Authorities in Zimbabwe have banned wind-up receivers, a favourite among nongovernmental organisations seeking to promote access to information in rural areas. Their presence has often spawned listening clubs accused of tuning in on “illegal” foreign news bulletins broadcast through shortwave or AM. Instead of batteries, which are almost unavailable in Zimbabwe, the low-priced gadgets are powered by human muscle. Along with satellite dishes, ownership of a wind-up radio is enough to land villagers in trouble. “They have been warned that they must hand in those radios. It has become a subversive tool,” says Rob Jamieson, chairperson of the Southern Africa Editors’ Forum. “It is quite shocking to see the situation in Zimbabwe. No professional media in Zimbabwe can operate,” says Jamieson, who was part of a week-long mission that went to Zimbabwe.

The mission found that journalists operate under the constant fear of being abducted, arrested, detained or beaten up. They have to battle for survival in a failing economy that has also placed extreme pressure on the remaining local media businesses. Freelancers battle to get accreditation and are sometimes forced to operate illegally. “There is no way they can be accredited because you have to belong to a media organisation to be accredited,” says Jamieson. Even then, licensed journalists cannot travel outside the city centre for fear of security agents and militia in the rural areas. Under those conditions, normal journalistic investigation becomes a hazardous task. Worsening the conditions is the harassment and departure of lawyers and other human rights defenders, leading to concern that there might be no one to assist should journalists be arrested.

Last month three people, two of them South Africans, were sentenced to six months’ imprisonment after they were caught with “illegal broadcasting equipment” for British TV network Sky TV. A few weeks ago a truck transporting 60000 copies of The Zimbabwean – a newspaper produced in SA and the UK – to Harare from Musina, was petrol-bombed by unknown assailants. “What I saw and experienced I had not seen in any part of Africa these days, even in Ethiopia and the Gambia – countries that we say are difficult,” says Gabriel Baglo, the Dakar-based Africa director of the International Federation of Journalists. Another member of the mission, Luckson Chipare, says Zimbabwean journalists are often forced to move towns when the heat gets too overwhelming. Chipare also painted a gloomy picture of the main TV news bulletin. “There is not a single bulletin that talks about the opposition except to denigrate them. It’s all about ZANU PF.”

(Source)