allocating 62.8% and 64.8%, respectively, of their electoral coverage to the ruling party. While 43.5% of the reports about ZANU-PF in both newspapers were presented in a positive tone, 59.3% of the coverage received by MDC-A in The Herald and The Chronicle portrayed the opposition party in a negative tone16. Such unbalanced reporting also characterised the coverage by private newspapers in favour of MDCAlliance. Some news and opinion articles published by The Herald, The Standard and Newsday on 29 and 30 July violated the campaign silence period. Both ZANU-PF and MDC-A Presidential candidates violated the campaign silence period by sending out campaign messages on 29 July, through Facebook and in the course of a press conference, respectively. ZBC gave the most coverage to political parties as they covered 13 parties overall. Of the parties covered, ZANU PF accounted for 65% of the total time, ahead of Independent political actors and MDC Alliance who were featured in 25% and 6% of the coverage respectively. A closer look at the time allocated to the political parties shows that the coverage was not equitable. The remaining ten parties featured on the stations combined for 4% of the time allocated to political actors. While print and electronic media at national and provincial levels made efforts to provide some coverage to minor parties, ZANU-PF and the MDC-Alliance largely dominated the election-related information presented to voters. In accordance with the Electoral Act, the State broadcaster the ZBC afforded free access to political contestants through various programmes (“The Manifesto”, “The Candidate” and “The Debate”) aired on the State-owned TV and radio stations. Nevertheless, ZBC failed to abide by its legal obligation to ensure equitable and fair treatment of all political parties and candidates in its news and current affairs programmes. According to the European Union Election Observation Mission (EUEOM) preliminary statement, “media operated in a generally free environment, but overwhelming bias in state media meant legal provisions for fair and balanced reporting were not 16 Media Monitors- Zimbabwe, Media coverage of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe, An Assessment of the Medias Coverage of the Electoral Period, 31 May -22 July 2018 http://www.mediamonitors.org.zw/assessment-of-the-medias-coverage-of-the-election-period/ 22