Julia Thomas visited over a dozen community radio stations over the course of a year. Stations in Nepal, India, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Ecuador “Often times by talking to community media makers,” Julia Thomas told Radio Survivor, “you’re meeting some of the most passionate, involved community members who have seen so much, who are so […]
While it can be a strong force for information freedom, events in the Middle East over the last four years have also demonstrated how easily a repressive regime can shut down the internet inside its borders and choke off news that the government wishes to suppress. When this happens radio can be ready to step […]
There are reports from Zimbabwe indicating that the crackdown on independent radio is stepping up. Shortwave station SW Radio Africa reports that police in the town of Rusape went on raids of opposition party supporters looking for shortwave radios (via SWLing post). However a member of parliament said that the police found no radios. According […]
Last week police in Zimbabwe banned the use of so-called “specially designed radios” capable of receiving shortwave broadcasts from outside the country, not just FM broadcasts from the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Company which is loyal to President Robert Mugabe’s party. According to the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) the law is aimed at hand-cranked and […]
The owner of a shortwave radio station that broadcasts to Zimbabwe via the Netherlands is pressing for more information about that country’s denial of its license application. Vox Media wants a record of the proceedings leading to the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe’s decision to authorize other stations, but not Vox’s Radio Voice of the People […]
Oliver “Tuku” Mtukudzi is probably the best known Zimbabwean composer/performer on the international music scene. He also works as music director for Zimbabwe’s Kiss FM pop music radio station, which applied for a commercial private radio licence by the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe. But BAZ awarded the latest two licenses to several prominent supporters of Zimbabwe […]
Zimbabwe is in a medium-sized uproar over the allocation of two radio licenses to entrepreneurs associated with Prime Minister Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party. The signals will go to Zimpapers and AB Communications. The opposition newspaper The Zimbabwean identifies the principals of both companies as possible pro-Mugabe candidates in future elections. “Despite having no experience in […]
Kanyi Pamukwendengwe a Rusitu villager in Zimbabwe writes in the South Africa Mail & Guradian about the brief run of Pachindau People’s Radio, an unlicensed shortwave station that broadcast from Chimanimani in Eastern Zimbabwe. As Pamukwendengwe explains, the inspiration for the station came from the fact that the state-run stations in Harare could not be […]
