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Dissertation

Andrew Chatora

Z imbabwe a case study.

Words: 21, 179

F IN A L SUB M ISSI O N

Tutor: Dr Shakuntala Banaji

Dissertation submitted in part fulfilment of the requirements of the M A Media, Culture

and Communication Degree of the Institute of Education, University of London

Submission date: September 2009

This dissertation may be made available to the general public for borrowing,

photocopying or consultation without prior consent of the author.

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Abstract

This dissertation seeks to explore, understand and critique the significance of new media in

fostering democracy in parts of Africa, especially in repressive regimes such as Zimbabwe

my main focal point. In particular, it looks at the upsurge and proliferation of diverse new

media platforms and how these can empower the populace, as they confront tyranny and

agitate for political reform on the Habermasian public sphere.

In the same vein, the study looks at the ambivalent nature of new media, as platforms such as

the Internet for instance can still be manipulated and abused by the Hegemony to stifle and

undermine the democratic discourse. In this regard, a plethora of counteractive measures

adopted by mainstream and pro-dictatorship forces as they respond to online challenges

posed by new media are also considered. Incidentally, the study also considers the legitimate

role the media should play in both a democracy and authoritarian regime. A close textual

analysis is offered on blogs and the diversity of online news websites which report on the

contested crisis in Zimbabwe. It considers the extent to which these platforms strive to

promote/undermine democracy and the democratic discourse. The polarised views amongst

the news websites as they vie for supremacy of the public sphere is brought to the fore, thus

the study sums up by calling for tolerance and restraint as these are the hallmarks of

democracy.

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Acknowledgments

This project was made possible by the support I received from various people whom I wish to

thank profoundly. The dissertation is in many ways a dedication to Roland K Howard,

(erstwhile Head of English and Media at Bicester Community College (BCC) 2002 2004.)

who believed in me and gave me a footing in the English educational sector. I would also like

to express my gratitude to Cynthia Bartlett (Headteacher, BCC ) for allowing me time off to

attend lectures and seminars),Mairi Blackings, Yvonne Mace, Naomi Wheeler, Diane

Wilson

13 Media class for 2008/9 at BCC. Special mention goes to Adda Twigg, Shannon Thornett,

Ben Faulkner, and Jade Godin for their inspiration. To Dr Watson you are simply the best.

To my daughter Avril, I apologise unreservedly for you constantly bore the brunt of my

petulance especially when I was working on the project with looming deadlines. Nonetheless,

I believe the project will be an inspiration to both you and Ethyn, John

strive for excellence in later life. My parents were positive role models and I wish to thank

them at this juncture. Much more poignantly, my late father: John Chatora. Many thanks; I

he work ethic and I hope this legacy to

perpetuate with my own children.

Above all, my accolades would be incomplete without mentioning one whose contribution

constructive criticism and support made a vital contribution. Accept my sincere gratitude.

Last but not least, to the people of Zimbabwe: my fellow citizens, I salute you for your

inspiring resilience.

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Contents

Abstract.........................................................................................................................2

Acknowledgments.........................................................................................................3

Chapter 1 Introduction...............................................................................................6

Chapter 2 Press Freedom and Democracy in Zimbabwe: A Review of the Literature.17

2.1 Laws Restricting Media Freedom...............................................................22

2.2 Impact of closure of The Daily News..........................................................24

2.3 The Internet and Potentials for Democracy: A Review of International

Perspectives......................................................................................................25

Chapter 3 Research Methodology

3.1 Research Approaches..................................................................................33

3.2 Ethical Challenges........................................................................................34

3.3 Case Study Approach...................................................................................34

3.4 Critical Discourse Analysis..........................................................................35

3.5 Previews Sample Case Studies: Mugabe and Hate Speech.......................37

3.6 ..............................................................................38

3.7 .............40

3.8 Language as Power Discourse......................................................................42

Chapter 4 Historical Case Study: Zimbabwe - Politics and Media

4.1 Repression and closure of Democratic Space..............................................44

4.2 Blogging Phenomenon: Case Studies..........................................................45

4.3 The Case of new media and German Company: Giesecke & Devrient.......47

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4.4 The Case of Jura JSP & Software License.....................................................51

