Long Arm of the Government Threatens Media in Zimbabwe

International Herald tribune – May 2, 2005

Robyn Curnow

Zimbabwe holds the dubious distinction of being one of the worst places in the world to be a journalist.

That "honor" was bestowed on the country by the Committee to Protect Journalists, a U.S.-based organization that promotes freedom of the press. For 2004, Zimbabwe placed third on the list, behind Iraq and Cuba.

With the exception of two weeklies, The Standard and The Independent, all newspapers, radio and television stations in Zimbabwe are government-controlled. The popular independent daily newspaper The Daily News, which had the largest circulation of any paper in the country, was forced to close in 2003.

Since 2002, it has become a criminal offense to practice journalism without a license, granted - and revoked - at the discretion of the government-controlled Media and Information Commission.

For many in Zimbabwe's press corps, losing the license is just one threat; the possibility of arrest, beatings and intimidation is also ever present. Authorities are quick to harass journalists who report what the state calls "lies" about human rights abuses, economic ills or the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change.

These are just some of the abuses highlighted by the International Press Institute, a global network of editors, journalists and media executives. The institute has Zimbabwe on a watch list for violating press freedoms.

Even foreign media organizations have been hounded out of the country. In February, reporters for The Associated Press, The Times of London and Bloomberg News fled the country. They feared they would be jailed after being subjected to hours of harassment and what one of the correspondents described as "not-so-veiled threats." All three are Zimbabwean citizens.

And for non-Zimbabwean reporters who think they can slip into the country on a tourist visa, the prospect of spending as much as two years in a Zimbabwean jail makes many think again.

In April, two British journalists from The Sunday Telegraph were freed after spending 10 days in a squalid Harare jail. They were acquitted after the state failed to prove they had been working as journalists before the March 31 elections.

The legislative backbone behind the muzzling of the media in Zimbabwe is the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, which was tightened in 2004, and the Criminal (Codification and Reform) Act, which calls for 20 years' imprisonment and/or heavy fines for those who publish "false" information about the state. Dozens of journalists have been detained and harassed under these laws, but none have been convicted.

The result of this sustained assault on press freedoms is that Zimbabwe's free media now operate outside the country's borders.

The Zimbabwean newspaper and SW Radio Africa are two media outlets that have decamped to Britain. On the other side of the Atlantic, Voice of America's Studio 7 station has broadcasts to Zimbabwe in the mornings and evenings and on weekends.

Studio 7 is aired in Shona, Ndebele and English, the main languages spoken in Zimbabwe.

Studio 7 was introduced in 2003 and is based in Washington. SW Radio Africa has been up and running since 2001 and is based in London. The Zimbabwean was started in February and is based in Southampton, England.

These outlets have all found innovative ways around the Zimbabwean government's restrictive laws.

The Zimbabwean, a weekly tabloid, is edited and printed in London. Currently 50,000 copies are distributed every Thursday in South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe.

The editor, Wilf Mbanga, said the paper was allowed to distribute in Zimbabwe because of a loophole in the Access to Information and Privacy Act: because it is published and printed outside the country, The Zimbabwean and its journalists, based both inside and outside the country, do not have to be accredited.

Mbanga said distributing as an international publication was, for now, one of the few ways to dodge the media laws, which he says are "used to deny information, not protect it." It is a strategy that Mbanga said was working; growing numbers of Zimbabweans are reading his weekly.

Of the 50,000 copies printed, 40,000 are sold to the Zimbabwean diaspora, who live mainly in South Africa, Botswana and Britain. The other 10,000 copies are flown to Zimbabwe each week and sold at stores and street vendors across the country, alongside the state-run newspapers, The Herald and The Chronicle. The price per copy is 4,000 Zimbabwean dollars, or 68 cents at the official exchange rate.

Mbanga said the newspapers were selling - and reselling. "People are buying a copy for 4,000 Zimbabwe dollars, reading it and then selling it for 5,000 dollars. You can't give it away. It's gold," he said with a chuckle.

Further proof of the newspaper's success, Mbanga said, is the negative response he and the paper have received from the Media and Information Commission.

"They've denounced us," Mbanga said gleefully. "They've issued statements saying I am Blair's puppet and receiving slush funds from America," he said, referring to Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain.

But Mbanga points out that those helping him to "tell the truth" are not the British or American governments. The Zimbabwean is funded by three Dutch nongovernmental organizations. The groups, Netherlands Institute of Southern Africa, Press Now and Free Voice, have each donated €10,000, or $13,000.

Recently, the Open Society Institute, a foundation started by the financier George Soros to promote democratic governance, also stepped in with a special grant to cover the paper's printing bill until the end of the year.

The Zimbabwean also earns money from subscriptions and advertising. Money is tight, so articles are written on a volunteer basis.

The content of The Zimbabwean, and on www.thezimbabwean.co.uk, reflects deep resentment toward the Mugabe government. Articles chide Zimbabwe's human rights record, and editorials warn of the dangers of an "emasculated" judiciary. Cartoons mock President Robert Mugabe.

Many of the correspondents use pseudonyms. They still fear for their safety, even if they are based in Britain or South Africa.

Mbanga said he and his volunteer staff were aware that they were still within reach of what he calls the "long arm of Mugabe."

That long arm caught up with SW Radio Africa in London: three weeks before the parliamentary elections at the end of March, SW Radio frequencies were jammed.

SW Radio Africa offers news coverage and political talk shows, with topics ranging from women's rights to religion to Mugabe. Zimbabwean listeners to SW Radio Africa can phone in using a local number.

Studio 7, which continues to broadcast without interference, bills itself less as a platform for democracy and more as a news organization.

"We're trying to cover the news like we're based in Harare," said Brendan Murphy, the program coordinator for Studio 7. Murphy's staff, as well as that of SW Radio Africa, is made up almost entirely of Zimbabwean journalists.

Both stations broadcast via short-wave and medium-wave radio frequencies, which are easily picked up on African radios.

Gerry Jackson, the founder and editor at SW Radio Africa, insists that the Zimbabwean government is behind the jamming. On the station's Web site, www.swradioafrica.com, listeners are told of alternative frequencies on medium wave that have not yet been jammed.

Jackson is nervously monitoring reports in the Zimbabwean press that the government is about to begin an all-day propaganda station to be called Radio 24-7, on short-wave frequencies inside and outside Zimbabwe.

"This is to counteract so-called negative information put out by organizations like us," he said. "It is a big media push, which is quite clever, but quite disturbing."

Mbanga, for his part, is keeping a close eye on South African media reports that the editor of the state-run newspaper The Herald was recently making inquiries into printing and distributing that newspaper in Johannesburg.

"They're worried about our influence in South Africa," he said. "It is to compete directly with us. We welcome it. It would give readers a choice."

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