Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe Daily Media Update No. 6

MEDIA MONITORING PROJECTZIMBABWE
Daily Media Update No.6 - March 6th 2002

Contents
1. Electronic report for 5 March 2002
2. Print report for 6 March 2002
3. From our subscribers

1. ELECTRONIC DAILY REPORT FOR MARCH 5, 2002#06

THE ELECTORAL PROCESS: With only two days to go before
voting opens in Zimbabwe?s presidential election, the state media
finally began releasing information regarding the mechanics of the
voting process. But the information raises more questions than
answers. None of the government-controlled media have broadcast
or published useful information to help the electorate cast its vote.
They have only responded to government announcements in
providing limited information about details of the electoral process.
No effort has been made by the government or its media to explain
publicly the many late and confusing legislative amendments to the
electoral regulations, and nor have they provided the electorate with
anywhere near adequate information regarding the process of
voting, especially in Harare.
It is MMPZ?s belief that the government and the publicly owned
media have manifestly failed in their collective national obligation to
provide the electorate with sufficient educational information to
allow the people to exercise their right to vote effectively.

ZBC (8pm) quoted Registrar General (RG) Tobaiwa Mudede
announcing that 5.6 million people had registered to vote in the
forthcoming presidential election and that 4000 polling stations had
?so far been identified?. Mudede was not challenged to explain
suggestions of incompetence raised by this statement, particularly
in respect to why all the polling stations had not yet been
identified. Mudede was not asked, nor did he volunteer, any
information about the distribution and location of these polling
stations, including mobile stations or how many other ones were
yet to be identified. Mudede also stated that his office was now
printing the supplementary voters' roll to include those who had
registered between January 27 and March 3. But he was not asked
how many people had registered during this period, or why this
extension to the registration process had never been made public.
Mudede also took the opportunity to confirm a story that appeared
in The Daily News earlier in the day (5/3), which reported that some
police and army personnel had already voted.
ZBC reporter Judith Makwanya quoted the RG as having said:
?Voting for soldiers, the police, diplomats and those who may
not be in their constituencies on Election Day began some few
days ago?? There was no explanation as to when this exercise
began, how many people had already voted, nor who was present
to monitor and observe the process.
Mudede defended his office stating that there was nothing wrong
with this postal ballot system because it was normal practice in
every election. However, he never explained how this system
worked. Mudede also denied the claim in The Daily News story that
members of the security forces were being forced to vote for ZANU
PF. Notably, Mudede only appears to have been motivated to
inform the public of this exercise after the revelations in The Daily
News.
In short, ZBC failed to establish whether this entire practice was
being conducted legally. Furthermore, there was still no information
on the accreditation of local observers.
Short Wave Radio Africa reported that the Combined Harare
Residents Association (CHRA) was challenging the Supreme Court
ruling that the Harare mayoral elections be held concurrently with
the presidential elections. The acting chairman, Mike Davies, was
quoted stating that the RG's office was not in a position to hold the
mayoral elections transparently, adding that the voters? roll was
flawed. He cited examples, such as names that appeared with
wrong addresses and ward boundaries that overlapped into other
constituencies, and said these irregularities could disenfranchise
many voters. There was no comment from the RG's office.
ZBC ignored the story.

Shortwave Radio Africa also reported alleged efforts to misinform
the rural electorate in a way that would encourage them to ignore
the MDC candidate. In its Newsreel programme, the station carried
a report in which an unidentified caller stated that officials in
Chikwakwa were telling the electorate that the MDC?s candidate,
Morgan Tsvangirai, had withdrawn from the presidential race
following allegations that he plotted to assassinate Mr. Mugabe.
The station also highlighted alleged vote-buying in Madziwa. An
unidentified soldier was quoted as saying that ZANU PF was giving
villagers between $ 2,000 - $ 2,500 to vote for the ruling party.
Official comment was unobtainable.

CAMPAIGN STORIES: ZANU PF?s election campaign continued to
receive far more airtime on ZBC than any other party. ZTV allocated
nine minutes 30 seconds to ZANU PF during its Newshour. Eight
campaign-related stories were broadcast during the day. All of
them were campaign pieces for the ruling ZANU PF. However, six
of the eight stories were repeats of ZANU PF rallies held in
Midlands and Matabeleland North. Two were reports of Mugabe's
rallies in Marondera and Rusape.
Radio Zimbabwe aired seven reports on campaigns. Six were pro-
ZANU PF while one was a negative report on MDC.
3FM carried six reports related to campaigns. Of these, four were
promotional items for ZANU PF and two presented the MDC in bad
light.

POLITICAL VIOLENCE: There were no reports on political violence
on ZBC.
ZBC continues to ignore incidents of violence, thus giving the false
impression that such violence has stopped. However, Short Wave
Radio Africa reported three incidents of political violence, including
one death, in its Newsreel. Two MDC MPs were the only sources
in two reports, while the other report was based on a Shortwave
Radio Africa correspondent?s account. In all reports MDC
supporters were the victims.
There was no comment from the police or ZANU PF. MMPZ
acknowledges the difficulties Short wave Radio Africa has soliciting
comment from the authorities. However, the station should let its
audience know regularly that it attempts to obtain official comment
in order to counter accusations of bias.

