Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
Media Update # 2002/02
January 14th – January 20th 2002

CONTENTS
1. Summary
2. Tsvangirai’s comments
3. Political Violence
4. The Campaign
5. “Confusing” Voter education
6. Article 19 condemns amendments to Information Bill

1. SUMMARY

The government-controlled media seized the opportunity to feast on
the comments of opposition MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, who
suggested that South Africa could introduce sanctions against
Zimbabwe as a response to threats to undermine the presidential
election by the military and President Mugabe himself.
He was commenting to the BBC on the inconclusive SADC summit
in Malawi that discussed the deepening political and economic
crisis in Zimbabwe.
Describing the organization as lacking cohesion and being riddled
with hypocrisy and double standards, Tsvangirai suggested that in
the absence of effective measures from SADC, South Africa had
the strength and influence to unilaterally introduce sanctions that
would discourage government from pursuing measures that are
undermining the democratic process in Zimbabwe.
Typically though, ZBC ignored the context of Tsvangirai’s
comments and then used his remarks to source a tidal wave of
criticism portraying him and the MDC as unpatriotic and an
unworthy presidential candidate.
The topic dominated the government-controlled print and electronic
media during the week.

TV’s (15/01) 8pm bulletin, which lasted 40 minutes 30 seconds,
was basically an avalanche of propaganda to discredit Tsvangirai
and the MDC. Stories on Tsvangirai’s utterances occupied 23
minutes 25 seconds or 58% of the bulletin with other news items
occupying 17 minutes five seconds (42%).
In other developments the electronic media continued to flout its
obligations under the Broadcasting Services Act to give fair political
coverage to competing political parties. TV carried nine election
campaign stories, all of them ZANU PF campaign pieces. In these
stories ZANU PF officials and supporters were quoted 10 times.
There were three alternative voices, all of which were pro-ZANU PF
and publicly endorsed President Mugabe’s candidature. Like TV,
Radio Zimbabwe and 3FM also failed to carry a single campaign
story on opposition party candidates.
This is a serious dereliction of duty by the national public
broadcaster and should be condemned as a gross abuse of its
public service obligations to inform the electorate fairly and
accurately. The station has clearly become a platform for the
promotion of ZANU PF propaganda.
ZBC’s coverage of political violence in its “Campaign for Peace
Update” carried a similar bias in favour of the ruling party. ZANU
PF’s supporters were presented as facing an incessant and
organized onslaught from MDC youths, while its supporters had
only retaliated.
ZBC’s coverage of voter education news was heavily interpretative
rather than analytical and only served to confuse voters about the
electoral process. Official statements were presented without
clarification or detail. TV, 3FM and Radio Zimbabwe presented
conflicting statements from the Minister of Justice, Patrick
Chinamasa, and the Registrar General, Tobaiwa Mudede, on the
voter registration process for the presidential and Harare and
Chitungwiza mayoral elections and did not establish which version
was accurate.

