MEDIA COVERAGE IN ZIMBABWE AHEAD OF THE HARMONISED ELECTIONS In view of Zimbabwe’s 31 July 2013 harmonised elections, the Government of Zimbabwe has taken full responsibility in upholding the principle of fair and equitable access to public media by all contesting political parties. This requirement is also enshrined in the country’s Constitution. Section 61 provides for freedom of expression and freedom of the media while Section 62 encompasses the right to access information. Furthermore, the Constitution provides for respect and tolerance of divergent views. In this regard, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) and its radio and television stations, as well as independent radio stations such as STAR FM and ZiFM, have all provided live and in depth to all political parties during their campaign programmes ahead of the elections. Equally the Zimbabwe Newspapers Group (ZIMPAPERS) has provided enough coverage in the print media. However, despite such efforts, the Movement for Democratic Change-TSVANGIRAI (MDC-T) formation is alleging that they are not receiving enough or equal coverage from ZBC-TV, national radio stations and newspapers such as The Herald. The MDC-T’s argument that these stations and publications favour ZANU PF has also been peddled by Civic Society Organisations (CSOs), such as the Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ) as well as the western media. In this regard, it is important to point out that all political parties have enjoyed fair political coverage from ZBC. The broadcaster has reported on campaign meetings of all the major political parties, that is ZANU (PF), MDC- T and MDC-N. The ZBC has, however, faced some problems in that some of the political parties, such as the MDC-T, have not been submitting their list of programmes to the organisation in time for coverage. ZBC reporters have also been threatened with physical attacks while covering MDC-T meetings. Furthermore, ZBC TV has provided advertisement slots to all political parties during prime viewing times. All the major parties were given thirty minutes slots to launch their manifestos. The national television has also provided for extra slots which political parties can pay for. The adverts are in two categories, the low cost adverts and high costs adverts. In this case, the political parties would only get advertising slots in accordance with their budgets. Since the launch of the campaigning programme, the MDC-T has only managed to pay for the low cost adverts with limited time whereas ZANU PF has paid for high costs adverts with more time. It is also important to note that in terms of the Electoral Act, ZEC is the authority legally mandated to monitor media coverage for political parties during an election period. As such, it is a baseless argument for opposition political parties to blame ZANU PF on the time allocated to them for advertisements. Apart from the television and radio stations, the print media, especially The Herald, has written extensively across the political divide. It should be noted that The Herald and its sister papers are public media listed on the stock exchange, which are not answerable to the government but to its board of directors. It is, therefore, anomalous to call these newspapers “state media”. Ironically, allegations that The Herald is biased in favour of ZANU PF have been carried in the so called private media, such as The Daily News, Newsday, The Sunday Times, The Standard, the Southern Eye and the Financial Gazette, among others, which have a propensity to write negatively against ZANU PF. These so called independent papers have tilted the media environment largely in favour of opposition political parties, mainly the MDC-T, against ZANU PF. It, therefore, remains worrying as to why the MDC-T continues to raise concerns on The Herald coverage of political campaigns, while the same party enjoys overwhelming support and coverage from more than six independent daily papers. In addition to electronic and print media, a host of online internet publications have also become supportive of the MDC-T. These online sites continue to propagate pro-MDC-T propaganda and hate speech, especially against ZANU PF officials and state institutions. Websites such as New Zimbabwe, ZimSituation, Nehanda Radio and Bulawayo 24 have been consistently attacking ZANU PF for a long time. In the same vein, social sites such as Facebook and Twitter are awash with faceless characters that write anti ZANU PF messages. Characters such as Baba Jukwa are enjoying international coverage from the CNN, the BBC and other international media outlets despite peddling falsehoods against ZANU PF officials. Interestingly, the MDC-T has not complained about such diatribe and character assassination by Baba Jukwa, as it is in their favour. Furthermore, the MDC-T has for the past decade enjoyed favourable coverage from pirate radio stations, such as SW Radio Africa and Voice of America Studio Seven. Important to note is that according to the Global Political Agreement (GPA), all political parties agreed to call for the disbandment of these pirate radio stations. However, the MDC-T reneged on this as it enjoys support of the same. Interestingly, a pirate television station was recently launched. The television station, First TV, is reported to be based in South Africa where it beams into Zimbabwe, channelling MDC-T propaganda. All in all, it should be noted that allegations of media bias being peddled by the MDC-T and other opposition political parties are part of the broader attempt to discredit the electoral process. These forces are against the holding of the elections and thus would do anything possible to dishonour the process so as to give credence to their claims that the country was not ready for elections. Such attempts by the opposition forces should also be viewed as part of a strategy to build a case to reject the outcome of the elections if it is not in their favour.
Posted on: Wed, 31 Jul 2013 18:31:08 +0000
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