4.5 Kubatana Blog................................................................................................52

4.6 Hypocrites: Beware The Curse of Power, Mr Minister A Case study of

Democrats in Power....................................................................................53

4.7 New media and The Public Sphere................................................................56

Chapter 5 New media Case Study: Online News Websites

5.1 An Emerging Counter Phenomenon.................................................................58

5.2 Zimdaily Website: Fair Deal Campaign...........................................................60

5.3 Support Hong Kong Legislator: Emily Lau Wai King to get Bona Deported!.63

5.4 A A Case Study..........65

5.5 Coverage of 2008 Presidential Elections: Diversity of Opinion or Polarised

Viewpoints?........................................................................................................68

5.6 New media: Constant Critique, Even of the Critics............................................69

5.7 The Fourth Estate & the Public Sphere...............................................................72

5.8 SW Radio Africa Texting to Beat Zimbabwe Censors..................................74

5.9 Dictatorship Dealing with Online Challenges...................................................74

Chapter 6 Conclusion..........................................................................................................78

Bibliography..........................................................................................................83

Appendices............................................................................................................91

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The media should be allowed to fulfil its mandate of

defenders of the publ

- Mick Underwood, (2004)

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Research Context

My study seeks to describe and understand critically the role played by new media in

fostering democracy in parts of Africa, especially in countries which are currently ruled by

dictatorships, with Zimbabwe being the main focal point. Among other new media platforms,

I will consider: blogs, mobile phone technologies and online news websites. The internet and

mobile phones as digital technologies however, have different affordances, particularly the

world wide web which allows different platforms such as blogs, wikis websites and social

networks. More specifically, I seek to address the following related questions:

How have new media actors sought to promote democracy and empower the populace

at large, and with what effect?

dictatorships?

The ambivalent possibilities of new media will also be considered, following scholars such as

more general research questions:

How are mainstream and pro-dictatorship forces responding to online challenges and

how are they utilising both older and new media to further their ideological ends?

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These issues will come under searching examination in this dissertation. With this constant

struggle/clash of discourses come attendant issues: for instance, the role and types of political

rhetoric from the aforementioned groups; and I argue that it is worthwhile taking into account

gaps between rhetoric and reality even in strongly egalitarian or pro-democratic discourses

online. It will be equally important to consider the role of older media both in historical

moments and countries where democracy appears to be under siege. How should new media

actors respond to the actions of mainstream older media actors, especially to aid the populace

and the democratic discourse?

The discussion in this dissertation is necessitated by legal and political developments in

Zimbabwe which have tended to suppress the Independent media, both print and electronic.

In a country where the independent media is virtually outlawed1, I will examine the claim that

new media platforms enabled by Internet-related technologies ie, Blogging, mobile phone

alerts and online news websites for instance, have and continue to play a pivotal role in

fanning and nurturing democracy, highlighting the excesses of the Mugabe government and

2

The impact of new media on democratic discourse is an area offering huge research

possibilities. Writing about the use of new media as a vehicle for political expression in other

Technologies such as the internet, e mail and cell phones have attracted enormous research

-335). Mudhai writes extensively

                                                                                                                     1 There has been an authoritarian and repressive environment in Zimbabwe since 2000. The government has continuously enacted laws that appear to grossly curtail basic rights to freedom of expression, and assembly. Examples include the Broadcasting Services Act (2001). Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) (2002), Public Order and Security Act (POSA) (2001), Interceptions of Electronic Communications Act (2007). These laws and some extrajudicial tactics used by the government have muzzled the media and

will be highlighted in subsequent chapters of this study. 2 s: Repression, Propaganda and Digital Resistance: New media and Democracy in Zimbabwe (2008)

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about the input of new media in influencing especially the conduct of democratic elections in

Africa. I will however, mainly seek to critically evaluate the role new media has played and

continues to play in promoting good governance and accountable democratic practices

especially in Totalitarian regimes with a particular emphasis on Zimbabwe.