2. TSVANGIRAI’S COMMENTS

ZBC (14/01, Nhau/Indaba and 8pm television, and all radio 6am,
1pm and 8pm bulletins) broke the Tsvangirai sanctions story, and
television’s 8pm news carried the BBC news interview quoting
Tsvangirai condemning the apparent lack of “cohesion” in SADC’s
response to Zimbabwe’s deepening political and economic crisis
and speculating on what South Africa could do unilaterally to stop
the Zimbabwe government from further subverting the democratic
process. The MDC leader was seen to say:
“Well there are measures. I mean, for instance, the threat to
undermine the elections by the military, by Mugabe himself,
should actually send shock waves to South Africa and say,
‘OK, under those circumstances we are going to cut fuel, we
are going to cut transport links’. Those kinds of measures,
even if they are implemented at a lowly level, send the right
signals.”
But news presenter Obriel Mpofu made no reference to the SADC
context of the interview, or to the speculative nature of the question
and the answer when he introduced the story. He simply stated
that:
“MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai has called on South Africa
to cut official supplies, switch off electricity and sever all
communication links with Zimbabwe in order to speed up
what he called ‘change’ in the country.”
Nowhere in the interview did Tsvangirai ‘call’ on South Africa to
impose sanctions, nor did he mention anything about ‘change’, a
word that forms part of an MDC slogan and used in the report to
give the impression that sanctions was part of the MDC’s normal
programme for change.
The inaccuracies and distortion contained in this statement were
reinforced by reporter Reuben Barwe’s comment introducing the
BBC clip: “Zimbabweans need to know that the desire to take
the reins of power by certain people might see them suffer
more soon…” thus giving the impression that Tsvangirai is so
desperate for power he is prepared to inflict suffering on the nation.
The next day (15/1) the government Press (Zimpapers’ titles The
Herald and The Chronicle) followed the same line by interpreting
Tsvangirai’s statement as a call for sanctions and condemning it as
“…a sign of a desperate man who was clearly afraid of
elections…” according to unnamed observers. This formed the
basis of the papers’ coverage throughout the week.
The private press was reticent, with only The Daily News (15/1)
reporting the story, and The Zimbabwe Mirror subjecting his
comments to critical analysis.
Like the Zimpapers’ dailies, The Daily News (15/01) interpreted
Tsvangirai’s comments as an appeal to South Africa to impose
sanctions on Zimbabwe. But it noted that his call was made
against a background of mounting violence and intimidation of MDC
supporters ahead the election.

From Tuesday (15/01) through to Saturday (19/01), The Herald
alone ran 11 stories and two cartoons on the issue. No new angles
were offered in the reports, except for sourcing additional critical
opinion.
All three dailies noted Tsvangirai’s comments in the context of
SADC’s deliberations in Malawi and quoted his reference to the
military and the President as undermining the democratic process
of the election, but the two state-owned dailies exonerated the
service chiefs.
The Herald (15/01) also attacked Tsvangirai in an editorial and
attempted to sow the idea of division within the MDC by claiming
that “rumours” suggested that significant support within the party
was becoming disillusioned with his leadership.
These “rumours” blossomed in a Sunday Mail (20/01) report, five
days later, entitled, Fresh divisions rock MDC, which quoted
unnamed MDC MPs as saying Tsvangirai’s comments had angered
the intellectuals within the party and had “reopened old
wounds”. Not a single quoted source was identified in the story.
The Herald carried parliamentary accounts on the issue on
Thursday (17/01) and Saturday (19/01). According to the reports,
also in The Daily News (18/01), ZANU PF and MDC MPs clashed
in Parliament over Tsvangirai’s remarks. ZANU PF accused the
opposition of selling out and conniving with the West to impose
sanctions, whilst MDC legislators claimed Tsvangirai was quoted
out of context. MDC’s Gibson Sibanda was quoted saying
Tsvangirai’s statement “was not a request for sanctions but an
analysis of options not only to South Africa, but to the rest of
the region to persuade the government to stop politically-
motivated violence and to ensure a free and fair presidential
election is held.”
The Zimbabwe Mirror (18/01) discussed Tsvangirai’s comments in
The Scrutator , which reflected the government media line under
the heading, Morgan’s Gaffe, while its Behind the Words column
was more reflective and relevant.
It also placed the MDC leader’s comments in the context of
SADC’s apparent public procrastination by noting that: “At the
(SADC) meeting President Mugabe made the undertaking that
his government would ensure that the March elections are free
and fair, guarantee freedom of expression and association,
investigate and act upon all cases of political violence, and
accredit national monitors and international observers
These are concessions that could hardly have been extracted
even with a regional threat of sanctions.”
The author however, did not assess the likelihood of these
promises ever being translated into reality, given the hard realities
of what is still happening around the country.
But the columnist concluded by observing: “Tsvangirai may see
in sanctions the way to precipitate the collapse of the present
government. But it would help him and his supporters a great
deal to ponder over where such a precipitous fall of the
present government, leading to anarchy and mayhem, would
take this country…”

