rm coverage, presenting this as perfectly normal.
The media watchdog, Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ) in its weekly report covering Dec. 5 – Dec. 11 noted that the private media presented the seizures as part of a continuing effort to “curtail Zimbabweans’ rights to freedom of movement and a blatant attempt to gag dissenting voices.”
SW Radio Africa and The Standard reported that the first two victims – publisher Trevor Ncube, who subsequently got his passport back, and Paul Themba Nyathi of the MDC – were on a list of 64 targeted individuals. The Daily Mirror and Studio 7 said that, in addition, the Zanu-PF Central Committee wants the regime to silence outspoken NGOs, including the National Constitutional Assembly, Women of Zimbabwe Arise and Bulawayo Agenda.
The Herald, naturally, approved of the seizures, and for good measure added menace. Its faceless columnist Nathaniel Manheru said that while Ncube would probably get his passport back, he would feel “the chill, certainly on behalf of those of his ilk who may have to turn themselves into foreigners, suffer travel restrictions they invited for others, or simply shut up.”
The visit of UN envoy Jan Egeland and his forthright criticisms of the humanitarian crisis triggered by Operation Murambatsvina gave the state media some problems – but they rose to the occasion with a mixture of lopsided coverage and lies.
The MMPZ said, for example, that when the UN envoy disagreed with Robert Mugabe over tents the UN intended to provide for victims now living in the open air, ZTV “tried to criminalise Egeland’s meeting with civic society representatives.” It said he had held “private marathon meetings” with church leader. The Chronicle was also upset that Egeland insisted on speaking to people privately.
As the hostility rose, The Herald and The Chronicle passively reported Mugabe calling Egeland a “hypocrite and liar” and threatening to bar further visits by envoys who were not the UN Secretary-General’s “own”, but “agents of the British.”
Again, the private media handled the story far more professionally. The MMPZ said there was clear coverage of Egeland’s concerns about the humanitarian crisis. The Gazette also noted that Mugabe wrongfully charged Egeland with waiting until he had left before saying “nasty things” about the regime. He had actually said them while in the country.
The country’s economic crisis, the hyperinflation, shortages and the rest were covered by the state-run media in isolation instead of being part of the general mismanagement, along with treating meaningless rhetoric from Mugabe and his officials as if this were a solution.
The MMPZ cited, for example, ZTV and Radio Zimbabwe quoting Zanu (PF) MPs as saying Mugabe’s State of the Nation address “set the tone for social, political and economic development.”
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