Zim jams foreign broadcasts

Relentless jamming by president Robert Mugabe's forces is depriving Zimbabweans of a wide array of free entertainment sources provided by foreign governments, according to The Zimbabwean.

Music and soccer have become the latest battlefronts, with talented musicians forced to sing praises of Mugabe while footballers play in tournaments named after him.

But the latest deployment of Chinese-made jamming has forced even the Voice of America to acknowledge routinely in its Zimbabwe broadcasts that the waves are jammed.

An announcer is now regularly heard to say: “This is Studio 7 for Zimbabwe broadcasting on 909 AM, but due to jamming your best reception would be on short wave.”

Meanwhile, the Daily News reveals that most Zimbabweans are no longer watching the state-controlled Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation's two television channel stations (ZTV), preferring DStv and South African free-to-air channels, a mini-survey carried out in Harare showed.

Compared to the international broadcasters, DStv and South African Broadcasting Corporation's three channels that offer a wide range of programmes and channels, ZTV's programming was said to be poor and boring.

People interviewed by Daily News expressed disgust at ZTV, with some saying it had been years since they last watched the channel.

Lawrence Sibanda (34), of Dzivaresekwa township, said ZTV only broadcasts for farmers and politicians.

“I am neither a politician nor a farmer, so I am not interested in ZTV because that is what it only covers in its news and documentaries.”

The country's secretary for information George Charamba has riled the Zimbabwe Association of Community Radio Stations over his utterances that community radio stations should get organised before government licenses them, says News Day.

Charamba, who is also president Mugabe's spokesperson, told a gathering at Radar Farm at Watershed, Bulilima, where he was commissioning radio and television transmission that community stations should “come up with a licensable structure”.