In seeking to address my research

s Chinua Achebe, renowned Nigerian author would put it.3

 

1.2 Z imbabwe: H istory and Politics

Zimbabwe attained independence from its colonisers, Britain, in 1980. Since then, ZANU PF

has been the main political party at the helm of politics. Zimbabwe has been under the

years of neither uninterrupted rule nor serious challenge to its hold on power until 2000. The

formation of a worker based political party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in

1999, changed the political landscape as the ruling party faced a real threat to its hold on

marked the beginning of what is now referred to as the Zimbabwe crisis, characterised by a

society divided politically between rural and urban, poor and rich, rival political parties and

deepening economic problems (Kaulemu, 2004: 213).

Zimbabwe is a state under siege from what Raftopolous (2003: 217)

                                                                                                                     3 . Chinua Achebe: famous Nigerian author considered the colossus of African Literature coined the famous

to explain the impact of colonialism on the African

Yet On Creation Day, (1975).

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and was extended to include farm workers

Having lost a Constitutional referendum in 2000 and 57 seats in the 2000 Parliamentary

elections, the Zimbabwe government has sought to maintain political support by articulating

elite holds is based on the belief that political and the national unit should be congruent and

that the nation state be identified through one political culture. The ideology of nationalism in

Zimbabwe is rooted in the war of liberation of the 1970s waged by the now ruling party,

ZANU PF and PF ZAPU. The current nationalism being pushed by the ruling elite while

claiming its roots to the agenda of the Liberation Struggle, is however, a construction and

invented permanency (Raftopolous 2003:217).

continued stay of an incumbent government in power, especially the multitude of post

independence African governments which came to power as the aftermath of these long

fought liberation struggles. For Zimbabwe, with its hold on power threatened, the

establishment under Mugabe has increasingly resorted to violent repression and closure of

democratic space.4

of the Media, Journalists, Civil society and Human Rights activists, and democratic forces

has become the norm, and this has seen an escalation of gross human rights abuses and the

democratic discourse being undermined. Amnesty International, The Media Institute of

Southern Africa (MISA), and the New York based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

                                                                                                                     4 for full details.

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have been on record in terms of characterising Zimbabwe as an outpost of tyranny and thus a

highly unsafe place to practice and work as a Journalist.

Africa has a modern history of failed democracies, with a few notable but complex success

stories in Botswana and South Africa. The attainment of independence by most African

nations from the 1960s onwards saw the proliferation of one party states and dictatorships

and in some cases, as in Nigeria, rule by military juntas. These dictatorships have perpetuated

their own rule right up to the contemporary era. Where there have been attempts to establish

multiparty democracy, it has been a piecemeal approach, which has in most instances seen

the re-establishment of de facto one party states, Malawi under the late Hastings Kamuzu

-time despot, Muammar Gaddafi, are

notable examples.

Writing on an online news website, Mutumwa Mawere, political commentator on Zimbabwe

questions:

Why is it that the former champions of freedom and enlightenment end up as

instruments of despotism and darkness in Africa? What is it about African institutions

that make democracy a universally expensive project in Africa?

(http://www.newzimbabwe.com June 2009)

I submit, the current trend in Africa: political instability, endless civil wars, dictatorships

which continue to s

to the set up of Colonialism as an ideology. There is a close link between Colonialism and

how Post Independence African leaders have sought to manipulate the colonial ideology as

an expedient scapegoat to perpetuate their hegemony indefinitely. Leaders such as Mugabe in

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Zimbabwe have taken to grandstanding on the world stage projecting themselves as Anti-

colonial icons in a bid to remain in office; way after the democratic discourse has dislodged

quite well with their fractious relationship with the media and civic society.

An interesting paradox is, in most instances the attainment of independence has witnessed

African leaders perpetuating the same anti-press freedom and undemocratic pieces of

legislations they inherited from their colonial predecessors.5 The birth of neo-colonialism

-colonial ideas offer useful insights on this contentious terrain.