Apart from the live question-and-answer broadcast on television
(15/01, 8pm) quoting the MDC’s Learnmore Jongwe and the
indirect comment from Gibson Sibanda, (16/01, 8pm) no other
MDC official was quoted in the coverage of responses to
Tsvangirai’s statements.
TV (15/01, 8pm) broke two of ZBC’s 10 “Golden Rules” even though
newscaster Obriel Mpofu warned Jongwe and ZANU PF MP David
Chapfika to observe two of the “golden” rules, which state that:
“Name-calling and insulting offices and figures protected by
the Zimbabwean law, national heroes and or any member of
the public will not be accepted; and, use of inflammatory or
defamatory language inciting members of the public to be
violent will be strictly forbidden.”
Mpofu allowed Chapfika to break the rules with impunity when he
called MDC officials “stooges” and “traitors” and then highlighted
ZBC’s intolerance of opposition views by frequently interrupting
Jongwe.
Television and radio (15/01, 8pm) audiences had the rare
opportunity to see and hear other opposition presidential
candidates. But they were only aired to discredit Tsvangirai.
TV’s propaganda (16/01, 8pm) also included what Rueben Barwe
called the “twists and turns” in the MDC since its formation.
Describing Tsvangirai’s comments as not surprising, television re-
screened old footage of Tsvangirai receiving donations from
commercial farmers; BBC footage of MDC legislator, Fidelis
Mhashu, calling for British help; and ZTV clips of “Talking
Business” debates to illustrate the MDC’s collusion with foreigners
and Rhodesians.

4. POLITICAL VIOLENCE

Predictably, reports of political violence were grossly polarized. The
state controlled Press focused on violence committed by MDC
supporters, while the privately owned Press exclusively reported on
incidents allegedly committed by ruling party groups. Unusually,
The Herald reported the highest number of incidents of political
violence, closely followed by The Daily News.
Of the 21 incidents of violence reported on television, 11 (52%)
were allegedly perpetrated by the MDC, six (29%) by unknown
assailants, two (10%) did not mention the perpetrators, one (5%)
by UZ students and one (5%) was “ZANU PF’s retaliation to MDC
attacks”.
These figures barely do justice to ZBC’s continuing propaganda
blitz against the MDC in its coverage of incidents of political
violence in its “Campaign for Peace Update” segment. Coverage of
violence was also accompanied by ZANU PF campaigns quoting
its officials publicly appealing for peace to give the impression that
ZANU PF was a peaceful party.
For example, television (18/01, 8pm) quoted Zanu Ndonga leader
Wilson Kumbula, Paul Siwela of Zapu, National Alliance for Good
Governance (NAGG) leader, Shakespeare Maya, ZANU PF’s Elliot
Manyika, and the police all condemning the rising incidence of
politically-motivated violence nationwide. In the same report
however, an MDC official was said to have refused to comment for
fear of being “misquoted”.
This appears to have been a deliberate attempt by ZBC to create
the impression that while everyone else was calling for peace, the
MDC was silent and therefore guilty by exception.
Earlier that day (18/1), The Herald reported Manyika’s appeal to
ZANU PF youths at a meeting in Bindura, and even noted that it
was “…held as a result of violent demonstrations by ZANU PF
youths against some magistrates at the Bindura courts…” who
had been accused of handing down judgments against the ruling
party. That story only appeared in The Daily News two days earlier
(16/1), providing an indication of the extent to which the rule of law
and the dispensation of justice have been undermined – and the
reluctance of the state media to report such incidents.
The warning from international human rights watchdog, Amnesty
International, that Zimbabwe was in danger of descending into civil
war, also only appeared in The Daily News (15/1), as did the
warning about a “human rights crisis” in Zimbabwe from the UN
High Commissioner for Human Rights.
ZBC’s coverage of the assault on MDC legislator David Mpala in
Lupane (television and radio, 14/01, 8pm) exposed television’s
biased coverage of incidents of violence. Insp. Alfred Zvenyika was
quoted as having said, “the motive behind the attack is not
known” but could not rule out political violence. Television reported
that 11 unidentified suspects had been arrested, but 3FM’s 8pm
bulletin the same evening actually identified those arrested as
ZANU PF youths. So, was television – and the policeman –
suppressing unpalatable information about the Mpala’s attackers?
Even The Herald (16/1) blamed the attack on “suspected war
veterans”, although it buried this news at the end of a violence
round-up story which contained news of another murder, this time
in Guruve, of a man who “…had been abducted by ZANU PF
youths”, according to initial investigations.
In the television report of Mpala’s assault, the reporter shifted
viewers’ attention away from this latest assault by gratuitously
referring to the unsubstantiated claim that Limukani Luphahla and
Cain Nkala had been abducted and murdered by MDC youths, as if
to suggest the assault on Mpala was some form of retaliation.
TV’s bias was also exposed (19/01, 8pm) in the Banket case
where youths who actually identified themselves as belonging to
ZANU PF assaulted a farm foreman allegedly to settle a labour
dispute, but the TV reporter chose to say the youths belonged to
the MDC without any reasonable proof.
ZBC (14/01, 8pm) did report an incident of violence allegedly
committed by ZANU PF youths, but this was down played as
“retaliation”.
The Daily News (15/01) quoted Joyce Kazembe, a member of the
government appointed Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC)
blaming political violence on ZANU PF. She was quoted as saying:
“The level of violence depends on the level of access to State
agents and State machinery which the ruling party enjoys,
while the opposition practices hit-and-run raids because of
limited resources.”
The same issue reported the abduction and assault on Mpala as
the paper’s lead story, quoting Mpala himself accusing war
veterans of being responsible.
Farm invasions also continued to be reported in the privately owned
Press. The Daily News (14/01) reported that 23 farmers had been
ordered off their farms by ZANU PF supporters. The same issue of
the paper reported that two black commercial farmers in Dande had
also fallen victim to violence. According to the paper, the two
cotton farmers had their crop uprooted on allegations of supporting
the MDC.
The Zimbabwe Independent (18/01) reported more farm violence
and observed that, “The invasions also fly in the face of
assurances given by a government delegation which last week
attended an EU/ACP meeting in Brussels.”
Much of The Herald’s violence round-up feature (14/01), under the
generic headline, MDC’s violent campaign intensifies, simply
regurgitated old and unsubstantiated reports accusing MDC
supporters of being responsible for the murder the previous week of
Gibson Masarira, a senior district ZANU PF official in Zaka.

