A comparative analysis of the press coverage of the arrest and release of Dr. Kenneth David Kaunda in the Post, Zambia Daily Mail and The Times of Zambia

Abstract

Some people argue that there is a difference in the way the government owned media and the private media report political issues. This study was conducted to determine how the press coverage of Zambia's first, President Dr. Kenneth Kaunda's arrest, detention, trial and subsequent release differed in the government owned Times of Zambia and Zambia Daily Mail and the privately owned The Post newspaper. In conducting the research, first a review of literature was done. The methodology used in the study as well as the results are also given , ending with a discussion. The study found that the type of newspaper , i.e., whether government or privately - owned influenced the nature of coverage of the arrest, detention and release of Dr. Kaunda. This conclusion was reached after analysing a number of variables in the three newspapers under study. The variables included the number of stories favourable to Dr. Kaunda in the three newspapers, number of stories attacking government, types of stories, stories on reactions from the Zambian community on Dr. Kaunda's arrest and release and stories with reactions from the international community. It was found that The Post gave more favourable coverage to Dr. Kaunda than the Times of Zambia and the Zambia Daily Mail. The study also found that The Post carried more stories attacking the government and the ruling MMD compared to the Times of Zambia and the Zambia Daily Mail, thus endorsing the assertion that the type of newspaper influenced the nature of the coverage of Dr. Kaunda's arrest through to his subsequent release. This study concludes that journalists working for the government-owned newspapers are inhibited in their reporting of political issues and usually tend to treat their stories from a government angle.