Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe

November 17th – November 23rd 2003

Weekly Media Update 2003-46

CONTENTS

1. ZBC GAGS NEWS OF STATE CRACKDOWN

2. BUDGETING FOR A NON-EVENT
3. A CRAVING FOR ABUJA

1. ZBC gags news of state crackdown

Government efforts to stifle peaceful public protest during the week once again found support from the media it controls, which censored the violent nature of the police crackdown on nationwide street protests organized by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and supported by civil society groups.

All stations of the national public broadcaster, ZBC, completely ignored these events and the subsequent prolonged detention of 52 individuals in Harare, mainly leaders of the ZCTU and civil society. The government-controlled Herald (19/11) ignored the police violence in its coverage of the arrests and played down the extent of the protests, only reporting that police had “thwarted an illegal ZCTU demo” and arrested 88 protesters. It did not make it clear that protesters in Harare had been detained and provided almost no details of the circumstances surrounding the arrests in Harare, Bulawayo and Gweru.

The Herald also gave the impression that the protests were a non-event because they were “ignored by workers and employers”, but overlooked the intimidating effect that the heavy deployment of armed riot police and their use of brute force to disperse hundreds of people has on ordinary people.

Worse still, it failed to report the ZCTU’s reasons for the demos – to protest high taxes and human and labour rights abuses – and instead distorted the issue by inserting its own motives. The paper bluntly stated that unnamed “observers” believed the demo “was timed to coincide with the departure of Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo” in an attempt “…to push the isolation of Zimbabwe”.

The Herald provided no evidence to support this absurd claim and ignored the fact that the protests had been organized well before the public was aware of Obasanjo’s visit. But this did not deter the paper from inserting an irrelevant paragraph about the “white Commonwealth” threatening to boycott the upcoming Commonwealth summit if Zimbabwe attended, apparently to discredit the ZCTU.

For these reasons the story was entirely inadequate and grossly distorted and those people depending on the government-controlled daily were badly misinformed. And those who rely on ZBC would have known nothing about the protests and subsequent events. This represents a deliberate and cynical censoring of news by the national public broadcasting corporation.

Only SW Radio Africa (18/11) and Studio 7 (18/11) fully exposed the vicious manner in which the police handled the Bulawayo protest.

Similarly, The Standard (23/11) revealed that its photographer, Shadreck Pongo, was severely assaulted by the police in Harare while covering the demo. The police allegedly accused him of “being a British agent” and working for the “opposition Press”.

Studio 7 (18/11) carried a similar report.

Apart from exposing the deplorable quality of news coverage provided by the government media, the ZCTU protest also illustrated the weaknesses of POSA and that the police have difficulties enforcing it.

Herald readers could have only guessed at the continued detention of the 52 protesters when the paper reported (21/11) on their eventual appearance in court, at least two days after their arrest, charged under sections of POSA. The paper merely noted that the group “was brought to the…courts in six police trucks…” and that they were “remanded out of custody…” Nor did the paper report that 48 of them were initially brought to the courts without any charges against them and that the magistrate was obliged to adjourn the matter for some minutes while the police sought a section of law under which they could be charged. The paper also ignored the arguments by the defendants’ lawyer calling for all charges to be dropped.

These were partly captured by The Zimbabwe Independent (21/11), which quoted the protestors’ lawyer, Alec Muchadehama, as saying, “We had no time to file papers and they were placed on remand under protest. We will be opposing bail tomorrow”.

The paper also carried statements condemning the arrest of the ZCTU demonstrators issued by organizations such as the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and the Congress of South African Trade Unions.

The Herald ignored these. And its report of the release of the 52 detainees for lack of evidence the next day (22/11) was relegated to page 10. This treatment contrasted starkly with the front-page prominence the paper accorded the arrests and subsequent court appearances of the accused.

The Financial Gazette (20/11) only mentioned in passing the ZCTU demonstrations in its report on the visit to France by South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki, where he defended his “quiet diplomacy” over Zimbabwe.

Once again, the government media’s misrepresentation and omission of the events demonstrates the alarming “credibility gap” that has emerged in the dissemination of news since the banning of The Daily News. While to some extent the weekly newspapers and the “niche market” radio stations help to fill this gap in the public record, they are, by their nature, unable to match or effectively counter the daily propaganda of the government-controlled media, which now dominate Zimbabwe’s media landscape.

