More on the Media

Earlier I had made a couple of observations on the media. Here is another one. Before that, however, let me comment on another example of gruesome imagery in the media. The other day four construction workers were killed when the building they were working on collapsed. MUVI-TV, and undoubtedly ZNBC (although my family mostly watches MUVI) displayed the pictures of the dead and mutilated bodies lying prone on the ground with their brains dashed all over the ground.

Now for my new observation. The editorial bias of "The Post," the nation's private newspaper is incredibly left wing, at least in international affairs. News from Cuba frequently makes the front page, as did the victory of Hugo Chavez in the recent Venezuelan elections. This was accompanied by an editorial which proclaimed that Zambia should learn from Venezuela and that Chavez's anti-neoliberal agenda was a model for the world to copy. It further proclaimed that Chavez was the only one who could possibly fulfill the hopes of the poor and complete the Bolivarian Revolution. Certainly a different perspective than, let's say, the "National Post" would give.

This is interesting because such a bias is not discernible on Zambian issues and none of the political parties here, with the potential exception of UNIP (the former governing party which is now but a shell of its former self) is particularly socialist. I've read that MMD, the current governing party is supposedly social democratic, but this must just be to be able to put a label on it. Similarly, the second biggest party, the Patriotic Front, may be populist but doesn't adhere to left-right labelling. Unlike in Canada, where one could argue that there is a right-wing, centrist, and left-wing party (whether or not these parties stick to these lines is another matter) there are no such clear distinctions here. From a Western perspective, politics here are not particularly easy to label. I guess that's how a newspaper can on one hand root for Castro and Chavez and then take quite a centrist position on Zambian issues.