One final report to read that has just come out  today is the latest ICG report on Zimbabwe which looks at the transition period that Zimbabwe now faces.  I have to admit that I have not read the full report but I found the  second and third paragraphs from the executive summary quite surprising.

The 29 March 2008 elections have dramatically changed Zimbabwe’s political landscape. For the first time since independence in 1980, Robert Mugabe ran second in the presidential voting, and the opposition – the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) – won control of parliament. The MDC went to the polls deeply divided, but Morgan Tsvangirai and his party regained their authority by winning despite an uneven playing field. Instead of allowing democracy to run its course, Mugabe has fought back by withholding the presidential results for five weeks and launching a countrywide crackdown. Zimbabwe is in constitution­al limbo: it has no elected president or legally con­sti­tu­ted cabinet, parliament has not been convened, and ZANU-PF and the MDC are challenging half the parliamentary results in court. African leaders, with support from the wider international community, must step in to stop the violence and resolve the deepening political crisis, ideally by facilitating an agreement establishing an MDC-led transitional government that avoids the need for the run-off now scheduled for 27 June.

While there is wide agreement in ZANU-PF that its survival now depends on Mugabe’s immediate exit, influential hardliners in the party and military will not simply hand over power to the MDC. They and Mugabe likely manipulated the presidential results to show a run-off was necessary and have put in place a strategy to retain power through force. Since the elections, there has been a sharp increase in state-sponsored violence, as the security services and ZANU-PF militia have unleashed a campaign of intimidation, torture and murder against opposition activists, journalists, polling agents, public servants, civic leaders and ordinary citizens suspected of voting for the MDC. The opposi­tion says that at least 43 of its members have been killed and thousands displaced in the violence. Zimbabwe’s transition to democracy is being held hostage.

Both these sites are mouthpieces for the Zanu PF government and it is therefore a little difficult not to feel that these sites deserved to be hit in this way.

A few weeks ago I looked at the coverage of Zimbawe in the US media through the PEW Research site. Since then in the week April 14th – 20th it was just the 7th story online. from April 21st – 27th it was overall the eighth story with two percent of coverage, and fourth and third in the newspapers and online respectively. From 28th April -5th May the story was not in any of the top tens. I am sure that there is a site which provides this sort of coverage for the British, dare I say it even the european media, but as yet I have not found one that does not require a subscription.

Does anyone know of one?

A lonely and conquite controversial article on the western liberal media coverage of Zimbabwe from the zimbabwe guardian, you can make of it what oyu will.

I know that i have mentioned it here before but the MMPZ site is very interesting for giving a breakdown of the media coverage afforded to each party over the period of the election.

This commentary is lifted directly from their site

Weekly Media Update #2008–11

MMPZ condemns ZANU PF’s efforts to position the state media as exclusive campaign tools for President Mugabe ahead of his contest with MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai in the presidential election run-off set to be held by July 31st this year. Both the official and private media reported Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu demanding total monopoly by government of Zimbabwe’s only state radios and TV station during a meeting with the ZBH board. Reportedly, Ndlovu tasked the board to review all programming to include more content discrediting the opposition and extolling Mugabe and ZANU PF. He also implored Zimbabweans to listen to the government-run propagandist news radio station, Voice of Zimbabwe, based in Gweru, rather than alternative independent radio stations broadcasting into Zimbabwe from abroad.

This crude attempt to impose a tyranny of thought upon the nation has been reinforced by the recent arrest of private and international media workers and members of civil society. Such action represents yet another assault on Zimbabweans’ constitutionally guaranteed rights to freedom of expression and choice, and illustrates the authorities’ blatant contempt for the country’s electoral laws that demand equitable media coverage of all contestants during an election. As the main instruments of the authorities’ attempts to brainwash the nation, the government controlled media have forsaken any claim they may once have had to being media outlets, substituting news for unadulterated propaganda that promotes intolerance, hatred, fear and confusion.

New York Times reporter Barry Bearak and Steven Bevan from the Sunday Telegraph, who were arrested for covering the elections in Zimbabwe without government permission were deported last month.

The Times Africa correspondent, Jonathan Clayton, was deported after being held for eight days. He was eventually deported after paying a fine of approximately £125, having been cleared of falsifying immigration papers but guilty of lying to security officials. The times reports that unlike Bearak and Bevan, Clayton had not been working as a journalist when he was arrested.

zimbabwe independent article on press freedom

Whilst looking for sites which give access to news from Zimbabwe I came across Nehanda radio. It seems to be broadcasting from inside Zimbabwe, but is very critical of the present government and how the election was run or ‘stolen’. As often I cannot understand everything that is being said on the radio but I can see from their site that they ‘aim to provide breaking news as it happens either on the site (or on the) broadcasts’.

Unfortunately for the next week, 7th – 14th April Zimbabwe did not make the top ten in any sector.  I will try to come back to this to see if there is more coverage later, if things happen.

Also VOA article and radio interviews with Bright Matonga, the deputy information minister and Tendai Biti, the MDC spokesman

Interestingly looking around the literature on malaria at tme moment there seems to be a leaning towards discussion of malaria eradication as opposed to simply malaria treatment.  Through the massive use of benets, and quality treatment and diagnosis they are saying that malaria could be eradicated from areas where it is now endemic.

This is a piece i wrote for the Scotland on Sunday

World Malaria Day is on 25th April.