On the 1st of September 2010, an attempt was made to subvert a people’s right to receive and impart information as prescribed by the Universal Declaration of human Rights to which Zimbabwe is a signatory. This outdated authoritarian act was deliberately done to starve the people of Zimbabwe of diverging and objective news and views through jamming the SW Radio Africa.
Zimbabwe is a nation-state where differences in opinions are perceived to be an indication of enmity. It is also a country that went through a brutal state monopoly of media avenues with the ZANU-PF party misconstruing a public media institution for party propaganda institution.
This has been a tactic used especially to keep the people of Zimbabwe ignorant and thus gullible and open to political manipulation in particular the rural folks. Equally the ZANU-PF has been able to conceal their atrocities through such a media blackout and one such session was the Gukurahundi era.
The jamming of such objective media avenues, the Studio 7 included serves to indicate the unimaginable levels of paranoia in those at helm of governance in Zimbabwe. In a country where a public radio is dominated by party propaganda jingles, satellite dishes are a symbol not of luxury but open protest to such propaganda annoyance and mediocrity.
Equally jamming is not a prescription for the answer lies in opening more democratic space, removal of political as well as legislative media restrictions being paramount.
It is also sad that the jamming took place despite the realities of the inclusive government. An arrangement that accommodates comrades from the MDC into governance. One would have budgeted that the inclusion of the MDC into government was a buffer against such authoritarian tendencies, unless politicians are of the same make no matter which political organization.
Such cries of negligence of duty by the MDC have been gathering momentum in particular within the students’ community where thousands of students are currently facing rejection from colleges and universities due to failure to pay fees. Many had hoped that the inclusion of the MDC would usher in a better era for the students of Zimbabwe bearing in mind that the party is heavily bloated with former student leaders.
ZINASU demands an urgent halt to the jamming of SW Radio Africa and all other radios which are the only source of objective reporting and alternative to jingle noise. The union also appeals to the MDC to be focused in pursuit of the struggle for democracy.
Kudakwashe Chakabva
ZINASU National Spokesperson
