zimbabwe: information kiosks could limit freedom of expression

Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
January 6th - January 12th, 2003
Weekly update 2003-01

CONTENTS

1. GENERAL COMMENT
2. LOCAL GOVERNMENT WRANGLES
3. FOOD SHORTAGES AND CLASHES

1. General comment

Government recently announced its intention to establish information kiosks
in the rural areas to expand the available sources of information at the
disposal of the rural populace. Although this is laudable, the media should
expose and analyze the underlying intentions of the move.
In fact the Ministry of Information and Publicity Secretary George Charamba
(ZTV, 4/01, 8pm) hinted at the kind of information the kiosks would peddle.
He was quoted: "There is no way we are going to use money from national
coffers to promote material that undermines national interest. That we will
not entertain at all. There is no way that we are going to use money from
national coffers to promote material that offends.community cultural values.
People who are providing content must realize that they are providing it to
Zimbabwean people who wish to remain Zimbabwean. In terms of their politics,
in terms of their culture and in terms of their social being".
In the past, government has narrowly defined issues of 'national interest'
and 'Zimbabwean cultural values' from a ZANU PF point of view, while
dismissing other interpretations as pro-opposition and anti-Zimbabwe.
Sadly, its viewpoint has found currency in the media it controls.
It is therefore imperative that the private media should be tenacious in
investigating such seemingly harmless government policies, which could
severely curtail the citizens' right to access information of their choice.
The free flow of information is the cornerstone upon which democratic
societies are built.
Meanwhile, MMPZ notes with great concern the conflicting figures that the
media records in their reports on certain issues.
For example, readers of both the public and the private Press were confused
as to how many people were arrested following the demonstration by ZANU PF
supporters and war veterans against the distribution of relief food by the
Grain Marketing Board (GMB) in Bulawayo recently.
Initially, The Daily News, The Herald, and Chronicle (7/1) reported that 37
people had been arrested.
However, the following day The Daily News (8/1) and The Financial Gazette
(9/1) reported that 34 people had been arrested.
In another case, both The Sunday Mail and The Standard (12/1) carried
conflicting statistics on the number of people arrested together with Harare
Mayor Elias Mudzuri in Mabvuku on January 11th. While The Sunday Mail
reported that Mudzuri was arrested together with 20 other people, The
Standard recorded 21.
MMPZ urges the media to pay more attention to such detail, as such
tendencies further confuse readers who are already subjected to partisan
media reports in this heavily polarized media environment.