Working in the 1950s and 1960s as a Psychiatrist in Algeria during its struggles for

independence, Fanon was well placed to study the effects of colonialism on the minds of the

colonised (Probert and Graham, 2008: 231). According to Fanon, then, colonialism is so

thoroughly internalised in the colonial mind that post-colonial rule simply mimics the

operations of the coloniser. In this case, the colonised subject follows the oppressive lead of

his or her former rulers, often expressing control through violence and force. Mugabe once

famously boasted that

6. -

colonial identity that would find expression through the development of positive

representations in cultural practices, such as literature, drama and film/media (Probert and

Graham, 2008:231).

                                                                                                                     5 . Quite paradoxically, Mugabe has retained some colonial pieces of legislations, some which were used against him in his heydays as a Nationalist, eg the infamous Law and Order Maintenance Act (LOMA) used widely by the Ian Smith regime to detain African Nationalist leaders during the colonial era. Elsewhere, Dumisani Moyo (2004:26) argues: Despite its notoriety as an undemocratic piece of legislation, LOMA has been invoked from times to time to prosecute political activists, demonstrators and the media. Its successor legislation, the Public Order and Security Act, (POSA) 2002 has been widely perceived as equally draconian. 6 penchant for

-section 3.6 of this study:

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1.3

Zimbabwe has a small media industry dominated by the state media and a few privately

owned media organisations. Zimbabwe inherited a monopolistic media industry in which the

government of the day not only owns the only broadcasting station but the biggest newspaper

publishing company. (http://www.misazim.co.zw June 2009). The media is used by the

government to promote government policies, and the private media sees its role as watching

on the government, exposing corruption and more importantly exposing human rights

violations.

News coverage in Zimbabwe is therefore characterised by a clear divide between the state

owned and private media (Chakaodza, 2003: 1). For this reason, the Zimbabwe government

sees the private media as rivals who have a political agenda. The government has put the

media under direct control through regulations requiring media houses to be registered and

Journalists licensed. Four newspapers were closed since 2003 for failing to meet registration

requirements and tens of Journalists arrested for violating these laws.

(http://www.misazim.co.zw June 2009).

This is the background scenario within which online news websites and activists have sprung

up, harnessing the democratic potential of the internet and related phenomena to champion

democracy and the democratic discourse. The extent to which new media abets/or impinges

democracy is the brief of this thesis.

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1.4 Theoretical F ramework

It is envisaged that this study will attempt to provide useful insights into how new media

promotes/hinders democracy in authoritarian regimes, especially in Africa. The investigative

approach used hopes to provide a basis for raising critical questions for further research on

the potentials of the internet for democratic practice and governance. This study will be

ideas on postcolonial societies, by a critical theory approach as espoused by Stuart Hall and

the Birmingham School of

which despotic regimes may be especially in their bid to entrench their power

which allows an understanding of the ways in which media both old and new can be used

to challenge such regimes or to support and shore up their power.

Cultural theorist Jurg

about the relationship between the media and democracy in many ways (Sibanda, 2006: 2).

The public sphere refers to a physical agora in which political participation is enacted through

debate. In this space, private individuals congregate to form a public body where matters of

-55).

Habermas stressed that the viability of the public sphere rests on the public

-

of interest was generated, which in turn shaped the policies of the state (Habermas,1989:37).

As an arena of discursive interaction, the public sphere is ideally visualised as being separate

from both the state and the market since it is a site for the production and circulation of

discourses that may be critical of both these realms (Fraser, 1992:109-142).

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Because the scale and some of the political rules of modern society does not allow more

than a small number of citizens to be present in the same physical space, the mass media have

today arguably become the chief institutions of the public sphere (Dahlgren 1995: 2). This is

where I will suggest that new media may be seen to be filling a void or at least a need.

