The ZIMBABWE Situation | Our
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The
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
Monday
July 4th – Sunday July 10th 2005
Weekly
Media Update 2005-25
CONTENTS
1.
GENERAL COMMENT
2. PURGE
OF THE POOR AND INTERNATIONAL CONCERNS
3. THE
ECONOMIC CRUNCH CONTINUES
THE
government media’s misinformation campaign reached new extremes this week. These
media either distorted or censored stories that portrayed government in bad
light, in an effort to minimize the massive
humanitarian crisis triggered by government’s Operation Murambatsvina and
muffle condemnation of the exercise.
While
the private media reported UN special envoy Anna Tibaijuka’s reservations over
Murambatsvina, the official media suffocated this news and only selected
comments that portrayed her as appearing to legitimise the exercise. This saw
the Chronicle and The Herald (8/7) misleading their readers by
claiming that the UN envoy had endorsed
the government’s brutal purge of the urban poor when they reported her saying
that “cleaning up” cities was part of the world body’s
ambition.
Apart
from distorting Tibaijuka’s comments to justify government’s action, these
papers also either censored or dismissed out-of-hand criticism of the clampdown
as fabrications of the West while portraying Africa as fully behind
Murambatsvina.
For
example, The Herald (8/7) sought to downplay the African Union (AU)’s
concern over government’s blitz on Zimbabwe’s urban populations by implying that
the visit by Bahame Tom Nyanduga, to assess the impact of Murambatsvina,
was not sanctioned by the AU but its human rights commission, the African
Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR). To substantiate its claims, the
paper then quoted unnamed third party sources narrating how AU Commission
chairperson Alpha Oumar Konare had expressed “regret” to Foreign
Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi over the failure by ACHPR to follow
“proper procedures” in dispatching Nyanduga. The
“sources” added that Konare had “pleadingly” told
Mumbengegwi that he “stood by Zimbabwe”. No comment was sought
from Konare or the AU, whom the private and international media reported as
being responsible for sending Nyanduga.
Instead,
the paper tried to scandalise the ACHPR, by dishonestly claiming that last year
the commission “unsuccessfully tried to smuggle a damning” human
rights violations report on Zimbabwe, which the AU had rejected. It deliberately
omitted the fact that the African Heads of State adopted the report at the AU
summit in January this year after the Zimbabwe government had managed to
obstruct its adoption by the AU for nearly a year.
The
government media also used a false story distributed by the international news
agency, Associated Press, to dismiss international criticism of Zimbabwe as a
British plot when The Herald (9/7) refuted the AP report claiming that
Russian President Vladimir Putin had described President Mugabe as a dictator.
The paper quoted an unnamed diplomatic source saying that an unnamed Zimbabwean
government official had exposed Andrew Lloyd, the head of the southern Africa
Desk at the British Foreign Office as being responsible for inventing the
allegation in a memo to British Prime Minister Tony Blair. But besides quoting a
statement from the Associated Press acknowledging it had wrongly attributed
Putin’s comments, as well as the Russian ambassador’s dismissal of the story,
the paper made no attempt to substantiate its claims, or even to seek comment
from the British.
While
the government media continues to disregard professional journalistic standards,
an offence under the country’s repressive media laws, the government-appointed
Media and Information Commission, whose term of office expired last week, has
remained deafeningly silent.
MURAMBATSVINA
and government’s launch of Operation Garikai, a reconstruction exercise
aimed at mitigating the humanitarian crisis caused by its purge of the poor
continued to dominate media coverage.
Eighty-nine
stories on the matter appeared on ZBH (ZTV [37], Radio Zimbabwe [31] and Power
FM [21]) while Studio 7 carried 25 stories. The Press carried 70 reports, 35 of
which appeared in the government papers and the remaining 35 in the private
Press.
But
the dominance of the topic on ZBH did not translate into an informative coverage
of the matter.
All
its stories glossed over the devastation caused by government’s actions by
passively portraying the authorities as addressing the misery through
Garikai.
Similarly,
14 (40%) of the 35 stories the government Press carried pursued this theme.
It
was this obsession with legitimizing government’s blitz that resulted in its
media suffocating the growing international criticism of
Murambatsvina.
Neither
did they report UN envoy Anna Tibaijuka’s critical remarks on
Murambatsvina, portraying her instead, as being satisfied with the
operation. The
supine tone with which the official media handled the issue was captured
by ZTV’s announcement (4/7, 6&8pm) that government’s reconstruction
programme, which has “created
massive employment”,
had begun nationwide.
The
station quoted six alleged beneficiaries of Garikai hailing the
authorities for allocating them housing stands. It then used their comments to
claim that, “Zimbabweans
have now begun to appreciate government intentions in embarking on Operation
Restore Order and Garikai as they now reap the benefits”.
