ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the media coverage of and the political response to the water shortage which culminated in the end of 1994 and in the first months of 1995. On the contrary, predominantly through the media, political factors worked to create in the public mind a perception that the party-state had done everything in its power to remedy negative consequences of the drought. Experts and journalists tried to write in the media—indirectly and very discreetly using Aesopian language—about such items that those in political power, the totalitarian party, would have preferred to keep invisible for the broader public. Media materials warning the public of certain events were more numerous, especially those publications that informed or interpreted certain problems or groups of problems with respect to the water shortage. The specific interests and attitudes of society were concealed, and even by the media which was under control.