2. Budgeting for a non-event

The private media’s forecast that Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa’s 2004 Budget would not offer any tangible solutions to the country’s myriad economic problems was vindicated in the week when the minister finally presented what most analysts described as a “standstill” Budget. The private media pointed out that the Z$8,4 trillion (ZWD 8 400 000 000 000) Budget was a non-event because Murerwa failed to announce any measures that would effectively arrest the country’s economic meltdown.

Although the government-controlled media also noted that the Budget had left out specific measures to deal with the economic recession, they tried to smother this criticism with praise for the minister. As a result, their position on the Budget was mired in confusion.

The Herald (21/11) aptly demonstrated this point. On the one hand, the paper observed that the Budget was not “imaginative in addressing the fundamental problems that have been dogging the economy such as shortages of foreign currency, fuel, energy, transport, spiralling of basic commodities, among others”.

But on the other hand, the same issue of the paper claimed: “The 2004 national budget aims to address two issues: stabilising the economic environment fundamentals such as high inflation and acute foreign currency stocks while at the same time creating real growth”.

This contradiction in stance was also evident on ZTV (20/11, 8pm). The newsreader said analysts had described the budget as “standstill” but went on to say it was “aimed at curbing inflation, streamlining government expenditure and stimulate growth through infrastructure development.”

However, the private media were unambiguous in their analysis. They categorically stated that the budget was devoid of strategies to turn around the economy. For example, in its article, A damp squib, The Financial Gazette (21/11) described Murerwa’s financial plan as “unimaginative…(and) thin on detail in terms of strategy to turn around what is now widely seen as an economic basket case”, adding that the budget “did not address three key issues, namely the skewed exchange rate, runaway inflation and the unrealistic interest rate regime”.

The paper also quoted analysts as having said the increases in tax threshold and tax-free pension, which the government-controlled media tried to use to sell the Budget to the public for approval, “amounted to nothing if put against the intensifying inflationary pressures”.

The Zimbabwe Independent (21/11), The Weekend Tribune (22/11) and SW Radio Africa (20/11) agreed.

The Independent pointed out that Murerwa had “offered nothing concrete to end the foreign currency crunch which has plagued the country since 1999, and made no mention of a currency devaluation which companies say is necessary to breathe life back into the ailing export sector”. The paper also quoted the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe (ICAZ) as having said while it commended Murerwa’s declared intention to curb inflation, it “regretted that few substantive measures to achieve these ends were announced, leaving a sense of his economic policy projection being a wish list unsupported by proposals for fulfilment”.

Economic consultant John Robertson was also quoted as saying Murerwa’s forecast that inflation would reach 700% early next year and start subsiding “is unrealistic and government will certainly not achieve it”.

The Tribune quoted another economist, David Mupamhadzi, concurring: “There were no clear articulated policies to rein in this high rate of inflation”.

Even ZTV (21/11, 8pm) quoted economist Moses Chundu exposing some shortcomings of the Budget, saying the failure by Murerwa to come up with a clear national monetary policy while pushing the buck to the Reserve Bank, left people feeling “like there is nothing much in it.”

Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce Vice President, David Govera, was also quoted lamenting the lack of a monetary policy in the minister’s budget.

However, other news items aimed at glossing over the Budget’s shortcomings suffocated such comments, which were echoed by other analysts during ZTV’s (21/11) live coverage of a business breakfast meeting with Murerwa.

For instance, ZTV (20/11, 8pm) uncritically quoted ZANU PF MP David Chapfika quashing the concerns of economists, saying, “There is nothing wrong with trillions or whatever numbers as long as the funds are directed towards the productive sector…” There was no analysis of the underlying economic implications of Chapfika’s sweeping statements.

The insincerity behind the government-controlled media’s handling of the Budget was further exposed by The Sunday Mail (23/11) and its stable-mate The Sunday News (23/11). While acknowledging that the Budget was “largely standstill and lukewarm and did not adequately address some of the key issues the nation thought it would”, The Sunday Mail still blamed Zimbabwe’s economic problems on “external forces”.

Likewise, The Sunday News (23/11) chided those who criticised Murerwa’s financial plan saying any national Budget with the “most colourful capitalist jargon in the world” will not bring “wealth and jobs for the ordinary people” as long as “corrupt business people, shameless opportunists and saboteurs hold the country to ransom”.

But the Chronicle (21/11) was the worst performer of all the government-controlled media. The paper merely endorsed the Budget without even exposing some of its weaknesses. It naively noted that the budget offered “a new beginning for our economy”, adding that the “landmark budget” sought “to inject fresh impetus and resuscitate the country’s economy” following Murerwa’s proposals for “a range of measures aimed at arresting inflation, stimulating economic activity, … easing foreign currency shortages and creating employment”.

