The Media Environment Leading up to Zimbabwe's 2008 Elections

Andrew Moyse 3 The Media Environment Leading up to Zimbabwe’s 2008 Elections Andrew Moyse Introduction Ever since the birth of meaningful political opposition to the ruling ZANU(PF) party in Zimbabwe, elections have become a battleground. The political struggle of the newly formed MDC and civil society against the political hegemony of ZANU(PF) initially manifested itself in the Con- stitutional Referendum of February 2000, which witnessed the first and only official polling defeat for ZANU(PF) – prior to the 29 March harmonized elections of 2008. In that referendum Zimbabweans resoundingly rejected a draft constitution presented by the government that proposed to extend the Executive’s authoritarian grip on power. But this singular electoral victory for the people of Zimbabwe proved to be an unimaginably costly rebellion against the authority of the ruling party. With a parliamentary election less than four months away – in June of that year – extreme and repressive measures were taken by the ZANU(PF) government to assure electoral victory and to ensure that a defeat at the polls would never happen again. The result has been a relentless crack- down on Zimbabweans’ civil and political liberties to an extent that now only a small vestige of that democratic space remains. Among the greatest casualties has been Zimbabweans’ constitution- ally guaranteed right to freedom of expression and their subsidiary rights to receive and impart information without hindrance. In many ways the constitutional referendum of 2000 defined the nature of today’s media landscape, as civil society, in collaboration with the independent press, and particularly the relatively new Daily News, overcame a tidal wave of propaganda in the government-controlled media campaigning for accept- ance of the draft constitution. An ironic consequence of that referendum result was that it not only 43 The Media Environment Leading Up TO Zimbabwe’S 2008 Elections provided government with a useful tool to measure increasing public resentment to its rule, a timely warning of the drastic action that it would need to take to retain power – it also allowed government to identify the most dangerous threats to its political survival: a vibrant civil society which had just given birth to a massively popular political opposition – and an increasingly effective private media. A nation deprived Apart from the country’s pending total economic collapse (see Chapter 1) that crippled the operations of most domestic media institutions and the capacity of the public to access them, a host of blatantly unconstitutional and repressive laws were enacted that effectively emasculated the independent media and deprived the nation of its rights to freedom of expression, including the right to be informed. At least four newspapers were closed under these laws and scores of journalists harassed, arrested, detained and thrown out of work. One was even murdered.1 At the same time, the government hijacked the national public broadcasting corporation (ZBC) and used it relentlessly to disseminate propaganda discrediting the opposition and enhancing the image of the ruling party. Despite the fact that the Supreme Court declared ZBC’s monopoly of the airwaves unconstitutional more than nine years ago,2 government has not permitted any independent electronic media organizations to operate. The Broadcasting Services Act3 (BSA) ostensibly allows for other broadcasting entities. But despite the fact that the Supreme Court struck down the monopoly on radio and television broadcasting held by ZBC, the BSA con- tains so many restrictive clauses that it is virtually impossible for private investors to establish independent broadcasting companies. Today, ZBC still enjoys a de facto monopoly of the airwaves, which ZANU- (PF) has relentlessly exploited to malign the political opposition and its critics, particularly at election time. Although the Broadcasting Authority of Zimba- bwe went through the motion of inviting applications for more broadcasters more than four years ago, none of the applications were ever approved.4 The extent of this bias is well illustrated in the following statistics com- piled by the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe of the coverage of the 1 The battered body of retired ZBC cameraman, Edward Chikomba, was found dumped in a bush near Darwendale. The discovery was first reported by Zim Online on 05/04/07. 2 Capital Radio (Private) Limited v. Minister of Information, Posts and Tele- communications, Judgment No. S.C. 99/2000, Constit. Application No. 130/00. 3 Chapter 10:26. 4 The Herald (29/04/05) reported BAZ acting chairman Pikirayi Deketeke announcing that it had turned down all applications for radio broadcasting licences because the applicants all ‘failed to meet the requirements of the Broadcasting Services Act’. Although there was some debate about the Munhumutapa African Broadcasting Company owned by James Makamba, which had applied for a television licence, it too was turned down ‘because the applicant had failed to demonstrate that it had the funds to operate a television station’ (Zimbabwe Independent (16 September 2005). 