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Commentary on SWRA funding crisis
Andy Sennitt
June 02, 2005

SW Radio Africa, which has been broadcasting independent programmes into Zimbabwe for several years, has been forced to suspend its transmissions on shortwave. In a press release, the station explained that it had run out of money due to the high cost of using extra shortwave transmitters to counteract jamming by the Zimbabwe government.

This news came hot on the heels of the cancellation of a conference, which I was planning to attend, where the training of broadcasters in developing countries was one of the central themes. Apparently, too few international broadcasters had decided to send representatives.

At the same time, I couldn't help noticing that President Bush had just transferred an extra 7.7 million US dollars - enough to fund SW Radio Africa for several years - into the already substantial budget allocated to US government broadcasts to the Middle East.

Wrong priorities
What these things tell me is that the international broadcasting industry may have some of its priorities wrong. Funding, it seems, is plentiful when western countries use it to send their messages into the developing world. But there's a lot less enthusiasm when it comes to helping broadcasters in developing countries to speak to their own people, and to their neighbours. Much of international broadcasting, it seems, is still in the mentality of the colonial era.

There are, of course, a number of well-established training institutions that specialise in helping prepare broadcasters from developing countries to go home and use their new skills for the benefit of their own people. One such establishment is less than 100 yards from where I'm sitting. But training cannot overcome the media restrictions imposed by people like Robert Mugabe, and that's why the international broadcasts from outside the country are so important. It beggars belief that, despite the publicity given to the Zimbabwe government's jamming, none of the major western countries or donor organisations appears to have thought it sufficiently urgent to give extra funding to SW Radio Africa. They claim to loathe Mugabe's policies, but play right into his hands by making them appear successful.

Politics vs technical expediency
For the time being, SW Radio Africa has become de facto MW Radio Africa, and can only reach the southern part of Zimbabwe from the mediumwave transmitter in Lesotho that it continues to use - though this service too may soon be silenced unless new funding is forthcoming.

There is, in neighbouring Botswana, a high power mediumwave transmitter used by the Voice of America that has already caused a lot of tension between Botswana and Zimbabwe. It would be perfectly feasible for SW Radio Africa to cover a vast chunk of the country via this transmitter were the Broadcasting Board of Governors to make it available for, say, a couple of hours a day.

I don't see that happening, partly because the BBG likes to have total control of the programming that goes out on its facilities, and partly because it would undoubtedly increase the tension between Botswana and Zimbabwe.

This, in a nutshell, is the problem in so many parts of the world. Political reality often prevents the best technical solutions being implemented. But that's not the only problem. It's also one of attitude. Too many of the western broadcasters see their mission as telling their target audiences what they ought to think, instead of providing the means for them to develop and share their own ideas. A lot of it is well meaning, but the people who live in Zimbabwe feel much more at ease listening to familiar voices of their compatriots than being addressed by Europeans or Americans. This is a factor which Mugabe himself often uses in speeches.

One way to make progress
One thing that the western broadcasters could do is to employ some of the people they have trained to produce broadcasts beamed to their homeland. Currently the norm is to provide training courses, then send the students back home where they may not have the facilities to do all the things they have been taught, and may be subjected to harassment and even physical violence when they do. Again, political factors come into the equation, such as getting work permits. There might also be problems with trade unions that would see this as a threat to their own members.

I don't underestimate the logistical difficulties of integrating more native broadcasters into the existing infrastructure, but it seems to me that it's time for a fresh approach to the whole concept of international broadcasting. At the moment, there are too many negative developments, and the industry is in something of a crisis. The problem is, people are so busy concentrating on their own local difficulties that they're not looking at the bigger picture.

Responsibility
Stations like SW Radio Africa show that it is possible for properly trained broadcasters to circumvent draconian broadcast laws in their home countries. What's needed is stable funding and logistical support. Not to provide it would be a derogation of responsibility on the part of the western nations, and a huge encouragement to all those in authority in the developing countries who only cling onto power through their control of the media.

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