Turning to the situation currently obtaining in Zimbabwe, on the one hand there is the

,

following the watershed March 2008 Parliamentary and Presidential elections), constantly

clashing with the forces of democracy as represented through members of the populace, ie:

e-citizens, e-activists, civic and human rights activists. In collusion with other arms of

government such as state machinery, ZANU PF, a pure political actor, can be seen to have

used its grip on the supposedly public media to further its agenda, to remain in power

indefinitely. Meanwhile the democratic forces, driven out of the country by harsh media laws

and a repressive regime have resorted to enlisting the various alternative media platforms as

tools in what they term their fight against tyranny. As Dumisani Moyo observes,

a multiplicity of alternative public

spheres that enable groups and individuals to continue to participate and engage in the wider

81).

Another linked perspective presents a view of the world shaped by the economically and

politically powerful. From this perspective, the media are not mirrors of society but construct

shared by the rest of the world as commonsensical, given and inevitable (McQuail, 1994:40-

the hegemony gaining the consent of the populace as it seeks to exercise its influence over

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operandi, especially how it relates to its citizenry in Zimbabwe.

In tandem with such a critical theory approach, I will strive to show that the media as an

ideological tool has the power to select what to represent as reality and what to exclude.

ishment, turning a

blind eye to undemocratic governance and human rights abuses. New media has largely

Inclusion and exclusion of events in media work is done within the confines and framework

of advancing a particular set of ideas and beliefs. Ideology is therefore at the centre of media

useful insights although it can also be questioned and interrogated for its inability to deal with

The key interest of critical theory is which particular meanings are produced by the media,

for whom, under what conditions and for what purpose. Thus, fort instance, in representing

conflict situations, the media are inclined to signify events in a particular way that suits the

dominant or contesting ideology. This is so because, the media may be seen in some sense as

merely platforms for the enactment of certain kinds of social power, used by the dominant

and contesting ideologies to perpetuate ideas and beliefs as ideal and/or commonsensical. The

power to represent is, therefore, an exercise of ideological power (Hall, 1982:69). Critical

cultural theorists acknowledge that meaning making is an arena of struggle, as counter-

hegemonic discourses also endeavour to give their own representations of events (Mukundu,

2006:8).  

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1.5 Research Methodology

Through a combination of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of blogs, online news websites,

and interviews with Editors and contributors to online news sites with a bearing on

Zimbabwe, I aim to establish their input in aiding or inhibiting the democratic discourse and

practices in the country. I propose to do a close textual analysis of similar themed news

online news sites and pro-

analysing opaque as well as transparent structural relationships of dominance, discrimination,

especially

in all post-structuralist approaches, ideology, power, hierarchy, history and the context

underpin the analysis of textual material (Moyo, 2008: 2). The diversity of my research

methodologies will be particularly relevant in addressing my three key research questions.

Interviews with stakeholders in the production of news on online sites, for instance, will be

especially valuable in shedding light on the extent to which new media can be empowering to

the populace in their quest for democracy. On the other hand, close textual analysis will

throw up useful insights about the complexity and contradictions of new media platforms in

enhancing the democratic discourse. I do not seek to provide a simplistic approach by

prescribing spurious theories on the certainty and inherent affordances of new media in

nurturing democracy. The brief of my investigative study is limited to providing a better

understanding and a basis for raising critical questions for further research on the role played

by new media in fostering democracy in totalitarian regimes.

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Chapter 2

Press F reedom and Democracy in Z imbabwe: A Review of the L iterature

Press freedom and democracy in Zimbabwe is a highly contested terrain especially in light of

the current despotic regime in Harare and the unfolding political events on the ground. This is

an area which has attracted huge research interest since the inception of what has come to be

advancing multiple viewpoints. This chapter adopts a tripartite approach in relation to the

topic under study, ie: revisit the political situation of Zimbabwe in terms of what has already

been written about press freedom and democracy. An international literature review on the

potentials of the internet for democracy will be carried out before refocusing the discussion

back on Zimbabwe/the African context as a whole in view of current literature on the input of

the internet and new mobile technologies in the struggle against undemocratic governance.

This will seek to address one of my primary research questions: establishing the role played

by new media in fostering democracy in Authoritarian regimes. My brief is to expand and go

beyond current scholarship on this contentious area.

