ZBC’S Coverage of the 2008 Elections vis-à-vis the SADC Principles and Guidelines

COMMENTARY

With the campaign period over, this week we take a critical look at whether the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation has been able to operate in line with the SADC Guidelines and Principles governing the exercise of Free and Fair elections. As we observe in this perspective, the sole national broadcaster failed to meet expectations insofar as its coverage of the pre-election period is concerned.
Granting Equal Access to contestants
The SADC Principles and Guidelines require that contestants in elections be given equal access to the media during election campaigns. This, as the SADC Observer Mission for the March 29 2008 harmonised elections rightly observed, has not been the case. ZBC’s coverage was heavily biased towards President Robert Mugabe and his fellow ruling party contestants.
Discrimination on gender lines
As MISA- Zimbabwe observed in the previous’ weeks’ comments, there was serious gender discrimination in ZBC’s coverage of women candidates. While women candidates belonging to the ruling party got some token coverage from the national broadcaster, those belonging to the opposition were largely ignored.
ZANU PF propaganda in ZBC Talk shows and debates
It is noted that ZBC broadcast a number of television debates which featured representatives from both the ruling party and the opposition. The prospects of ZTV becoming a critical public sphere debate platform were, however, largely diminished as talk show hosts from the ZBC turned into an extension of the ruling party’s campaign machinery. Notably, Happison Muchechetere, seemed to be extracting from the ZANU PF propaganda template when he persistently and avidly accused panellists from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) of having brought sanctions to Zimbabwe.
Unbalanced stories
With reference to the story flighted on ZBC this past week relating to the helicopter that the MDC allegedly brought in from South Africa for purposes of flying its leader to address rallies around the country; ZBC, in yet another breach of basic journalistic ethics chose not to present the MDC’s side of the story. On the ZTV morning news of Friday, April 28, the national broadcaster carried a story alleging that the helicopter’s pilot was engaged in fraudulent activities. There is not much detail presented with the regards to the nature of the alleged fraud. In another dimension of the same story, President Mugabe is granted an interview in which he accuses the MDC of having caused a serious threat to national security by bringing in the helicopter.
Reclaiming the public broadcaster
As seen through the above observations, ZBC failed to meet the SADC principles guiding the exercise of free and fair elections. The broadcaster also acted in breach of journalistic ethics as shown by biased reportage. It is necessary that this sole national broadcaster be reoriented to become a public broadcaster that thrives on objective, balanced and fair reportage.