44 Andrew Moyse ZTV: Distribution of political party voices (8-28 March) No. of stories Political Party Figure 1 political contestants by the ZBC in the last three weeks of the election campaign leading up to polling day for the 29 March harmonized elections. ZBC election campaign coverage, 8-28 March 2008 Despite ZBC’s publicized promise to abide by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s (ZEC) media regulations (see below) demanding fair, equi- table and accurate coverage of the contestants in the 21 days ahead of the March election, its coverage of the contesting parties showed a complete disregard for these provisions. For example, out of the 153 stories ZTV (Zimbabwe’s sole television station) devoted to the parties’ campaigns in the three weeks before the poll, 122 (80%) were allocated ZANU(PF) and nineteen (12%) to the two MDC factions. Former Finance Minister Simba Makoni’s Mavambo project was given ten stories or (7%) and the small parties were covered in two reports (1%) (Figure 1). ZTV’s sourcing pattern also reflected its overwhelming pro-ZANU(PF) slant. Of the 148 voices from the contesting parties, 127 (86%) were ZANU(PF) and only eight (5%) were MDC. This is despite the fact that the party was contesting almost all the constituencies that ZANU(PF) was. Mavambo was quoted nine times (6%), while small parties were cited four times (3%) (Figure 2). It adopted a similar trend in its coverage of the presidential candidates’ 45 The Media Environment Leading Up TO Zimbabwe’S 2008 Elections ZTV: Distribution of political party voices (8-28 March) Voices Political Party Figure 2 Figure 3 ZTV: Presidential candidates as sources of information (8-28 March) Voices Candidates 46 Andrew Moyse Radio Zim & Spot FM: Distribution of campaign stories (8-28 March) No. of stories Political Party Figure 4 voices. Robert Mugabe was cited 47 times (69%) out of the 68 presidential voices the station quoted, while his two rivals shared the remaining 31% between them: Morgan Tsvangirai twelve voices (18%) and Makoni nine (13%). The other presidential candidate, Langton Towungana, was not quoted (Figure 3). ZBC’s two main domestic radio stations also displayed their contempt for the ZEC’s regulations governing media coverage of political parties and their contestants. Out of 131 campaign stories Radio Zimbabwe aired in the 21 days ahead of the elections, 110 (84%) were on ZANU(PF) while only thirteen (10%) were on the MDC. Mavambo was covered six times (5%), while two stories (1%) were devoted to minor parties. Spot FM’s coverage was similar. Of the 198 campaign stories it broadcast in the same period, 168 (85%) were on ZANU(PF) and the rest (15%) on the MDC and other contestants. Of these, 22 (11%) were on the MDC, seven (3%) on Mavambo and only one per cent on other small parties. Almost all the stories on the MDC and Mavambo were either brief pieces on the parties’ activities buried in the bulletins or were reported in the context of discrediting their policies and their leaders (Figure 4). The stations’ disproportionate coverage of the parties in its bulletins was also reflected by the sources they cited in their news reports. For instance, of the 91 political parties’ voices cited by Radio Zimbabwe, 73 (82%) were ZANU(PF), twelve (13%) the two MDC formations and four (5%) minor parties. None were Mavambo. Likewise, there were no Mavambo voices out of the 127 political parties’ sources cited by Spot FM. Of these, 114 (90%) were ZANU(PF) and only twelve (9%) were from the two MDCs. 47 The Media Environment Leading Up TO Zimbabwe’S 2008 Elections Radio Zim & Spot FM: Distribution of political party voices (8-28 March) Voices Political Party Figure 5 Figure 6 Radio Zim & Spot FM: Presidential candidates as soures of information (8-28 March) Voices Candidates 48 Andrew Moyse The other opposition parties were quoted once (Figure 5). Their unbalanced sourcing was also extended to their coverage of the presidential candidates. Mugabe’s voice constituted 80% of the 62 presidential voices Radio Zimbabwe cited against six (10%) each for his rivals Tsvangirai and Makoni. Towungana was not quoted. On Spot FM, Mugabe was cited 44 times (83%) out of the 53 presidential voices the station car- ried, while Tsvangirai was cited four times (8%) and Makoni six times (9%). To make matters worse, Mugabe’s opponents were hardly given sound bites but had their campaign statements recounted by the broad- caster’s reporters, who then negatively qualified them (Figure 6). Such open support for ZANU(PF) and its presidential candidate also resulted in ZTV giving more airtime to ZANU(PF)’s electoral preparations in its news bulletins. For example, of the nine hours and twenty minutes ZTV devoted to reporting the parties’ campaign activities in its main news bulletins (7 a.m., 6 p.m.

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