Government or state owned media whose brief is to entrench and perpetuate government and

controlled dailies, The Herald,

published in the capital Harare, and its sister paper, The Chronicle published in the second

largest city,

Over the years, there has been a peculiar type of journalism in Zimbabwe that avoided

confronting those in power. The two dailies were co- -

officials, this developmental Journalism has been interpreted to mean that the press is

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an ally of the state in the nation-building project. As such, the papers were not

expected to criticise the government but to celebrate the exploits of the head of state

and his ministers. By so doing, the government narrowed the definition of journalism

and accorded itself the role of determining what was in the public interest. These

papers have thus deteriorated into government propaganda mouthpieces, loosing

credibility in the process (Moyo, 2005: 112).

It is because of the heights of its obsequious propaganda that The Herald is usually

reference to the former Soviet Communist Party mouthpiece. To those in Western

democracies, now used to a somewhat critical and independent press that is more prone to

poke fun at politicians than to eulogise them, this might seem strange. Yet as Moyo notes, in

Zimbabwe current media policies can be seen to have historical roots:

This web of government control of the flow of information extends to broadcasting,

which was inherited as a monopoly from the colonial era. While in name a public

broadcaster, Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, (ZBC) has served essentially as a

propaganda mouthpiece for the government of the day since colonialism. The effect of

state dominance in the media has been the narrowing of the public sphere and hence

an impoverishment of democracy (Moyo, 2005: 112).

The

Zimbabwe Independent, The Standard, and The F inancial Gazette. These are mainly weekly

its excesses and providing incisive political commentary. Their major limitation however, has

been that these are elite papers in the sense that their target readership is mainly the urban

middle classes who have some disposable income (Moyo, 2005: 112). This is the background

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against which The Daily News, the fiercest ever private daily newspaper came into being in

March 1999. The Daily News filled a void providing a popular newspaper that was

affordable to the majority of the working population. In a climate where the mainstream daily

newspapers had lost credibility, the arrival of this alternative voice was quite welcome

(Moyo, 2005:112).

It has been suggested that in countries where opposition political parties are weak or non-

opposition (Ungar 1996, Ronning 1998, Hyden and Okigbo 2002)7.

the one-party state during the late 80s and early 90s, and secondly, by acting as the

The Daily News came at a time when

opposition forces were in disarray, despite growing agitation for reform from the

grassroots. Rising inflation, rampant corruption, among other things created a

groundswell of a frustrated mass with no centre to coordinate it. Thus it can be argued

that in many ways The Daily News assumed the role of coordinating those disparate

voices. The tacit role of an opposition press rather than a mere alternative to the state

005: 113).

has New media sought to promote democracy and empower the populace and with what

effect? Does it foster democracy simply because it is the alternative voice, representing

marginalised voices? To avoid reaching premature conclusions, it is imperative to fully

appreciate the impact of The Daily News on

political landscape. Only then can, informed judgements be drawn.

                                                                                                                     7 Cited in Moyo, D, (2005analysis of the banned Daily News. Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture.

  20  

Within months of its establishment, The Daily News became the most strident critic of

the Mugabe government, exposing corruption and holding the government

accountable to its actions. Its fearless criticism of government corruption and political

intolerance gave hope to many in a country where a culture of silence had become

dominant. Subsequently, its print-run shot up from an initial 60,000 to 120,000,

within a few months, surpassing the dominant state controlled The Herald, whose

circulation stood at 90 000 (ZAMPS, 2002).8

In terms of nurturing press freedom and democratic discourse, The Daily News played a

significant role. Had it not been for the input of The Daily News, the new political party on

the scene, MDC, would not have made the significant strides they did, especially garnering

fifty seven Parliamentary seats in the watershed 2000 Parliamentary elections. Such a win

Geoffrey Nyarota is considered the doyen of Zimbabwean journalism. A fiery and

courageous investigative journalist, he was editor-in-chief. A brief history

The Chronicle newspaper and during his tenure as editor there in the 1980s ran a massive

scoop which brought to the fore a scandal which exposed government corruption and

nepotism. The scandal which was

in disgrace over the sleaze.9 In effect, cabinet ministers had bought cars at a leading car

manufacturer, Willowvale Motor Industries in Harare at very cheap prices using their clout

and position only to resell them at inflated prices making huge profits in the process. At least

