The International Press Institute (IPI) has announced its decision to honour SW Radio Africa with its 2005 Free Media Pioneer Award. Gerry Jackson, founder and station manager of SW Radio Africa, will receive the prize at an award ceremony on 24 May, during the forthcoming IPI World Congress in Nairobi, Kenya (21-24 May).
In Zimbabwe, where President Robert Mugabe's autocratic regime controls both radio and television, and the only independent daily newspaper, the Daily News, has been shut down, the shortwave radio station SW Radio Africa remains a rare independent voice.
Launched in December 2001, SW Radio Africa broadcasts not from Zimbabwe, but from a studio in northwest London and is run by a group of exiled reporters and DJs. The station's founder, Gerry Jackson, a veteran of 25 years broadcasting experience in Africa, was fired from the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) music station, Radio 3, for "insubordination" after airing live telephone calls from people on the scene during food riots in Harare in 1997.
In 2000, Jackson fought and won a legal battle in the Zimbabwean Supreme Court to set up the country's first independent radio station, Capital FM. After only six days, it was raided by armed police officers, who confiscated broadcasting equipment, and used a presidential decree to shut down the station.
Jackson went into hiding and - with presidential elections set for March 2002 - decided to broadcast from outside Zimbabwe, setting up a new radio station in London, where half a million Zimbabwean exiles live.
Featuring a successful mix of music, news and interviews, SW Radio Africa's main aim is to give a "voice to the voiceless" by fostering a dialogue with its Zimbabwean audience, who call in - often at great risk - to air their opinions and give first-hand accounts of the deteriorating situation in the country.
In the run-up to the March 2005 parliamentary elections, the government of Zimbabwe mounted a concerted campaign to prevent SW Radio Africa from being heard in the country, jamming their signals on several frequencies. The government campaign against the station continued unabated after the elections, which were widely condemned as fraudulent, with continued deliberate jamming of its broadcasts and plans to launch a new 24-hour shortwave radio station to counter SW Radio Africa's "negative propaganda."
The annual Free Media Pioneer Award was established by IPI, the global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists, in 1996 to honour individuals or organisations that have fought against great odds to ensure freer and more independent media in their country or region.
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The Award is co-sponsored by the U.S.-based Freedom Forum, a non-partisan, international foundation dedicated to free press and free speech.
Previous winners of the Free Media Pioneer Award are CASCFEN - Central Asia and Southern Caucasian Freedom of Expression Network (2004); the Media Council of Tanzania (2003); the independent daily newspaper Danas, Serbia (2002); the independent on-line newspaper Malaysiakini.com (2001); IPYS - Press and Society Institute, Peru (2000); EFJA - Ethiopian Free Press Journalists' Association (1999); Radio B-92, Yugoslavia (1998); AJI - Alliance of Independent Journalists, Indonesia (1997); and NTV, Russia (1996).
For more information about the IPI Free Media Pioneer Award, as well as the IPI World Congress (hotel booking deadlines have been extended until 1 May), please visit the IPI Websites: http://www.freemedia.at and http://www.ipikenya.com or telephone IPI at: +43 1 512 90 11
