Mangwana Gives Corruption A Thumbs Up

By Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe
During the week acting Information Minister Paul Mangwana repeated his predecessors’ claims that stories reflecting badly on government or the ruling party are fabrications by “some sections of the media”. The Herald (5/12) passively reported him denying that the ruling party was riddled with in-fighting in Masvingo saying such reports were a result of an “entrenched tendency to manufacture news” by journalists who were misinterpreting “differences of opinion as factionalism”.
He then provided a distorted perspective of the role the media should play in society, reiterating government’s own narrow view that journalists should be “patriotic and nationalistic” in the execution of their duty.

ZANU PF MP Walter Mzembi expanded on this wilful misconception of the media’s obligations saying they were “duty-bound to articulate the Zimbabwean story”, which “will never be complete without the portrayal of President Mugabe as a hero with the interests of his country at heart”. This dogmatic view found further expression in Mangwana’s criticism of the private media’s attempts to expose details of the alleged involvement of government officials in the Ziscosteel (Zisco) corruption scandal, which the authorities have tried to conceal. He dismissed the private media’s revelations, telling The Herald (25/11) that the media were “scoring cheap political points” by focussing on “red herring cases” such as “hotel bookings…whose dinner was paid for, who was given a ticket, which companies buy for officials who will be visiting them”. All these issues, he claimed, “do not help the country at all” but are meant to shift public attention from “the correct focus”, that is “instances of corruption by management.”
Such deceit went unchallenged.

For instance, the paper did not ask him why he believed the alleged pillaging of Zisco funds by government ministers on missions that were not related to the company was irrelevant and not newsworthy. Only the Zimbabwe Independent (1/12) subjected his dishonesty to scrutiny. It wondered if there will ever be “a probe into the issue” when Mangwana, who is also the anti-corruption minister, “describes pillaging of public funds and key leads into possibly deep-rooted corruption as non-issues”.

2. Unprofessional conduct
IN recent days the official media reinforced its reputation for being a source of unreliable information by a number of false reports, including “news” that a Chinese company was about to buy a majority shareholding in the financially-troubled steel-making giant, Zisco; that South Africa had relaxed its stringent visa requirements for Zimbabweans; and that private schools had “lost” their bid to increase school fees. Besides misrepresenting facts on these matters, they also censored stories that reflected badly on government or the ruling party, such as fresh reports of human rights violations during the week and breaking news about former Information Minister Jonathan Moyo’s defamation lawsuit.
Only those who accessed the private media had the privilege of getting accurate information about these issues.

a. Distortions and misrepresentations
As the week opened, The Herald and Chronicle (27/11) announced that the Metallurgical Corporation of China (MCC) had “put a US$3 billion bid for a 60 percent stake in Ziscosteel” following a “meeting held between the Government of Zimbabwe and MCC officials in October”. The paper quoted Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to China Christopher Mutsvangwa confirming the “investment deal” saying the Chinese company was “very serious about the bid” and was “ready to move in as soon as the deal is agreed to” by government. Spot FM (27/11, 8am) carried a similar report claiming the alleged takeover would restore Zisco status “as the biggest steel manufacturer in Africa south of the Sahara.”

However, the next day Reuters, in a story that appeared on ZWNews, reported MCC officials denying the claims saying the company had not bid for a majority stake in Zisco.
One of the unnamed officials told the agency: “There’s no such thing. We haven’t bid for it at all”. Although The Financial Gazette (30/11) also reported the MCC denying making moves for Zisco, it unprofessionally presented the report as their own and failed to acknowledge Reuters as the original source of the story. Despite the denial, the government media made no visible effort to correct its original story.

Such unprofessional journalistic conduct was also apparent in the manner in which they handled debate on South African visa requirements. For instance, although The Herald (29/11) reported the SA embassy refuting claims that its government had relaxed “stringent visa requirements for Zimbabweans”, it did not categorically explain that this was in response to misleading reports carried in the official media quoting Zimbabwe government officials stating that SA had agreed to waive the visa conditions for the time being. Instead, it merely attributed the distortion to SA Defence Minister Mosioua Lekota, whom it said, had told “reporters in Victoria Falls last week” that his country had “temporarily scrapped” the requirements. ZTV and Radio Zimbabwe simply ignored the SA government’s statement clarifying the matter.

Earlier, The Herald (28/11) continued to misrepresent the implications of last week’s ruling in a case in which the Association of Trust Schools (ATS) sought the court’s intervention to increase fees after government barred it from doing so.
Instead of openly informing its readers that the judgement on the matter was only temporary as Justice Antonia Guvava had ordered private schools to first “exhaust all…channels” available to them under the Education Act before seeking the court’s intervention, the paper maintained that the ATS had “lost” its case. It was such distortions that prompted Muchraker, the Zimbabwe Independent columnist to note that a “‘believe it at own risk’ caveat would help Herald readers”, adding that “luckily” for the paper “when such things happen (Media and Information Commission chairman) Tafataona Mahoso conveniently goes deaf and mute”.

b. Omissions and censorship
The official media also censored news stories or simply omitted important detail in the contemporary stories they did carry. Their coverage of the defamation case in which Moyo is suing senior ZANU PF officials John Nkomo and Dumiso Dabengwa for libel is a case in point. For example, while the Chronicle did report on the court proceedings, The Herald and ZBC simply suppressed the developments. Even then, the Chronicle censored detail that cast the ruling party in a bad light. For example, it (28-30/11) suffocated Nkomo’s evidence that attempts in 2004 by Moyo and other ZANU PF members to oust Vice-President Joseph Msika from the party’s leadership would have split the ruling party. This only appeared in the private media.
The Financial Gazette (30/11), for example, reported Nkomo as having told the court that the removal of Msika would have ended the “fragile unity achieved when the unity accord was signed in 1987” because “there could not be any unity without (him)”.