5. ELECTION CAMPAIGN STORIES
.
The absence of any election campaign stories about opposition
party candidates on television and radio confirms a deliberate
policy by ZBC to exclude these voices from the electronic media in
the run-up to the election.
It should also be noted that in addition to the nine positive stories
on the ruling party’s campaign, ZANU PF is also using live
programmes, recorded documentaries and films as part of its
campaign strategy.
MMPZ notes with concern that ZBC has deliberately and totally
failed to meet its public service obligations. MMPZ believes this is
a worrying development because the national broadcaster is
creating an election campaign environment in the broadcast media
that is unfair and undemocratic. As a result, ZBC’s audiences are
being denied their right to access fair and accurate information to
make informed political choices in the election.
Since 2002 began, ZBC TV and radio have not covered a single
rally or campaign statement by any opposition party. MMPZ
condemns this gross abuse of public resources. Television (14/01,
8pm) covered a government-organized “Day of Prayer” meeting
attended by some churches held at the Harare International
Conference Centre where it was said that churches, unlike in the
past, “are in full support of the country’s land reform
programme”. And in what can only be described as a terrible
embarrassment, one church leader was even quoted as saying
President Mugabe was appointed “by God not by man”.
ZANU PF policies were reflected on the placards carried by
delegates and no comment was sought from commentators on the
political nature of the meeting, which sought to invest President
Mugabe with a morally divine status. Neither did ZBC clarify which
churches had attended the so-called prayer meeting.
The other campaign stories were statements from ZANU PF
officials and even ruling party announcements to its MPs and
members masquerading as news items.
Breaks between news segments on television are now also
saturated with ZANU PF advertising.
The absence of opposition advertising, and in particular, MDC
material, should also be taken in the context of statements this
week by the party’s Secretary-General Welshman Ncube
(Zimbabwe Independent, 18/01) that “we have stopped bothering
ourselves about advertising in the public media” because of
restrictive procedures including ZBC’s 10 Golden Rules.
There are also live and recorded programmes, which are all being
used as platforms for ZANU PF to transmit its campaign
propaganda free of charge. Some of them are:

