Since Wednesday there has been intermittent jamming by Robert Mugabe's regime of short wave broadcasts from SW Radio Africa.
Using a heavy noise like a slow playing record, some of our programming and news bulletins have been drowned out.
Experts say jamming radio broadcasts is expensive to do and you need a lot of power. Last week our sources said the Central Intelligence Organisation, which falls under the President's Office, is running the operation.
The Zimbabwe National Students Union criticized the jamming describing it as 'an attempt to subvert a people's right to receive and impart information as prescribed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which Zimbabwe is a signatory.' The union said it had hoped the inclusion of the MDC in government 'was a buffer against such authoritarian tendencies' but it seemed 'politicians are of the same make, no matter which political organization.'
As yet no government official has issued a statement on the jamming. This has been the trend over the years where they choose not to say anything.
It was only in March 2007, after jamming had begun in 2005, that the then Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga admitted they were jamming our broadcasts. Speaking in parliament at the time Matonga boasted the government was generating electronic interference to block the broadcasts.
But what is different this time is that we now have a government of national unity, made up of two formations of the MDC who have clearly stated a commitment to freeing the media. This is the perfect opportunity for them to prove their commitment. And if they can't put a stop to the jamming, it is then made absolutely clear to everyone that the unity government is nothing more than a sham.
Newsreel tracked down the controversially appointed Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe chairman, Tafataona Mahoso, and asked him if they were taking applications for independent radio stations.
"I can't answer that question' he told us before referring us to 'the media centre at the Harare Sheraton.' He said the Chief Executive of BAZ, a Mr. Muganyuka, would answer our question. Mahoso then launched into a vitriolic attack against SW Radio Africa, describing it as a 'pirate radio.'
Reminded that we were Zimbabweans broadcasting from exile because of repressive media legislation, Mahoso hung up his phone.
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Freedom of expression...ZanuPF style!
There is one "freedom of expression" in Zimbabwe for ZANU-Poof and another for all those who oppose them.
"Total Empowerment!" - for ALL Zimbabweans whether they be ZANU-Poof or MDC or ZAPU.
"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty." - Thomas Jefferson
He also said, "Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty."
Freedom is the absence of tyranny, censorship of opinions or views not in line with the "government". What have the "government" to fear from the free interchange of ideas?
Free thought, a free press, and free discussion are what ZANU-Poof and the rest of the GNU fear......
A "government" is to be held accountable for it's actions, ZANU-Poof has failed miserably and I dare say that MDC-T (w/in the strictures of it's own membership in the GNU) has failed also.......
A "Free" Zimbabwe will be free to sail the "tempestuous" seas of total liberty. It will not be easy, and many a despotic leader will seek to capture it as their own - but free expression - including that which insults others is necessary to a "totally empowered" Zimbabwe.
"Total Empowerment!" - and I truly mean "Total Empowerment!", not the blather of AK-47, or TAK, or J-Hollow...........
"Total Empowerment" for ALL Zimbabweans!
Juhlman;
"What have the "government" to fear from the free interchange of ideas?
Direct that question to the CIA for bombing Al Jazeera just after invading Iraq. Al Jazeera was innocently practicing the freedom of "interchange of ideas" but they were nevertheless BOMBED and innocent and unarmed people were unnecessarily murdered in that wanton bombing of an international TV Station that only aimed to inform the general public about what was happening in Iraq.
The same thing happened in Yugoslavia. Unbeknown to both Stations, their broadcasts had become an enemy to the 'god' of this earth, America, and had to be taken out and OUT THEY WERE TAKEN - NO QUESTIONS WERE ASKED THEN AND EVEN TODAY. Surprisingly we hear questions being asked for preventing hate speech from reaching a polarized national without killing those broadcasting and destroying their equipment.
All the government is saying is that until such time that our people are sufficiently united, we do not need anyone to divide them any further. After all, the pirate radio station called SW Radio is individually and severally in the PGA as an outstanding issue. It has to close down or stop broadcasting hate speeches for the GPA Outstanding Issues to be implemented.
If the whole unity government is in agreement that it (SW Radio) and others like it should be blocked (that is if they are being jammed at all because I suspect obsolete or faulty equipment than jamming), then it is one giant step towards the possible FULL implementation of the GPA.
So your reasoning is that people should be informed with ZanuPF propaganda? You want to turn Zimbos into North Koreans? You call that freedom of the media?
No wonder Zimbabwe is labeled a dictature.
takunya, you are all afraid that Mugabe's skeletons will come tumbling out of his closet that he has shared with them but the radio stations thinks otherwise. It thinks it's high time the people got to know what the stinker has done all these years and that it is time the skeletons and Mugabe came out of the closet. By the way takunya, on behalf of the man that Mugabe has jailed, "Mugabe is an OLD Madhala, a muchembere, a rotten shriveled prune.
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