MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE CAMPAIGN PERIOD June 25 – July 5 2018 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This report is produced by Media Monitors under the programme “Support to media on governance and electoral matters in Zimbabwe”. The programme conducted by International Media Support and the Media Alliance of Zimbabwe is funded by the European Union and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. International Media Support (IMS) is a nonprofit organisation working with the media in countries affected by armed conflict, human insecurity and political transition. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of Media Monitors and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union or the Norwegian Ministry of foreign Affairs i Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS........................................................................................... I EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .......................................................................................... III CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND ......................................... 1 1.1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 1 1.2 CONTEXT .......................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER TWO: FAIRNESS AND BALANCE ......................................................... 2 2.1 SPACE AND TIME ALLOCATED TO POLITICAL PARTIES AND CANDIDATES .................. 2 2.2 ANALYSIS OF DIFFERENT MEDIA’S PERFORMANCE IN REPRESENTING POLITICAL PLAYERS................................................................................................................. 7 2.3 TONE OF COVERAGE OF POLITICAL PARTIES ...................................................... 11 2.4.1 NATURE OF WOMEN’S COVERAGE .................................................................. 15 2.5 YOUTH REPRESENTATION IN THE NEWS ............................................................. 16 2.6 ELECTION PROGRMMING - COVERAGE OF POLITICAL PLAYERS IN ELECTION PROGRAMMES IN BROADCAST MEDIA ...................................................................... 17 CHAPTER THREE: THE NEWS AGENDA IN THE ELECTORAL PERIOD ............ 24 3.1 THE ELECTION AGENDA ................................................................................... 24 3.2 ELECTION ADMINISTRATIVE ISSUES COVERED .................................................... 26 3.3 CAMPAIGN NEWS ............................................................................................ 29 CHAPTER FOUR: MEDIA’S CONDUCT IN ELECTION REPORTING .................... 31 4.1 IMBALANCED COVERAGE .................................................................................. 31 4.2 POLARISED NATURE OF MEDIA COVERAGE ......................................................... 31 CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION ............................................................................. 34 ANNEX 1: SAMPLE OF MONITORED MEDIA ............................................................... 35 ANNEX 2: METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................... 36 ANNEX 3: COVERAGE OF ASPIRING NATIONAL ASSEMBLY CANDIDATES ...................... 37 ii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report assesses the media’s performance in the coverage of elections for the ten days between June 25 and July 5. This period followed the announcement of the candidates who had successfully been nominated to run in the July 30 elections. Sixteen national and regional news platforms were monitored. The study assessed the nature of the media’s coverage on Space and time allocated to political parties and candidates The tone of coverage of parties and candidates Gender and youth representation Nature of programming on election issues News media’s election agenda, and The conduct of news media in reporting election related news. The study of this ten-day period concluded that: 1. There continues to be unbalanced coverage of political parties - ZANU PF continues to receive favourable coverage from the media with the party accounting for 46% of all coverage, 76% in the government- controlled newspapers (Chronicle, Herald and The Sunday Mail) and 50% on ZBC stations (ZTV, Classic263 formerly SFM and Radio Zimbabwe). It was also the most covered party in the privately owned press. 2. There has been a further decline in the diversity and plurality of political parties covered by the media. The number of parties covered declined from 45 during the nomination period to 29 in the monitored period. MDC Alliance and ZANU PF maintained a 64% share of the total coverage while the remaining 27 parties (including Independent candidates) were covered in the remaining 36%. 3. Overall, the tone of coverage for most of the political parties was neutral. There were however disparities in the media’s representation of the bigger political parties whose sentiment varied from platform to platform. The ruling party continues to enjoy more positive coverage in the government-controlled media. 4. Representation of women and youths remains significantly low with women making up 17% of all political players covered and youths making up 6%. iii Table 1. Visual summary of key findings Newspapers Broadcasters Research Overall Public Private ZBC National Local variable Commercial Commercial Radio Radio Total number 29 27 22 20 17 13 of parties covered Number of 243 185 103 65 97 candidates covered Space and ZANU PF 46 76 58 50 27 7 time allocated MDC Alliance 18 11 26 8 16 27 to political Independents 15 2 2 1 32 42 parties (%) Others 21 11 14 41 25 24 Gender Men 83 92 94 89 74 65 representation Women 17 8 6 11 26 35 (%) Youth % of youths 6 1 0 0 13 17 representation (%) Elections Campaigns 61 62 48 81 59 52 Agenda (%) Review 1 16 15 6 4 10 Reforms 11 8 14 4 13 10 Training 3 3 0 0 2 5 Planning 2 5 12 8 9 12 Information 9 1 0 0% 2 2 Voter 9 Registration 0 8 1 7 7 Nomination 4 5 2 0 5 2 iv CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND 1.1 Introduction The media’s performance during the monitoring period (June 25 - July 5) showed a challenge in adhering to some stipulations of the Electoral Act particularly requirements for fair, balanced and equitable coverage of political parties and actors. Despite these challenges, there has been a commendable effort by the electronic media platforms to comply with the conditions for election programming stated in SI33 of 2008. In assessing media performance in covering these 10 days, Media Monitors assessed . The level to which the media is fair and balanced in representing political players . The media’s election agenda and what they consider the most important electoral issues . The media’s professional conduct in reporting elections 1.2 Context The report covers developments that occurred in the ten days from the 25th of June to the 5th of July. Below are some of the key events covered: Different stakeholders react to the White City Stadium bombing Incident. ZRP launches an investigation to arrest the perpetrators. The signing of the National Peace Pledge by 20 presidential candidates in order to preserve peace before, during and after elections. ZEC publishes a list of candidates who successfully filed their nomination papers and will be contesting in the July 30 elections. Disputes over the voters roll availed by ZEC, which did not have photographs. Opposition political parties and civic organisations claim they will conduct independent audits of the voters’ roll. The High Court dismisses two applications by Veritas, which sought to be allowed to conduct voter education and to push ZEC to disclose names of security personnel in its secretariat. ZEC and the MDC Alliance reach an impasse over the design of the presidential ballot papers. Civil society organisations report increases in cases of politically motivated violence. 1 CHAPTER TWO: FAIRNESS AND BALANCE 2.1 Space and time allocated to political parties and candidates There has been a significant decline in the plurality of political parties covered in the media. There continues to be a challenge in the equitability of coverage as ZANU PF and MDC Alliance consistently receive significantly more coverage than the other political parties. Political parties A total of 29 political parties were covered in the media during the monitoring period. This marked a 36% decline from the 45 covered during the nomination process. Overall, ZANU PF remains the most prominently featured party, its share of coverage improved slightly from 45% to 46%. MDC Alliance was a distant second with 18% of the coverage. The coverage of independent political actors increased by a point from 14% to 15%. Twenty-seven political parties shared the remaining 21% of the coverage. ZANU PF dominated coverage on three of the five news platforms that were monitored. It was the most visible party in both the private and public newspapers as well as on the ZBC stations. Independent politicians were more prominent on the national and local commercial radio stations. Presidential candidates Of the 23 presidential hopefuls, Emmerson Mnangagwa remained the most visible candidate despite shaving 6% from his publicity. He took up 52% of the time and space allocated to presidential candidates. Nelson Chamisa followed with 12% ahead of Joice Mujuru’s 8%. The remaining 20 candidates combined for 18% of the publicity. National Assembly and provincial councils Overall 212 candidates were covered in all the monitored media platforms. The print media carried more candidates than the electronic media.