Zimbabwe government jams radio stations

LONDON - THE Zimbabwe government is at it again. This time interfering with SW Radioafrica’s medium wave broadcasts and Voice of America’s Zimbabwe flagship programme, Studio 7 Station.

Media reports yesterday said Studio 7 was being jammed to stop listeners in the country accessing the station that operates from Washington D.C.

SWRA has no official confirmation yet but reports on the ground clearly indicate the jamming of its medium wave signal. One report from a listener said: “I checked for your programming this morning Monday 27 June at 5am local time and exactly on the frequency of 1197 kHz there is an extremely strong 'buzzing' signal, which is intentional jamming.”

Additional reports say the signal is very strong, indicating that the jamming station is nearby or within Harare.

Zimonline reported Monday that the Zimbabwe government is using technology acquired from China to partially jam the signal from the VOA Studio 7 radio station. VOA has not officially confirmed this.
China is well known for jamming radio signals into its own country and also into a country it claims to own, Tibet.

The Zimbabwe government is no stranger to jamming. Last year they acquired Chinese equipment and expertise and used this to completely jam off the airwaves the SWRA shortwave signal.

Over the last six years the Zimbabwe government has rapidly destroyed or taken over control of virtually all news outlets.

There is only one broadcaster and it is wholly-owned and controlled by the State. That is the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings formerly known as the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC).

As for the print media, the only independent daily newspaper the Daily News was bombed and forced to shut down in 2003. After that there only four other independent weeklies are operating in the country and of these, it’s alleged that two are now under the control of the state.

Foreign media like the BBC are banned from reporting from and within the territory of Zimbabwe.

As a result of the continued and sustained assault on press freedoms, nearly all Zimbabwe's free media now operates outside the country's borders. Some of these include the Zimbabwean newspaper and SW Radio Africa.  There are also various internet based Zimbabwean news sites in the UK and South Africa.

Voice of America's Studio 7 station employs Zimbabweans for its broadcasts.

SWRA says these latest jamming attempts are not all bad news. “It does show that the government is feeling seriously pressured. Good news for those trying to create a democratic society in Zimbabwe.

We encourage our listeners to keep trying to find us on the radio dial. In various parts of the country we can still be clearly heard and we will obviously be doing our best to counteract the jamming.”

SW Radioafrica