v Face the Nation (Friday, 6.30pm),
v Media Watch
v Talking Farming,
v Nhaka Yedu/Our Heritage (Sunday, 8.35pm, repeated
Monday, 1am),
v Around Zimbabwe (6.30pm); and
v National Affairs (propaganda film slot on Thursday &
Sunday, 9.05pm).

Other propaganda programmes appear on television unscheduled
and some come as repeats by “popular public demand” in what
appears to be an attempt to force people to watch them.
Clearly, ZBC has been reduced to a ZANU PF propaganda
machine.

Similarly, the government owned newspapers continue to prove
beyond doubt that they have also been turned into ZANU PF
election campaign platforms.
A curious feature during the week was the use of small opposition
political parties to denounce MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
According to The Herald (18/1) three opposition parties described
Tsvangirai “…as a puppet of the West”. The article quoted ZANU,
ZAPU and NAGG, but did not shed any light on those parties’
policies.
MMPZ does not condemn Zimpapers for sourcing comments from
these groups on issues of national importance. However, it would
seem they are only quoted when it is in Zanu PF’s advantage to do
so. For example, where were the small opposition groups when the
armed forces’ Commander Vitalis Zvinavashe, commented about
the “qualifications” of candidates for the presidential office? It
would appear these parties only exist to condemn the MDC when it
is perceived to have blundered. MMPZ condemns such cynical and
unprofessional practice.
The Chronicle story (17/1) Opposition political parties form
alliance, reported the formation of a third political party to counter
MDC. The newspaper failed to subject the proposed new political
alliance to any examination. It appears the article was meant to
vilify MDC through the voices of little known political parties.

MMPZ notes that The Herald continues to publish names of people
who have “qualified” for land in the ongoing land reform process
and hopes a list of those “allocated” land will also be published.
The Herald (15/1) reported that the MDC had “… acquired ZANU
PF members’ cards to weaken the ruling party’s stronghold in
the rural areas”. The article relied on an unnamed source.
The Herald (18/1) quoted Information Minister Jonathan Moyo
saying thousands of MDC supporters were defecting to ZANU PF,
but provided no evidence for this.
The Daily News story (18/1) Model A2 land list a political gimmick,
reported that “Most people listed as beneficiaries of the A2
model scheme under the resettlement programme have not
been given the land…”
The Sunday Mail (20/1) front-page article, SA police confirm MDC
link to $2bn heist, made preposterous and unfounded allegations
against the MDC. The report also regurgitated the same
unsubstantiated claims that appeared in its first report of the
robbery: “… former Rhodesian and apartheid South Africa
intelligence officers, who are now supporting the MDC, had
perfected the art of using criminal elements to raise funds for
their cause during their days and were now using the same
dirty tricks to raise funds for the opposition party ahead of the
presidential elections”. In a display of blatant propaganda, the
article read: “The MDC is using all desperate means to get
funds for the presidential elections because the party never
thought the elections would be held at the beginning of
March”.
The Sunday Mail (20/1), claimed the MDC had “hatched
clandestine plans to bring in its own foreign election monitors
and observers into the country …” but again the paper provided
no evidence for its claim.

6. VOTER EDUCATION: Confusing reports on ZBC

There was precious little voter education in any of the media during
the week.
But The Zimbabwe Independent (18/1) reported the chaos
surrounding the forthcoming presidential poll and the Harare and
Chitungwiza mayoral elections. The story noted that the pre-
election conditions, such as political violence, and repressive new
legislation all point to a poorly organized poll. Part of the article
read:
The whole process of preparation for the polls is not
transparent and because of the recent amendments to
the Electoral Act, the Electoral Supervisory
Commission has not started its work. In addition, the
training of election monitors is not in place and voter
education has not started … While the Registrar
General’s office has had problems in running single
elections, it is going to be near-impossible running a
three-tier poll.

