The role of the media in fostering democracy in Zimbabwe

Mungoshi, Ray

The role of the media in fostering democracy in Zimbabwe

Thesis / Dissertation

2009

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Democratic Governance and Rights Unit

Faculty

Faculty of Law

Abstract

Since 2000, Zimbabwe's ruling party, the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (Zanu PF) has methodically stifled democracy in the country by compromising the independence of the judiciary, the professionalism of the police; and intimidating the media. Over the last decade, the party has rid both the state media and the judiciary of impartial journalists and judges, and filled these institutions with its followers. The party purchases its supporters loyalty with presents of farms, expensive vehicles and scarce accoutrements of the consumer society. These material inducements have assisted Zanu-PF to drill an inequitable partisanship into the obsequious state media and instruct journalists to blackout opposition politicians to stymie resistance to its hegemony.