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 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.

Cyber activists, civic organisations 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 run-off, scheduled for 27 June.

CONTEXT

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 (short message service) 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 non-governmental organisation (NGO), operates using a leased shortwave transmitter in Madagascar.

Shortwave radios have been confiscated by Central Intelligence Organisation 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% of the population has a personal computer and around 11% have access to the internet (usually through internet cafes).