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Harare partially jams US-based radio station
ZimOnline
June 26,
2006
http://www.zimonline.co.za/headdetail.asp?ID=12340
HARARE - The
Zimbabwe government using technology acquired from China has been
able to partially jam signal from the Voice of America (VOA)'s Studio
7 radio station that broadcasts into the crisis-hit southern African
country, ZimOnline has learnt.
Studio 7 is
one of three radio stations operated by exiled Zimbabweans and broadcasting
into the country from outside its borders after President Robert
Mugabe in the last six years shut down all independent broadcasting
stations.
Harare labels
the private radios enemy stations bent on inciting Zimbabweans to
revolt against Mugabe, in power since Zimbabwe's 1980 independence
from Britain.
An official
in the Ministry of State Security, who spoke on condition he was
not named, said the state's spy Central Intelligence Organisation
and engineers from the Ministry of Information were now working
flat out to try and completely jam Studio 7 broadcasts into Zimbabwe.
"There has been
marked improvement on trying to block the US propaganda (Studio
7 broadcasts) from reaching us since the beginning of this month.
The team is now aiming to look for ways to completely block the
signal coming via a transmitter in Botswana," said the official.
According to
the official, equipment to block Studio 7 broadcasts was imported
from China last year. The government has been quick to use the same
equipment to jam broadcasts from another foreign-based radio station
that targets Zimbabwe, the London-based SW Radio.
ZimOnline was
unable to immediately confirm with Studio 7 whether its broadcasts
were being interfered with. But the spokesman of the United States
embassy in Harare, Timothy Smith, said the mission was aware of
problems listeners were having receiving Studio 7 signal, adding
that Washington had been alerted to probe the matter.
Smith said:
"We have heard of the problem of the Studio 7 signal and we sent
it to Washington so that we are 100 percent sure of the source of
the problem. AM signals can have a number of interferences which
are not specific. So the investigations will tell us what the real
problem is before we speculate. By Monday (today) we should be having
a definite answer."
However, ZimOnline
understands that the American government is aware of the Chinese
technology imported by Harare to disrupt Studio 7 broadcasts and
VOA technicians are said to be in the process of working out measures
to counter the jamming.
Zimbabwe's Ministry
of Information refused to comment on the matter saying in the first
place it did not recognise Studio 7 because the radio station was
not registered in terms of the country's laws.
Studio 7 is
a US government sponsored project to try and provide an alternative
platform for a variety of views and opinions that are otherwise
unable to get heard on Zimbabwe state-owned radio because they are
perceived as contrary to the views of Mugabe and his government.
It broadcasts
on AM and on shortwave but for more than a week now, listeners have
been unable to receive clear signal from the station because of
the jamming by Harare.
Studio 7 broadcasts
in English as well as in the two main vernacular languages, Shona
and Ndebele, enabling it to reach out to remoter parts of the country,
inaccessible to Zimbabwe's few remaining independent newspapers.
Zimbabwe has
four radio stations and one television station all owned and controlled
by the government.
The southern
African country, which has laws providing for the imprisonment of
journalists for up to 20 years for publishing falsehoods, was last
year ranked by the World Association of Newspapers as one of the
three most dangerous places in the world for journalists.
The other two
countries are the former Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan and the Islamic
Republic of Iran. - ZimOnline
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