ZBC (18/01, 8pm) covered comments made by Registrar-General
Tobaiwa Mudede, on the progress made on the voter registration
exercise. He said they were doing the job to make sure that in the
end “we take the necessary action when we are printing our
voters’ roll as regards those who are no longer citizens of this
country”. He was not pressed for comment to clarify what this
“action” implied.
MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai’s urgent application on the
constitutionality of the voter registration process was also scantily
covered on ZBC compared to the detailed manner in which it was
covered in The Daily News (19/01).
Radio Zimbabwe (17/01, 1pm) carried a confusing report about
which roll would be used in the presidential election. Minister
Chinamasa was quoted as saying the constituency roll would be
used. However, ZTV (18/01, 8pm) contradicted this by saying the
common roll would be used in the presidential elections. The
mayoral and council elections would use the ward roll. As a result
of the remarks there now appears to be no clear information about
the rolls to be used and the procedures to be followed for the dual
elections in Harare and Chitungwiza and viewers and listeners were
left confused and uninformed about these important issues.
ZBC did not analyze the implications of Mudede’s contempt of
court by closing voter registration and defying both the High Court
and Supreme Court orders ordering his office to expedite the
holding of mayoral and council elections by February 11, 2002.
A 3FM (20/01, 1pm) report also sent misleading signals on voter
registration. Minister of State in Vice-President Simon Muzenda’s
office, Flora Bhuka, was quoted expressing optimism that “more
people in the Gokwe District will get their national identity
cards and be registered as voters soon following the successful
discussions with the Midlands provincial registrar”. The
reporter did not explain why registration was continuing in the
Midlands when Mudede had announced that the exercise had been
stopped, or, indeed, what business Muzenda’s office had with
registration and why it was holding discussions with officials from
the RG’s office. But the report did give the unfortunate impression
that Muzenda’s office was a law unto itself – a fairly common
notion of most government activities.

7. ARTICLE 19 CONDEMNS INFORMATION BILL AMENDMENTS

ARTICLE 19 today released a detailed analysis of the
amendments to the Zimbabwean Access to Information and
Privacy Bill1 showing that all our previous concerns remain
and that the Bill still massively restricts freedom of
expression. This analysis updates previous reports on the Bill
by ARTICLE 19 issued on 11 January and 24 January.

ARTICLE 19 acknowledges some positive amendments to the Bill,
tabled in Parliament on 22 January 2002, but condemns them as
falling far short of the meaningful change required.

Despite the amendments, journalists are still required to obtain
licenses and face a possible 2 years’ imprisonment for spreading
'false news'. Extensive powers over the media and journalists
continue to be wielded by the Commission, a body firmly under
government control. Despite its title, the Bill does little to
guarantee the public's right to access information held by public
authorities. The ARTICLE 19 analysis addresses each of these
concerns and illustrates how the Bill systematically undermines
the right to freedom of expression.

These amendments were a response to growing local and
international pressure, and ARTICLE 19 calls upon the international
community to continue to exert pressure on the Zimbabwean
government, lending their voice to the many opposition voices
originating from inside the country, in the hope of bringing about
more fundamental reforms to the Bill.

“The Zimbabwean government is under pressure both as a result of
the upcoming elections and the growing international condemnation
of its undemocratic practices. There is a real opportunity for
change now, but concerted effort is needed.”
Copies of the analysis are available on the ARTICLE 19 website, at
http://www.article19.org [2]
Issued by Toby Mendel, Head of Law Programme, on 44 20 7239
1193 (44 20 8552 3437 out of office hours), email:
[email protected] [3].
ENDS

The MEDIA UPDATE is produced and circulated by the Media
Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ), 15 Duthie Avenue,
Alexandra Park, Harare, Tel/fax: 263 4 703702, E-mail:
[email protected] [4] Previous copies of MMPZ reports can be
accessed at http://www.icon.co.zw/mmpz [5]

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