State media steps up anti-PM vitriol

Breaking commitments given by President Robert Mugabe to Southern Africa Development Community leaders to allow Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC equal access on all public media, Zanu (PF) has transformed its extensive state media empire into a ferocious propaganda tool against his opponent.

The television arm of state-run Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) has been devoting hours and hours of airtime on its daily one-hour news bulletins to covering the frail Mugabes long speeches, all of which are a vitriolic attack on Tsvangirai and his MDC. And the gushing praises of Mugabe, who his cronies has variously described as “Cremora” or

“syrup”, is reaching fever pitch.

The downside to the sycophantic bootlicking is a sharp drop in viewership, with most viewers turning to free-to-air TV.

Mugabe variously calls Tsvangirai a sell-out, a stooge of Britain and the whites, and a thoroughly evil man.

In a well-orchestrated campaign, ZBC reporters repeatedly distort Tsvangirais speeches on the few occasions they cover his meetings, saying he is making a U-turn on key policies such as empowerment and sanctions. It describes the MDC as “prevaricating” and “unprincipled stooge.”

Zimbabwes sole broadcaster repeatedly plays down Tsvangirais well-attended rallies, often showing only close-up pictures of a handful supporters instead of the large crowds at the rallies. The broadcaster has been regurgitating a video of violence that erupted in the lead-in to the MDC congress held in Bulawayo last month. And the video has been used as basis to whitewash Zanu (PF)’s appalling record on violence.

At a recent well-attended MDC rally, ZBCs cameras only showed Tsvangirai delivering his speech and a few faces, most of them white, to reinforce Mugabes campaign charge that the opposition leader is a front for whites.

In contrast, the corporations cameras always seek to give a false impression that large crowds attend Mugabes rallies by taking long-distance pictures of a small crowd deliberately spread over a large area.

In other instances, ZBCs news items lead with the governments response to MDC-linked events which the broadcaster would not have previously reported on.

Among the pledges made by Mugabe to fellow SADC leaders at a recent summit in Livingstone was that he would allow the ZBC and the government-owned newspapers to give equal coverage to his Zanu (PF) party and the MDC.

Rupiah Banda, the SADC Troika chairman and Zambia’s President, at that time told skeptical scribes he was confident Mugabe would make good his promises because of the assurance he had given.

The state-owned newspapers, led by the national daily Herald, have instead maintained a steady campaign to deliberately tarnish the image of the MDC and its leader, often accusing Tsvangirai of seeking to install a puppet government of rich Western countries.