/5) visited the issue again in its comment. The
editorial tried to contextualise and question the farmers’ sincerity,
in light of other previous unfulfilled offers, and urged the government
to be cautious. The private media ignored this new development.
The blackout on such a development of national importance is a
failure to inform on the part of the private press as a whole.

ZBC presented the CFU’s new proposals as a defeat for white
farmers. The public broadcaster reported that commercial farmers,
through the Zimbabwe Joint Resettlement Initiative (ZJRI) were now
in support of the government’s land resettlement programme (24/5
8pm). ZBC's report was followed up by Msika's response saying
that government has adopted a cautious approach in welcoming
the CFU offer (25/5, 6pm-8pm). However, there was no information
as to who constitutes the ZJRI.
MMPZ notes that ZBC’s reports were focused more on the
government’s response and less on the CFU offer. ZBC failed to
provide any comparative analysis of the current proposals and
previous offers made by the farmers. Also, ZBC never attempted to
examine why the CFU had made the sudden change.

PARLIAMENT

Readers interested in parliamentary activity during the week were
better served by The Herald than any other paper. New legislation
and a number of important issues were raised in Parliament and
The Herald carried 13 stories about them in the week, compared to
just five in The Daily News, two in the Zimbabwe Independent and
nothing in The Financial Gazette, The Standard, or The Zimbabwe
Mirror.
The Herald (25/5) prominently featured an MDC MP's criticism of
scores of disappearing police dockets, a story surprisingly not
covered in the private Press.
But while The Daily News and The Chronicle carried news of the
MDC's first parliamentary victory over the ruling party, The Herald
fudged its report of the event by merely reporting that 37 MDC MPs
voted against a "vote of thanks" motion on the President's opening
address to Parliament, while 33 ZANU PF MPs "who were present
at the time", voted for its adoption. But it didn't tell its readers that
the traditional vote of thanks to the President had been rejected by
Parliament in an historic defeat.
The Herald however, did carry a separate story notifying its readers
that Parliament had adjourned till August 7th, a fact that could only
be found buried in one of the Daily News' stories.
Ends

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