Frequency jamming continues as mass action beckons

THE London-based independent broadcasting station, SW Radio Africa, has reported the Zimbabwe government seems to have gone a notch higher in jamming its frequencies to the southern African country ahead of planned mass action by civic groups next week.

Station manager, Gerry Jackson, yesterday deplored the fact that the Zimbabwe government continues to spend scarce resources to support its quest to maintain a stranglehold on power when the people were evidently against Robert Mugabe’s rule.

“Recently our medium wave transmissions were jammed and we returned to shortwave - but after a few weeks this has also been jammed. It would appear that our news bulletin is being specifically targeted,” Jackson said.

“This is clearly because a program of organised, peaceful resistance has begun in Zimbabwe and is also ahead of the advertised protests by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, scheduled to begin on 13th September.”

She said Zimbabwe would be a prosperous and wonderful place to live once again if the Zanu PF government invested all its efforts in trying to deal with the political and economic crisis affecting the country.

“We deplore the fact that government believes it can hold on to power by blocking access to freedom of information and _expression,” said Jackson.

THE Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ) recently reported the government seemed to be jamming not only SW Radio Africa but also frequencies for the Voice of America’s Studio 7 programme to Zimbabwe.

Equipment sourced from China is being used to stop the independent broadcasting stations from beaming back into Zimbabwe from their foreign bases in London, Washington and Madagascar in the case of Radio Voice of the People.

"If government's threats to stifle what it considers to be illegal broadcasting have anything to do with this development, MMPZ is again obliged to condemn it as a cynical interference with the public's constitutional right to freedom of expression and their right to access information without hindrance,” said the media monitoring organisation.

Studio 7 and SW Radio Africa emerged precisely because of ZBH's illegal de facto monopoly of the airwaves and serve as vital alternative sources of credible news for information-starved Zimbabweans who have to endure the blatant propagandist output of the government-controlled national public broadcaster, said the MMPZ.

The MMPZ said the government should speed up the process of licensing local independent broadcasters instead of wasting resources investing in equipment to shut down alternative sources of information.