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New media in Zimbabwe beyond reach of ZANU-PF clampdown
BBC News
June 24, 2008

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7471262.stm

While Zimbabwe's ZANU-PF government and its supporters have strengthened President Robert Mugabe's grip on power by cracking down on the independent media, taking measures such as pulling down satellite dishes and confiscating radios, digital media (on the internet and mobile phones) have proved to be largely beyond their reach.

"New technologies have become powerful tools for political campaigning, communication, advocacy and mobilization," said Ndesanjo Macha, Sub-Saharan Africa editor at Global Voices Online, in a blogpost on 6 May.

New media output has reflected the various phases of the political process in Zimbabwe this year: from the humour of text messages sent in the optimistic period before the presidential and parliamentary elections on 29 March, to the grimness of the pictures uploaded to picture-sharing site Flickr in the violent period that followed.

Cyberactivists, civic organizations and independent media harnessed the full suite of new media tools and applications in the run-up to those elections, and have continued to do so during its violent aftermath and throughout the countdown to the presidential runoff, scheduled for 27 June. That vote is now expected to deliver an uncontested victory for Mugabe after the opposition Movement for Democratic Change candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, announced on 22 June that he was withdrawing from the race because of the rising violence.

Internet response to Tsvangirai's withdrawal
On the internet, the response to Tsvangirai's announcement was swift, with a range of views being expressed. Many voiced understanding for his decision while others felt betrayed. The Kubatana (kubatana.net) website asked subscribers to text or email their reaction. The website reported: "The responses in favour of the withdrawal dramatically outweighed those who opposed the decision - by a factor of about 4:1. Those in favour of the withdrawal mainly hoped that this would ease the violence prevailing in Zimbabwe. Those opposed saw the withdrawal as a betrayal of the MDC's promise of change." The website published a few of the remarks (no names were supplied).

Comments from those who supported Tsvangirai's decision included:
"I do believe that under the current circumstances this was the right choice. The loss of life cannot in any way justify an election that has been fraught with problems from day one."

"Positive move coz contesting will legitimize a fraudulent election and saves pple [people] here in Chiweshe where we witnessed a gruesome attack yesterday where a whole family was killed."

"Good idea. Leave those greedy for power rule. Their selfishness will soon be exposed. Innocent blood has been shed. Let it be."

Others voiced their disapproval of Tsvangirai's decision:
"When dozens of Zimbabweans died in Chimio [a base during the liberation war], Mugabe did not stop the struggle or pull out. He even offered more grit despite the deaths. Now with less than 100 pple dead Tsvangirai is pulling out of a historic election. It is a betrayal to the 70+ pple that have died 4 [for] a new beginning."

"If he pulls out we're dead. The violence we're facing is more than we can take."

"Morgan should not withdraw from the elections. If he does so, he will have betrayed the movement and he will have betrayed us, as his supporters. What Morgan should understand is that there is no easy road to democracy. He has experienced that through these years after being tormented, beaten and persecuted by the Mugabe regime. The killings, intimidations and beatings currently taking place should not make Morgan to reverse his participation decision. This is a sign that ZANU-PF's rule is about to come to an end."

On the UK-based news website Zimbabwe Today (zimbabwetoday.co.uk), Moses Moyo ("Our man in Harare") refers to rumours that, as Tsvangirai has yet to confirm his decision to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission in writing, he may yet change his mind and run after all.

"As for Mugabe and his ruling Zanu-PF junta - they call Tsvangirai a coward and count their blessings. On the surface, the way seems open for another five years of their iron-fisted rule. But the prospect for the next few days remains frighteningly confused and uncertain - a factor which seems to have been a signal for world leaders of every persuasion to weigh in with their own comments on our poor country."

Use of new media during election period
The range of new media employed since the elections were announced on 25 January includes blogs, social networking sites such as Facebook and picture-sharing sites such as Flickr, among others. Mobile phone technology in particular was widely used, with mass SMS (Short Message Service) being used to campaign and inform. Even e-cards, ringtones and mobile phone screensavers were used for campaigning purposes. An outstanding feature has been the use of mashups (that is, a merging of two separate web sources - Google Earth was used to create two interactive maps, with data superimposed).

Notable for their use of new media are Kubatana.net (the website of The NGO Network Alliance Project - "an online community of Zimbabwean activists") and sokwanele.com (full name Sokwanele-Zvakwana - "Enough is Enough", the website of the Zimbabwe Civic Action Support Group).

They proved adept at spreading their messages via a range of media, sometimes converged (for instance, a combination of internet-based and mobile technology). Kubatana.net also uses listserve and emailed newsletters. Several forms of media have been merged on their sites; for instance video clips and Twitter messages (SMS texts as a social networking tool on mobile phones) are included in blogs.

There are also several news websites which display an independence from the ZANU-PF government not seen in the country's state-controlled press. Among these are newzimbabwe.com, zimdaily.com, zimonline.co.za and thezimbabwean.co.uk (which also distributes a newspaper in Zimbabwe and several other countries).

Mobile phone technology
Several media outfits use mass SMS to inform or collect news. The UK-based SW Radio Africa has a subscriber base of 23,000 who receive daily headlines via their mobile phones. Throughout the media blackout, this service was instrumental in giving a blow-by-blow account of political killings and tortures, some not reported in traditional media. In the run-up to the elections, mass SMS was used by political parties for campaigning purposes.

Popular culture has also been harnessed. Some of the MDC's songs have been turned into ringtones. ZANU-PF has also used ringtones and screensavers for mobile phones; the latter feature pictures of tractors (an allusion to their stated claim to be promoting mechanized farming) and bear the message "Give land to the people, Vote President Mugabe" and "Zimbabwe will never be a colony again".