2. DAILY PRINT REPORT FOR WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6TH 2002

ELECTORAL ISSUES: The Daily News told MMPZ that it was
never invited to the Registrar-General?s Tuesday media briefing on
the important electoral developments reported in the public media.
MMPZ deplores this unfair and selective practice by a government
institution, especially when it concerns important public
information. This exclusion of a media organisation is tantamount
to denying a wide section of society the opportunity to receive
critical information within the public domain and the opportunity to
question the institution providing it. Such a practice undermines
Zimbabweans? constitutional rights to be informed and their
freedom of choice, and erodes democratic principles.
As a result, only The Herald reported what had already been aired
on ZBC the day before, but devoted most of its front-page story to
officials, including the Registrar-General, denying The Daily News
story of the previous day, claiming that police and army personnel
were being obliged to cast their vote for ZANU PF?s presidential
candidate.
The paper quoted Mr. Mudede making the most unlikely appeal: ?It
would have been better if the (Daily News?) invisible sources
became visible to enable us to carry out an investigation.?
Like its electronic counterpart (see above), The Herald reported no
effort on its part to query the Registrar-General?s statements or to
provide its readers with any clarification about polling stations, the
extension of the registration of voters, or what provisions exist to
guarantee that the postal votes cast by police and army personnel
were done so legally, freely and secretly.
The paper also failed to find out how many of these votes had
already been cast and how many new people had been registered
on the supplementary voters roll, which Mr. Mudede said, ?was
now being printed?.

Equally uninformative was The Herald?s story about the
accreditation of local observers. It merely recorded that 23 local
observers from various civic organisations had been accredited and
that 507 international observers and 172 foreign journalists had also
been accredited for the poll. It made no effort to analyse how many
local observers would be required to cover all polling stations
adequately. It also failed to investigate the concern raised in its
own story by the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN)
chairman, Reginald Matshaba-Hove, over delays in the
accreditation of local observers.

CONSPIRACIES: There was a new twist to allegations this week in
the public media that two MDC MPs, Tafadzwa Musekiwa and Job
Sikhala, sought to buy Air Marshal Perence Shiri?s loyalty.
The Daily News story, Shiri approached MDC, offered a new
dimension to Tuesday?s puzzling story in The Herald. The story
was based on the paper?s interview with Musekiwa and Sikhala
who both denied trying to buy Shiri?s loyalty.
Instead, the two alleged that Shiri approached Sikhala- in his
capacity as MDC secretary for security? to find out what the MDC
planned to do with President Mugabe and the security forces in the
event of an MDC election victory. This followed Shiri?s admission,
according to Sikhala, that ?according to government?s own
security reports, the MDC was going to win the election
overwhelmingly?.
Although the public press reported that Shiri had audio-taped the
(two) meetings, Sikhala was quoted by The Daily News duly
challenging the Air Marshal to produce proof of their alleged
attempts to bribe him ?in the interest of the public?s right to
know the truth?.
However, armed with this evidence, The Daily News sought no
comment from Shiri.

POLITICAL VIOLENCE: The Herald carried three stories on
politically motivated violence and recorded six incidents. In
contrast, The Daily News published five stories where it recorded
three incidents, including the death of Peter Jeftha, who was run
over by a bus allegedly fleeing ZANU PF youths.
Stories in The Herald blamed the MDC four times, whilst one
incident remained unattributed. ZANU PF supporters were cited as
victims twice and a farm worker who was accused of being a ZANU
PF member (1). The political affiliation of the others was not
mentioned.
The Daily News articles blamed ZANU PF. The victims were
reported to be members of the public (two) and ZCTU members.

CAMPAIGNS: Zimpapers? titles continued to provide uncritical
coverage of ZANU PF campaign rallies. Reportage was largely
anchored in articulating Mr. Mugabe?s hate speeches. For
example, The Herald (6/3) carried vitriolic attacks by the President
on MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and British Prime Minister Tony
Blair during his rallies in Marondera and Rusape. In one such
attack Mugabe is quoted as saying: ?He (Tsvangirai) is not only
ugly facially but also within.?
To project ZANU PF rallies as successful, The Herald cast doubtful
attendance figures, such as the Marondera rally, which it pegged at
over 50 000.
The paper did not report on any MDC rallies. However, it reported
that an MDC-organised demonstration held in London had
?flopped? due to poor attendance.
The Daily News claimed that ZANU PF had reportedly bussed
supporters to its Gweru rally to boost attendance levels. But the
paper failed to link this to the violation of provisions in the Public
Order and Security Act. The paper also carried a belated MDC rally
held over the weekend in Bulawayo, where Tsvangirai promised to
compensate victims of the current political violence.

3. FROM OUR SUBSCRIBERS

KEEP UP THE good work. How is this information disseminated?
Have you witnessed any active use, reference to the analysis?
Juliana Manjengwa, Harare

THANKS for the useful information you have continued to send to
us.
Bob Muchabaiwa, NANGO Information Officer

THANK you for your informative updates,
Farai Manyarara, CyberplexAfrica.

WHERE ARE THE OBSERVERS? Snake Park and its
surrounding areas, especially Kuwadzana extension, is under
siege. On Saturday 23 February 2002 (around 4pm), a group of so-
called war veterans led by a man called Tafi arrived at Snake Park
filing station looking for their prey. Upon spotting a man reading
The Daily News, (a private daily). They approached him and
grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and started beating him. He
started bleeding profusely from the nose.
They dragged him to their torture camp (which they call Tongogara
base) to teach him a life lesson for reading that paper. They
searched his pockets looking for opposition party cards that he
didn't have. They "helped" themselves with the money (about $1
000) from his pocket. He only managed to escape through
suddenly looping off from his T-shirt, which they were holding
tightly, and made off. They pursued him, but he managed to
outpace them and vanished in one of the scorched maize fields. I
would like to urge the election observers to visit that area and have
a real picture of what is happening. Please come and see for
yourselves what is happening to innocent civilians.
Johane Tshuma, Snake Park, Harare

ENDS
This report was 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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