Without
adequately discussing the criteria used to select the beneficiaries, it
unquestioningly quoted Harare City Council spokesman Leslie Gwindi saying those
being allocated stands are “bona
fide beneficiaries who have been displaced”
by Murambatsvina and not “ghosts
and all these imaginary people who had inundated the city”. This brazen disdain for the victims of the
purge went unchallenged.
ZBH’s
passivity was also apparent when ZTV (8/7, 8pm) and Power FM (9/7, 6am) reported Local Government Minister
Ignatius Chombo saying about 5 000 houses would be built in the “next
three weeks”
for the victims of Murambatsvina. There was no attempt to question the
practicability of such claims.
In
fact, the broadcaster’s attempts to present the authorities as committed to
assisting those affected resulted in Power FM (6/7, 6am), Radio Zimbabwe (6/7,
8pm) and ZTV (7/7, 6pm) drowning Tibaijuka’s calls on government to urgently
provide victims of Murambatsvina with food and shelter in glowing reports
on Garikai.
To
justify the involvement of the military in government’s exercise, ZTV, Radio
Zimbabwe (8/7, 8pm) and Power FM (9/7, 6am) reported “prospective
home seekers”
as
having called on government to expedite the construction of houses by “mobilizing
uniformed forces”
and “building
brigades”.
Tibaijuka’s
reservations on the matter and other issues concerning Murambatsvina were
censored.
Likewise,
all nine
stories that the government Press carried specifically on remarks by Tibaijuka
omitted her critical observations on Murambatsvina, especially the
remarks she made in Bulawayo. The
Chronicle and The Herald (8/7), for example, merely portrayed her
as supportive of the blitz while The
Sunday Mail and
the Sunday News (10/7)
diverted attention from her remarks by focussing on Bulawayo Mayor Japhet
Ndabeni-Ncube’s alleged barring of three government ministers from a meeting his
council held with the UN envoy. The government weeklies reported government as
contemplating disciplinary action against the mayor, whom
“officials” attacked for trying to ridicule “cabinet
ministers in front of the UN’s special envoy”. The papers did not seek
comment from Ndabeni-Ncube or provide details of his meeting with
Tibaijuka.
Instead,
the official Press carried four stories, which sought to pre-empt the findings
of the UN envoy. For example, The Herald and the Chronicle (9/7)
unquestioningly reported Information Minister Tichaona Jokonya as saying
government was confident of “a balanced report” from the UN
despite the fact that “some members of the opposition were literally
taking people to holding camps at night” in order to influence the UN
envoy.
The
Herald’s
editorial also suggested Tibaijuka could only produce a negative report on
Murambatsvina as a result of outside influence from the country’s
detractors. The paper then drew parallels between Tibaijuka’s mission and that
of former Nigerian president Abdulsalami Abubakar, then head of the Commonwealth
Observer Mission to the 2002 Presidential poll, whom it falsely accused of
having “capitulated to foreign interests” when he condemned the
election despite having made “positive comments a few days before the
poll”.
The next
day, the Sunday News (10/7) quoted Deputy Information Minister Bright
Matonga as saying the UN report would be “immaterial” to
government whether it is good or bad.
The
government media’s partisan approach on the matter was reflected by their
dependence on official comment and sympathetic members of the public as shown in
Figs 1 and 2.
MEDIA |
Govt. |
Local
govt. |
Foreign |
Alternative |
Professional |
Police |
Zanu
PF |
MDC |
Ordinary
people |
ZTV |
18 |
6 |
5 |
5 |
4 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
42 |
Power
FM |
13 |
1 |
5 |
1 |
4 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Radio
Zim |
10 |
0 |
11 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
Total |
41 |
7 |
21 |
6 |
10 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
42 |
Govt |
Local
govt. |
Foreign |
Zanu
PF |
MDC |
Alternative |
Ordinary |
Unnamed |
32 |
12 |
13 |
1 |
3 |
5 |
5 |
2 |
Notably,
most of the foreign voices quoted were sanitized comments made by Tibaijuka.
Except for the MDC, almost all other local sources quoted passively amplified
the official position.
In
fact, the government media’s uncritical conduct resulted in The Herald
(7/7) failing
to question the logic and possible consequences of the Harare City Council’s
unprecedented decision to rescind “all land sale agreements” it
made between 1998 and this year and “resell” it at “market
rates to the same buyers, where necessary”.
In
contrast, the private media was more revealing in their 60 stories, 35 of which
appeared in the private Press and the remaining 25 on Studio 7. These media
exposed Tibaijuka’s reservations about the mass evictions and the international
community’s reaction to the crisis. The private Press also reported on
the
divisions in government itself over the exercise and
the continuing demolitions despite government’s announcement that
Murambatsvina was “winding up”.
