HARARE – A new report by Media Monitors (MM) has shown that the state media is still mainly heavily tilted in favour of Zanu PF in terms of its coverage.
The report which covered the period between February 11 and 24, as a sample of the first quarter of the year 2018 statistics showed that out of a total of 7 681 seconds which were dedicated to coverage of political actors on Zimbabwe Television, 87% was awarded to Zanu PF and only 12% to MDC- T.
The report also stated that the privately-owned media mostly gave space to politicians from the opposition party.
“Political actors from Zanu PF and MDC T were prominently featured in the Press, with the late MDC- T leader Morgan Tsvangirai receiving the most coverage in six of the seven newspapers that were monitored,” MM said.
“Politicians from the ruling party were covered more in the government-controlled newspapers, whilst those from the opposition were featured more in the privately-owned press.”
The report said women still received little coverage.
“The gender dynamics were also problematic as the research noted that women political actors continue to be underrepresented in the media.
They made up 16% of the space and time dedicated to political actors in the media while men accounted for 84% of the coverage,” read the report.
As to date according to the report, the two largest political parties Zanu PF and MDC-T receive the majority of the coverage, with 94% of all news and current affairs programming on elections focusing on the two parties while 6% was dedicated to coverage of the other 15 parties.
