Harare/Johannesburg - Zimbabwe's economic catastrophe is
plunging the country into an 'information dark age' as newspapers,
radio and television become overwhelmed by multi-million per cent
inflation and the breakdown of infrastructure, according to media
analysts.
Newspapers have become too expensive for all but a tiny minority,
while the state-controlled radio and television monopoly services are
stricken by chronic power cuts, says the independent Media Monitoring
Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ).
Zimbabwe is classified by the New York-based international
Committee to Protect Journalists as among the 10 worst countries for
hostility to freedom of the media.
An armoury of repressive laws introduced in 2002 by President
Robert Mugabe's regime prescribe sentences for 'crimes' such as
working as a journalist without accreditation from the state-run
media commission and publication of information 'likely to bring the
government into disrepute.'
MMPZ coordinator Andrew Moyse says the country's media landscape
is already dominated by government mouthpieces providing 'biased and
selective coverage, even during this important period in the
country's history,' referring to a stalled power-sharing agreement
between the country's 84-year-old autocratic president and prime
minister-designate Morgan Tsvangirai.
'Now it's becoming clear that the nation has been plunged into an
even more intense and suffocating information dark age, where
reliable information is at a premium and the main means of
communicating news is rapidly reverting to word of mouth, or SMS,' he
said.
Under Mugabe's reckless management, the country has plummeted in
the last eight years from one of Africa's most prosperous nation to a
land scarred by chronic food shortages, hyperinflation and a nearly
worthless currency.
The state-controlled and subsidized Herald newspaper, the only
national daily, soared to 3,000 Zimbabwe dollars on Saturday from 10
Zimbabwe dollars on August 1, when the central bank slashed 10 zeroes
off the currency. For that price, a hungry Zimbabwean can get two
loaves of bread. One US dollar was trading for about 4,500 Zimbabwe
dollars on Sunday.
'In any other country, a newspaper is probably the cheapest item
of people's daily expenditure,' said Moyse. 'Here, who is going to
sacrifice a loaf of bread to read the Herald?'
The country's independent newspapers, which receive no subsidies,
the Zimbabwe Independent, the Sunday Standard and the Financial
Gazette, now cost 4,500 Zimbabwe dollars - taking them 'into the
luxury items bracket.'
The regime has blocked the emergence of any independent electronic
media, while state radio and television maintain a relentless barrage
of hostility against Mugabe's opponents.
Even the public broadcaster is feeling the heat of the economic
meltdown. In April, it admitted it was covering only 45 per cent of
the country, because of antiquated and run-down transmission
equipment.
Earlier this year, the government-owned transmitter company said
it needed 45 million US dollars to upgrade its equipment. The
government stumped up 500, 000 US dollars which, according to state
media, was promptly stolen by a government official.
Whatever the source - whether the official media, foreign-based
private radio stations, online news agencies or e-mail, news is
becoming increasingly elusive, as a result of ever-more frequent and
severe power cuts, said Moyse.
'Only those lucky enough to own their own generators - depending
on the availability of fuel - have access to information on a fairly
regular basis.'
Rural people with no access to electricity are becoming totally
cut off from as cheap radios disappear from shops and battery prices
soar.
Earlier this year, Ray Kaukonde, Mugabe's former governor of one
of the country's largest provinces in the north-east, compounded the
isolation by ordering that shortwave radios be seized to stop people
listening to private radio stations broadcasting from outside the
country.
'It's a basic truth that where communication is suffocated, rumour
and speculation abound,' said Moyse. 'The authorities complain
bitterly about this grievous state of affairs, yet it is entirely of
their own making.'
USA
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