There are several websites that provide a free service for sending text messages to mobile phones, and these were discussed and shared on chat forums.

Although mobile phones have the capacity to evade government clampdowns, their reach is hampered by access. The 2006 African Media Development Initiative report on Zimbabwe found that there are fewer than 1 million mobile-phone subscribers (out of a population of 12 million - although that has been vastly reduced by emigration, notably to South Africa where there are an estimated 3 to 4 million Zimbabweans).

Mobile phone masts do not cover the entire country (they are especially sparse in rural areas and in the west of the country). Service providers have acknowledged that many messages have not been delivered because of system crashes during busy periods.

However, it seems that in the urban areas, mobile phones have considerable presence: "The mobile was invented for Zimbabwe. Everybody, including your maid and gardener, has a handset. Stand on any street corner and observe - this one is texting, this one is on hold, another one is dialling while this one is reading a message and so on." (Comment on http://newzim.proboards86.com).

Mashups
Sokwanele.com created two sophisticated mashups - the first to map incidents of election rigging and the second, in the wake of the election, to record the reign of terror throughout the country.

For the first, launched on 11 March, less than three weeks before polling day, Sokwanele used data from their Zimbabwe Election Watch series to outline how the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections document (adopted by the Southern African Development Community summit in 2004) had been breached by the Zimbabwean government. Through the use of icons superimposed on a Google map, it highlights impediments to free and fair elections, such as violence, vote-buying, machinations around voter registration, detention, gerrymandering and so on. Clicking on an icon brings up a pop-up describing the breach.

A second, "Mapping Terror in Zimbabwe", launched on 18 June, is an interactive map that has recorded more than 1,400 cases (as at 23 June - it is being added to all the time) of political violence carried out since the 29 March elections. Each icon represents a single case of violence; the pin colours identify the perpetrator groups (for instance, police, army, war veterans or youth militia). The information is based on first-hand testimony from victims; the site creators stress that the map reflects only a sample of the cases, as many victims cannot be reached.

Social networking sites
Various groups have signed on to social networking sites such as Facebook (where there is a "Remove Robert Mugabe from Zimbabwe" group) and MySpace. Sokwanele is also on Facebook. The cultural activist network "Magamba!" has a MySpace page where its members publish blogposts.

Picture-sharing/e-cards
Sokwanele.com created a photostream on Flickr of graphic images of tortured and beaten people, which exposed the brutality to viewers around the globe. The site also offered free e-cards on its website bearing election slogans, satirical cartoons or messages urging people to vote.

Chatrooms
On 6 June, members of the New Zimbabwe.com chat forum spontaneously arranged a flashmobbing campaign.

Leghourn1999 New Zimbabwean said: "I've been blasting some Zimbo chat sites to ask peeps [people] to join in - it's got a massive response - can you google a few more and post the link to this page? Also, I'm getting people signed up to www.smszim.com and getting them to send sms of support and encouragement to our brothers and sisters back home - lets get this to go viral on Mugabe."

They also urged a phone blitz on the Zimbabwean embassy in London: "In the UK, you can send text messages to peoples landlines (BT translates the sms into a voice) here's the Zim embassy in London!" (with details provided).
Another suggested making calls to mobiles in Zimbabwe, to urge the phone subscriber to vote for the opposition MDC, by using the standard first digits of each provider and adding on random numbers for the last six digits (for instance, Net One +26311------; Econet +263912------; Telecel +26323------).

Video-sharing
YouTube features several video clips on the Zimbabwean elections, although most are from established media outlets. An address by Tsvangirai has been posted by Zimbabwe Metro newspaper; it was posted a day before he withdrew from the presidential race. There are several satirical video clips featuring Mugabe. A user has posted Mugabe's election ad - in which the faces of Western leaders morph into Tsvangirai's (an allusion to his claim that Tsvangirai is a puppet of the West) with the comment: "After banning all Morgan Tsvangirai MDC opposition party ads from TV, Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party run ads that know no limits. This guy is outrageous."

The context for new media
In a blog titled 'Under the Shadow', posted on 19 June on kubatanablogs.net, Bev Reeler described the broader media environment in which activists were operating:

"MDC have been banned by the 'ruling party' from campaigning on local TV. People have been told to take down their satellites as they are picking up 'outside' news reports. Wind-up radios have been declared a tool of opposition. NGOs have been banned. Recharge cards are unavailable for many cell phone networks - no 'juice'. Many landlines are down - cables stolen."

The Mugabe government's hold on traditional broadcast media is comprehensive, following a sustained clampdown. All broadcasters transmitting from Zimbabwean soil are state-run and toe the government line.

Radio is the main source of information for many Zimbabweans. Although no private stations exist within Zimbabwe itself, the UK-based SW Radio Africa has been broadcasting into the country via shortwave and the internet since 2001. More recently it has launched a SMS text service. Another station, Voice of the People, set up by former staff from the state-run Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation with funding from the Soros Foundation and a Dutch NGO, operates using a leased shortwave transmitter in Madagascar.

Shortwave radios have been confiscated by Central Intelligence Organization operatives; these include solar-powered and clockwork wind-up radios supplied by the Radio Communication Project (an NGO-sponsored scheme to help remote rural communities access independent radio broadcasts from outside Zimbabwe). These confiscations were reported at least as far back as December 2006. The donated clockwork radios have proved a valuable way for Zimbabweans to receive news. Batteries are either too expensive or unavailable and electricity mains supply is erratic.

Only about 2.4 per cent of the population has a personal computer and around 11 per cent have access to the internet (usually through internet cafes).

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

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