2. Local government wrangles

The public media's role as government's megaphone was exposed when they
unquestioningly endorsed government's decision to appoint governors for
Harare and Bulawayo and its expansion of a commission appointed last year,
ostensibly to assist Harare City Council develop a turn-around plan for the
capital. Furthermore, the government controlled media continued to be used
as conduits for government's relentless campaign to discredit Harare's
council and particularly its mayor, Elias Mudzuri.
For example, out of the 17 stories the public press published on the
conflict between the opposition MDC-led Harare city council and local
government minister, Ignatius Chombo, 15 were in support of government while
the remainder were neutral announcements. ZTV carried seven reports in its
8pm bulletin on the issue. All reports, which occupied 10% of the total time
allocated to 8pm news during the week, portrayed Mudzuri in a bad light. 3FM
carried nine council-related stories in its main news bulletins. And like
ZTV, all were negative depictions of Mudzuri.
Conversely, the private Press carried 19 stories on the conflict: 10 reports
accorded Mudzuri a platform to give his side of the story, eight were
neutral and the remainder favoured government.
The public media's pro-government coverage of the Chombo/Mudzuri wrangle was
basically achieved through simplistic manipulation of popular sentiments
(The Herald (9/1), Demonstration thwarted); propaganda disguised as news
(The Herald (7/1), Mudzuri admits interfering in tenders); and partisan
reports masquerading as public consensus on government policy (Chronicle,
(9/1), Governors' appointment hailed).
In fact, while the bias demonstrated by the public media seemed to stem
purely from its pursuance of government's political agenda, the pro-MDC
standpoint adopted by the private media was seemingly triggered mostly by
its desire to counter distortions carried in the public media in the first
place.
A classic example was The Herald (7/1) and Daily News' (9/1) coverage of
Mudzuri's alleged "interference" in the Harare City Council's refuse
collection tenders.
Whereas The Herald (and ZBC-ZTV & 3FM, 6/01, 8pm) seemed hell-bent on
criminalizing Mudzuri's "interference" in the tender process out of context,
The Daily News on the other hand provided the mayor with the platform to
make "his comments in full", which he alleged The Herald had selectively
used.
Indeed, The Herald story withheld some of the background as to why the mayor
had interfered in the tender. Neither did it adequately avail the
information in the "documents" it said were in its possession.
But The Daily News established that Mudzuri was compelled to query the city
council's tender specification for refuse collection after discovering that
there was a clause "which virtually excluded new players", and in the
process protected the companies that were given contracts by the then ZANU
PF council led by Solomon Tawengwa in August 1997. Most of the companies are
linked to ZANU PF officials.
And contrary to the impression created by The Herald report that Mudzuri did
not consult his officers to have the tender clause changed to accommodate
new players, The Daily News established that Josephine Ncube, the council's
Chamber Secretary, its top legal adviser and Joseph Issa, the council's
audit manager, had agreed that there was merit in Mudzuri's concerns.
Still, The Herald (9/1) continued to malign the mayor whom it accused "of
flouting tender procedures (in order) to give an unfair advantage to some
companies".
To lend credence to its claims, The Daily News (10/1) carried a story in
which it alleged that Highdon, a company owned by Mcdonald Chapfika, brother
to ZANU PF's MP for Mutoko North, had prejudiced the council of more than
$118 million through overcharging.
Highdon is contracted to supply water chemicals to the city council.
However, Mcdonald denied the allegations.
Equally unprofessional was the manner in which The Herald (9/1)
misrepresented facts pertaining to a foiled demonstration by MDC activists
protesting against Chombo's alleged interference in the affairs of the
council.
The paper untruthfully attributed the failure of the protest to poor
attendance, while in reality, the demonstration failed to take off because
it was quashed by the police, SW Radio Africa (8/01), The Daily News,
Financial Gazette and Daily Mirror (9/1).
In fact, the assertion by the paper also contradicted the substance of its
headline, Demonstration thwarted.
Significant too, was the public media's unquestioning acceptance of
government's announcement that it would appoint governors for Harare and
Bulawayo to coordinate development in the cities, The Herald and Chronicle
(6/1).
ZBC (ZTV, 7/01 & Radio Zimbabwe, 8pm) legitimized the move by quoting
Chombo as saying: "This is actually a correction of an anomaly where a
province as big as Harare, .and Bulawayo . is not represented by a governor,
yet smaller provinces like Matabeleland North, Matabeleland South,
Mashonaland Central . have a governor representing them. . So it was a
disservice to those two metropolitan cities not to have governors and
district administrators".
While Chombo was quoted, in the same bulletins, as having said, "the
appointment of governors should not be viewed as a ploy to monitor the
activities of the MDC executive mayors", his subsequent statement (on ZTV)
exposed government's machinations.
He stated: "It is not a political gimmick. It cannot be a political gimmick
to improve the service provision in this town or in Bulawayo. .We want
residents in those said provinces to receive services that they are paying
for. We want government through that system to provide whatever it is (sic)
intends to provide."
However, his statement, which actually confirmed that the governors are set
to encroach into areas of municipal jurisdiction such as providing services
to residents, escaped ZBC's analytical capacity.
The public broadcaster actually attempted to use Mudzuri to endorse the
move. Alleging that he had "refused to speak in front of cameras", ZTV
quoted Mudzuri as having said: "The appointment of a governor for Harare
Province would not in any way affect the operations of the city council
which he said is not bound by any law to obey orders from governors" adding
"Mudzuri's statements are contrary to speculation that the city council is
against the appointment of governors".
ZBC also nonchalantly reported further attempts by government to clip the
powers of the MDC-led municipalities by expanding the committee it appointed
to ostensibly assist in the administration of Harare, (ZTV & 3FM, 8/01, 8pm)
and its appointment of a three-member committee to "bring sanity" into
Chegutu municipality (11/01, 8pm).
So passive and partisan was the public media that their reports on this
government interference in the running of MDC-led councils hinged heavily
either on government or ruling ZANU PF officials. They also failed to come
up with a clear analysis of how duties and responsibilities would be
distributed between the elected mayors, councilors and government-appointed
governors and committees without duplication.
By contrast, the private media challenged Chombo's sincerity in proposing
the appointments considering his uneasy working relationship with Mudzuri.
Its sourcing too was more diverse. It ranged from government officials,
social commentators, to ordinary citizens.
Besides, the private media interpreted the move as government's covert plan
to neutralize the MDC's influence in Zimbabwe's biggest cities, The Daily
Mirror and Zimbabwe Independent of the same day (10/1).
The Daily Mirror quoted Harare residents as querying Chombo's sudden
interest in council business, while The Zimbabwe Independent noted in its
editorial that "the so-called anomaly about Harare and Bulawayo going
without governors for 22 years is ZANU PF's attempt to vitiate the powers of
executive mayors and impose its own pernicious policies on residents of MDC
controlled cities."
Notwithstanding this, both the public and private media were unable to fully
explore the burden the appointments were likely to inflict on the fiscus,
what the would-be governors briefs would be and whether those areas run by
both governors and mayors were indeed better "coordinated" than Harare and
Bulawayo.
Meanwhile, the polarity between the private and the public media in covering
the Harare council issues was further exposed in their reports of the arrest
of Mudzuri in Mabvuku for allegedly "addressing an illegal meeting". While
ZBC (11/1, 8pm) and The Sunday Mail (12/1) presented the arrest as normal
execution of the rule of law, The Standard (12/1) interpreted the arrest as
signaling "the country's slide into a police state". The paper reported
that Mudzuri and 21 other people including councilors, were arrested when
they were explaining to residents "the truth surrounding the crippling water
crisis", a position dismissed by The Sunday Mail. The paper quoted police
Superintendent Brighton Mudzamiri as having said "the gathering was a group
of youths that police strongly suspect to be MDC supporters".