Except for SW Radio Africa (20/11) and The Standard (23/11) none of the media provided an informed comparative analysis of last year’s hopelessly inaccurate Budget with Murerwa’s latest financial plan.

3. A craving for Abuja

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo’s one-day visit to Zimbabwe intensified debate on whether President Mugabe would be given a last-minute invitation to the Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting (CHOGM) scheduled for Abuja.

The government-controlled media gave the impression that Obasanjo’s visit was a confirmation that Zimbabwe could still be invited and this was fed by Mugabe’s own declared intention that he was “looking forward” to attending the meeting.

The private media however, pointed out that the country would still not get a belated invitation because it had not restored the stipulated democratic ethos as demanded by the Club.

Just before Obasanjo jetted in, The Herald (17/11) published a twisted background to Zimbabwe’s suspension from the Commonwealth, as if to influence the Nigerian leader’s position. It accused Britain of turning “its bilateral dispute with Zimbabwe into a Commonwealth affair”, adding that, “With the assistance of its Australian sidekick, Britain has so far managed to prevail over the rest of the Commonwealth’s wishes to have Zimbabwe’s suspension from the councils of the Commonwealth lifted”.

Basing its argument on such misrepresentation of facts, the paper then seemed to leave Obasanjo with no choice by claiming that he “faces a real dilemma of either inviting Zimbabwe and courting the wrath of the white Commonwealth or to exclude the country to appease Britain and Australia at the expense of his own conscience and the expectations of the rest of the developing world”.

However, The Zimbabwe Independent (21/11) rebutted these claims, saying the Zimbabwean government was systematically using the media it controls to create “distortions” over the reasons behind the country’s isolation. It reminded readers that the troika suspended Zimbabwe on the basis of the Commonwealth observer mission’s findings that the 2002 presidential elections were not free and fair. It pointed out that instead of addressing the concerns of the Club, “the Zimbabwean government proceeded to denounce the observer mission, making all sorts of allegations about its composition and its head, which in the most part turned out to be untrue”.

It added: “At no stage did it [the Zimbabwe government] address the central issue of electoral misconduct. Indeed, the army remains a key player in electoral supervision, the Electoral Supervisory Commission continues to be an instrument of the incumbent…”

But such facts did not stop ZBC (17/11, 8pm) from perpetuating optimism that Zimbabwe’s chances for re-admission into the Commonwealth and of getting an invitation to Abuja had become brighter following Obasanjo’s meeting with Mugabe. The broadcaster quoted Mugabe as saying Obasanjo was trying to find a “compromise” between the “racist” white Commonwealth members and African countries for Zimbabwe to attend the summit because “ …we are entitled to attend CHOGM 2003 in Abuja because we are a member, a full member of the Commonwealth”.

ZBC and indeed the government-controlled Press (18/11) presented a picture that Zimbabwe’s invitation to Abuja signified an end to the country’s suspension from the Club. They did not explore the underlying implications of Obasanjo’s statements that he was consulting “across the board with the Commonwealth leaders as to what should be the line of action before CHOGM or during or after CHOGM” on Zimbabwe.

Contrary to the impression given by the government-controlled media, the private media contended that the probability of Mugabe getting an invitation was next to none mainly because of his government’s failure to address the Commonwealth’s concerns. For example, The Zimbabwe Independent quoted unnamed sources saying Obasanjo had left the country “angry and exasperated” because Mugabe had scuppered his “last-minute opportunity to secure an invitation” by refusing to meet the MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.

SW Radio Africa (18/11) quoted the Commonwealth Secretariat official, John Kibazo, as saying, “The common practice is that if a country is suspended then they are not invited to attend the leaders’ summit.”

Similarly, The Financial Gazette quoted British Foreign Office Minister Chris Mullin as having told the British Parliament that, “the suspension of Zimbabwe would remain in place” because it had not fulfilled the “benchmark requirements” that were set by the troika. Mullin added that because of the lack of dialogue between ZANU PF and the MDC, and the continued assault on the opposition, the independent media, and civil society, Britain saw “no justification for re-admitting Zimbabwe to the Commonwealth”.

This contrasted sharply with the impression Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge provided for the Zimbabwean Parliament. The Herald’s report of the ministerial statement (20/11) reported Mudenge as saying that Zimbabwe was entitled to attend CHOGM because its suspension had lapsed and that Australia had “abused its role as chairman of the Troika…”

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]

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