The government media also censored additional human rights violations during the week. Again these only featured in the private media, which carried 11 reports on the matter. Of these, five were new abuses while the rest were follow-up reports on previous rights violations. The incidents included the arrest and assault of civic activists and artists, the break-up of students’ meetings by the police, farm invasions and the use of the youth militia to enforce price controls. The Gazette revealed that it was due to such violations that the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak “could visit Zimbabwe in the new year” to assess the situation on the ground.

c. Poor news management
Apart from censoring and misrepresenting important stories, ZBC also displayed poor news management during the week. Its evening bulletins of November 28th epitomised the broadcaster’s dismal journalistic standards. For example, ZTV (28/11, 6pm) claimed that 150 Air Force of Zimbabwe officers were benefiting from a poultry project Vice-President Joice Mujuru had started in Manyame. However, an officer the station quoted complained that the project had stalled due to lack of chicks and stockfeed. In its 8pm bulletin, the station’s reporter Reuben Barwe used standard diplomatic etiquette to gloss over the country’s isolation. He deceitfully interpreted the normal presentation of credentials to President Mugabe by incoming French and Kenyan ambassadors to mean that Zimbabwe “still has many friends out there who recognise her strategic position on the African continent.”

That same evening, ZTV and Radio Zimbabwe passively reported Education Minister Aeneas Chigwedere announcing that as from January 2007 all schools would be required to teach both Shona and Ndebele. The stations did not ask how the schools were expected to implement the policy when – by the minister’s own admission – there was a lack of Ndebele teachers in Shona-speaking areas. Instead, the next morning ZTV falsely claimed that ATS chairman Jameson Timba had welcomed the minister’s decree “as a noble idea that promotes unity” when he actually opposed the policy saying it was virtually impossible to implement.

3. Economic fantasy
THE official media’s blind endorsement of government policies manifested itself in 104 stories they carried on the 2007 national Budget. Of these, 24 appeared in the government Press while ZBC aired 80. Almost all the stories passively presented Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa’s pronouncements as reflective of the authorities’ commitment to revive the country’s ailing economy and thereby ease Zimbabweans’ economic hardships. None of the reports reconciled his positive forecasts for economic growth with previous unrealistically optimistic projections. Neither did they link his predictions with the continued economic decline characterised by crippling foreign currency shortages, shrinking industrial productivity, rising unemployment and the galloping cost of living. Nor did they query how government would finance the huge budget deficit or discuss how the widening of tax bands would affect government’s revenue base.

For example, all ZBC stations (30/11, 8pm) hailed the budget as “people-oriented” and “aimed at, among other things, stabilising prices, enhancing economic growth and job creation” without explaining how. Instead, ZTV reporter Douglas Rinomhota simply claimed: “Year 2007 is being seen as a turning point in the country’s fortunes.” To promote the budget as generally popular, ZTV (30/11, 6pm) quoted four ZANU PF MPs unquestioningly endorsing it. Comments by MDC MP Innocent Gonese were then abruptly cut before he could sensibly express his views on Murerwa’s financial statement.

The government controlled papers adopted a similar slant. For example, The Herald and Chronicle (1/12) simplistically celebrated the increase in tax–free threshold from $20 000 to $100 000 saying “hard-pressed workers will now have reason to smile again” as “more money” had been injected “into their pockets”. Without fully discussing the new threshold in view of the hyperinflationary environment, The Herald (2/12) passively reported “analysts” as having hailed the budget claiming it would “pull the economy from the current murky waters, leading to a recovery path”.

The official media’s reluctance to question government policies resulted in them turning a blind eye to the negative effects of jailing business executives accused of increasing commodity prices without government approval (ZBC, 30/11, 8pm and The Herald and Chronicle 1/12). Neither did they link their 51 stories on symptoms of economic distress (ZBH [28] and official Press [23]) to government policies.
Although their sourcing patterns appeared diverse as shown in Figs 1 and 2, comments by those outside government were either drowned in these media’s celebratory tone or were used to blindly endorse Murerwa’s statement.

In contrast, the private media were unimpressed by the budget. Almost all their 40 stories on the subject (private papers [26] and private electronic media [14]) dismissed the minister’s positive projections as unrealistic, noting that he had not provided any solutions to the country’s myriad economic problems.
The Zimbabwe Independent (1/12), for example, viewed the budget as “a classic soap opera”, whose “episodic work of fiction” left “stakeholders in shock and awe, and…frightened of a gloomy future”. It noted that while Murerwa predicted some economic growth in 2007, the government had failed to meet almost all the targets he had set in last year’s Budget. The Sunday Mirror (3/12) agreed. It quoted economists describing the Budget as a “damp squib” saying the widening of tax bands would only provide temporary relief for workers because “the benefits will be eroded by inflation”. The Standard (3/12) and all the 12 stories the private electronic media carried on the matter echoed similar views. New Zimbabwe.com (1/12), for instance, dismissed the Budget, arguing that while Murerwa pinned his hopes of economic growth on increased agricultural productivity, he had allocated relatively less resources to the agricultural ministry, preferring to give a significant amount to state security.

It was in this context that MDC official Tendai Biti, in a statement carried by the agency (2/12), viewed the Budget as indicative of “the mediocrity, dishonesty and bankruptcy of ideas of the Zanu PF regime”, adding that the “economic crisis arresting Zimbabwe is structural and cannot be treated by cosmetic, populist (and) recycled measures”.

The private media’s critical approach was reflected by the private papers’ attempts to balance official comment with alternative views.
Edited.