4. Food shortages and clashes

Media reports on the outbreak of Zimbabwe's first serious food disturbances
in Bulawayo and Chitungwiza since food shortages hit the country about a
year ago exposed a disturbing sloppiness in interpretive skills among local
journalists, especially those from the public media.
Except for the feature, Food Riots 'a sign of more to come' by The Financial
Gazette (9/1) and a Reuter story carried in The Daily News (8/1), War
veteran Sibanda linked to food protest, no other paper attempted to
scrutinize fully the underlying causes or implications of the disturbances.
More disturbing was the professional hypocrisy shown by the public media,
which apparently shortchanged its audiences by trying to shield the
identities and political affiliations of the instigators of the violence.
For example, The Herald (7/1) was evasive about the identity of the "youths"
it reported as having clashed with the police "over the control of food
queues at a Supermarket in Chitungwiza", resulting in injuries to four
police officers.
Only The Daily News (6/1 and 7/1), SW Radio Africa (6/1) and The Daily
Mirror (7/1) identified the youths as products of government's National
Youth Service.
The nearest The Herald came to linking the food disturbances to the National
Service Youths was when it quoted an equally guarded police spokesperson,
Wayne Bvudzijena, as saying it was difficult to establish "whether the
youths who clashed with the police were an organized group or not, though
some of them put on uniforms similar to those worn by youths from the
National Youth Service Programme".
Also notable was the paper's failure to ask Bvudzijena whether his timely
warning to "organized groups" against the usurping of the powers of the
police force was, in this instance, an admission to a souring of relations
between the police force and National Youth Service members over the clash
of duties.
The Daily Mirror's story (7/1), 'Gezi youths' not ZRP - Ministry', also
missed this news peg and so did the rest of the Press. However, the paper
cited an unnamed Youth Ministry official - under whose portfolio the
National Youth Service falls - as saying the youths "were not necessarily an
extension of the police force and it was impossible for them to overtake the
police's responsibility".
Added the official: ".These are just young people who were trained to be
patriotic and, of course, they can effect a citizen's arrest just like any
other person."
Again the paper failed to ask the official why, if the youths did not wield
any special powers, they were acting like a terror group that exercised
extreme powers.
If the public Press tried to mask the identity of the group behind the
Chitungwiza food fracas, it also downplayed the political affiliations of 37
people arrested by the police for attempting to storm the state-run GMB
depot in Bulawayo over alleged unfair distribution of relief maize.
Both The Herald and Chronicle of the same day (7/1) carried similar
follow-up stories, on the court appearances of those arrested, but omitted
to inform their readers that the accused were either ZANU PF activists or
war veterans. Also, ZTV (6/01, 8pm) initially masked the political
affiliation of the culprits describing those who besieged the GMB as "some
residents of Bulawayo". It was later (9/01, 8pm) in its follow-up that the
station reported that the accused were ZANU PF supporters and war veterans.
Meanwhile, The Daily News (7/1) report on the court case did not display
such insincerity but observed that "scores of ZANU PF supporters crowded the
Western Commonage Court in solidarity with 37 of their colleagues arrested
after last Friday's food riots".
However, Bvudzijena could not divulge the political identity of the accused
although The Daily News (8/1) quoted him as saying the protesters
demonstrated at the instigation of politicians.
While most of the media appeared content to treat the food disturbances as
piecemeal, one-off events, The Financial Gazette put an interpretive touch
to it. It quoted political and economic commentators as warning that the
food riots could as well herald the beginning of a showdown between
government and a restless population facing unprecedented shortages of many
basic goods.
In fact, the private Press was replete with updates, hard news items and
features on the continued commodity shortages and the ever-increasing
hostile economic conditions in the country, worsened by a corruption
epidemic within the ranks of government's various relief distribution
chains.
Unfortunately, such professional zeal to adequately inform the public about
the true economic picture of the country was not matched by the public
media.
Instead, just like it did in its last year's coverage of the crippling
current fuel shortages, ZBC (6 &9/01, 8pm) narrowly blamed the food
shortages on corruption within the state-run GMB. The National Oil Company
of Zimbabwe, another parastatal, was equally accused of corruption, which
the public media alleged was the main cause of fuel shortages. But of course
they made no effort to inquire from government or the police what they were
doing to put an end to this corruption.

Ends.

The MEDIA UPDATE 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]; [email protected]

Feel free to write to MMPZ. We may not able to respond to everything but we
will look at each message.
For previous MMPZ reports, and more information about the Project, please
visit our website at http://www.mmpz.org.zw