For
instance, the Zimbabwe Independent (9/7) reported that Tibaijuka had
criticised the militarisation of Garikai as well as the authorities’
continued reference to the victims of the clampdown as “criminals”
and “squatters” during her meeting with government officials in
Bulawayo. The paper and Studio 7 (9/7) also cited G8 leaders, the Danish Prime
Minister, Australia, New Zealand and UN secretary-general Kofi Annan as having
added their voices to the growing criticism.
In
another story, the Independent noted that Mugabe had not received the
usual energetic support from fellow African leaders at the AU summit in Libya
and as a result had returned, “without the moral support he had hoped for
from his African brothers to prop up his failed
state”.
The
Daily Mirror’s somewhat
patronising story (5/7), New Zealand and Australia at it again, and all
seven stories carried in The Financial Gazette (5/7) on the topic also
projected increasing international isolation of Zimbabwe over the
blitz.
For
example, the Gazette reported the fact-finding delegation from the US
Congress as having been “shocked” by the exercise, which it
described as a “gross violation of human rights”. It
also carried the Associated Press’s false report (see comment above) in which
Russia’s President Putin was quoted saying G8 member countries should not be
afraid of stopping aid to corrupt “dictators like Zimbabwe’s
Mugabe”.
Although
The Herald and Chronicle (9/7), carried the AP correction, they
made unsubstantiated claims that it was a fabrication by British intelligence.
Earlier, The Herald (7/7) attacked Western media and the MDC for peddling
“laughable and spurious claims” to “justify the baseless
demonisation campaign” against
Murambatsvina.
The
manner in which the private Press handled the topic was generally reflected in
its attempts to balance official comment with alternative views as illustrated
in Fig 3. But AP should be censured for its serious inaccuracy and The
Financial Gazette should not be shy to carry a clear explanation of AP’s
“mistake”.
Govt |
Local
govt. |
Foreign |
Zanu
PF |
MDC |
Alternative |
Ordinary
people |
12 |
8 |
23 |
0 |
3 |
13 |
9 |
THE
government media continued to relay piecemeal reports on the country’s economic
meltdown, characterised by crippling fuel and commodity shortages and price
increases.
For example, although ZBH’s 50 stories on the economy included isolated reports
on indicators of economic decline, such as fuel and foreign currency shortages,
the broadcaster avoided relating the issues to government’s economic
policies.
The
government Press adopted a similar stance in its 22 stories on the matter. The
papers made no attempt to link the increases in the price of commodities and
services to government’s management of the economy. Instead, they tried to
shield the authorities by blaming sanctions, the drought and business people for
the problems.
For
example, the government Press carried five stories that blamed “defiant”
retailers and commuter omnibus operators for the sharp rise in bus fares and
prices of basic commodities.
The
Chronicle (4/7 & 5/7) reported that government would soon
“crack the whip” on urban commuter omnibuses who were not
following stipulated fares. It reported (4/7) that rural buses were also defying
government’s price controls and were sticking to “illegal fares”
which they announced without government approval soon after the fuel price
increases.
The
paper failed to investigate the viability of price controls or relate them to
the recent massive fuel increases.
The
Herald (4/7)
was similarly guilty of blame-shifting when it accused retailers of defying a
government directive not to increase commodity prices.
The
government media’s blaming of businesses for the galloping cost of living came
amid revelations by the Consumer Council that the monthly bread basket of a
family of six for the month of June rose to $4.2 million up from the May figure
of $3 million. (The Herald, 7/7 and Sunday Mirror,
10/7).
The
survey was reportedly conducted before the fuel price
increase.
In an
effort to give the impression that government was addressing public transport
shortages, ZBH carried 14 passive reports on government’s purchase of 69 buses.
There was no analysis on whether they would solve the deepening
crisis.
The
government media’s professional ineptitude in handling the topic was reflected
by the official Press’ sourcing pattern, which was typically pro-government. See
Fig 4.
Govt |
MDC |
Alternative |
Ordinary
people |
27 |
4 |
14 |
2 |
In
contrast, the private Press provided a clear view of the economic meltdown in 23
reports.
It
carried 15 stories on various indicators, including spiralling prices, fuel and
commodity shortages and Zimbabwe’s international isolation. Four were
specifically on the fuel crisis, while three were on price
hikes.
The
private Press’ stories categorically noted that the lack of foreign currency,
coupled with government’s international isolation would make it difficult to end
the economic crisis. For example, The Standard (10/7) revealed that
Harare would miss out on the G8’s debt cancellation and aid doubling programme
due to its poor international image.
The Independent reported the International
Monetary Fund as having said economic recovery was not possible without
political reform in Zimbabwe.
However,
Studio 7 was largely reticent on the country’s economic decline. Half of the six
stories the station carried on the subject were on the G8’s debt cancellation
for Africa, with emphasis on Zimbabwe, two were on the alleged firming of the
Zimbabwean currency on the parallel market and only one was on maize meal
shortages in Mutare.
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: monitors@mmpz.org.zw
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