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SW Radio Africa ends shortwave evening broadcasts
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ)
Weekly Media Update 2005-19
Monday May 23rd - Sunday May 29th 2005

THE number of alternative sources of information available to Zimbabweans has been further diminished following the decision by SW Radio Africa to end its short wave evening broadcasts from June 1st. The station attributed this to the jamming of its signal by government, which had forced it to broadcast on several short wave frequencies simultaneously, a move it described as "financially unsustainable". However, the station said it would continue to broadcast on medium wave for two hours between 5am and 7am (Zimbabwe time) and would maintain its website.

But the station noted that its medium wave signal "does not cover the whole of Zimbabwe", a situation that will result in many listeners losing access to the station. According to station manager, Gerry Jackson, the organization's future remained "critical and in the balance" due to financial constraints. The loss of SW Radio Africa on short wave is a blow to many Zimbabweans who had come to regard it as one of the few remaining alternative sources of information reporting on important national issues outside the government-controlled media.

Indeed, the government media appeared to celebrate this continuing erosion of media diversity and free expression in Zimbabwe instead of expressing concern for the diminishing voices that have struggled to bring Zimbabweans an accurate picture of what is happening in their country. The Herald (2/6) reported the "imminent collapse" of the "UK-based anti-Zimbabwe radio station", which it falsely described as being "illegal", and notably made no effort to report official comment on the station's allegations that government was jamming its frequencies. This stance fits well with the government media's relentless campaign against independent media organizations that continue to expose and condemn bad governance in the country.

For example, this week ZTV (23/5, 8pm & 24/5, 8pm) devoted two stories by its chief reporter Reuben Barwe to maligning "cheque book journalists" such as Geoff Nyarota, Basildon Peta, Ray Choto and Sandra Nyaira, who were being "showered with...trinkets for doing this country and people harm". "Rhodesians" such as Gerry Jackson and Georgina Godwin, who had "joined the great trek to their masters' capitals" were also accused of engaging in "sell-out activities" by churning out anti-Zimbabwe "propaganda" through SW Radio Africa and Studio 7, which were using ZBH journalists doing "their masters bidding".

While Barwe appeared to use the location of SW Radio Africa and Studio 7 (broadcasting on short wave to Zimbabwe from the United States) in "hostile countries" as evidence of them serving Western interests, he ignored the fact that it is the authorities' fear of a free media in the first place, which has been responsible for the introduction of repressive media laws that makes independent broadcasting impossible in Zimbabwe thereby forcing independent broadcast journalists to work outside the country.

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