                                                                                                                     8 . ZAMPS stands for: The Zimbabwe All Media Products Survey, an organisation whose remit is to carry out readership and consumer research. The research adopts a quantitative approach intended to indicate the numbers of consumers accessing various media products (and how) for the benefit of advertisers. 9 .The Willowgate Scandal was a major implicated cabinet ministers in a profiteering car selling racket. Such was the depths of the scandal that one cabinet minister, the late Maurice Nyagumbo committed suicide in shame. Exposing the scandal also cost

Grain Memoirs of a Zimbabwean Newsman

  21  

one cabinet minister committed suicide over the scandal and another was spared serving a jail

sentence by a Presidential pardon from Mugabe.

The Willowgate scandal shook the Mugabe government to its core, moreso coming so soon

after Independence when the new Black government sought to project itself both as Socialist

wrongdoing, and he lost his Editorship over the scandal, being

ZIMPAPERS Head Office in Harare, where he later resigned in deep frustration.

Such background information about Nyarota sheds light on how the Mugabe government was

to treat him vindictively as Editor-in-Chief of the only successful and largest circulating

private daily.

The Daily News] broke government monopoly in social and political commentary. It

stimulated nationwide debate on constitutional reform, and greatly influenced the

defeat of the state-sponsored draft constitution in the 2000 referendum. During the

2000 Parliamentary and 2002 Presidential elections, it exposed state-sponsored

(Moyo, 2005: 114).

The critical thrust of The Daily News earned the wrath of the ZANU PF government, and

government o

worth drawing attention to how language as a medium becomes a form of power discourse at

the disposal of the hegemony, to be manipulated to serve their ends. As Chris Barker argues,

only what can be said under determinate social...conditions, but who can speak, when and

  22  

When the hegemony starts name-calling, attaching insulting derogatory labels to its citizens

citizenry. Dr L

the public media in Zimbabwe, shows how it recasts the national public debate about the

crisis in Zimbabwe in a segregatory way to include and exclude certain groups, malign and

praise other groups, in ways that render citizens as either in-groups or out-groups to

nationhood. On the other hand, insiders to the myth of nationhood are described as

while on

the other hand outsiders are vilified for their different political opinions through epithets such

-

The Daily News fell under such a fate where it was constantly at the receiving end of ZANU

-calling. A well-orchestrated, systematic campaign of harassment, and

intimidation was instigated against the newspaper by the ZANU PF hegemony.

The appointment of Jonathan Moyo, a former Political Science Professor, as new Minister of

Information in 2000 further compounded the misfortunes of The Daily News. The new

minister launched a sustained attack on the paper, issuing threats and suing the paper from all

directions. During its lifetime, the newspaper was also the target of two bombing attacks,

which had a crippling effect on its operation (BBC Africa News, cited in Waldahl 2004:137).

2.1 Laws Restricting Media F reedom

In Post-independence Africa, politicians have had a willing partner in the Judiciary system in

subverting the democratic process, and Zimbabwe is no exception to this trend. Under

  23  

Jonathan Moyo as Information minister, three draconian pieces of legislation meant to curtail

media freedom and plurality were enacted. These were the often misnamed, Access to

Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), 2002, Public Order and Security Act

(POSA), 2002 and the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA) of 2001. It is fair to argue that the

promulgation of these pieces of legislation sealed the fate of The Daily News, especially in

accredited with the MIC, a government appointed Commission. The government-appointed

commission could exercise its discretion to decide who could work as a journalist in

Zimbabwe. As a result of this law, several foreign correspondents, including those reporting

for CNN and BBC were expelled from the country. AIPPA was thus a legal instrument

created in order to control the private press in general, and not, as suggested by its misleading

The foregoing is the background context within which The Daily News was operating. 12

September, 2003 goes down in the annals of history as a sad day for democracy and press

The Daily News and shut

the newspaper down, acting on a Supreme Court ruling issued the previous day declaring that

.

government appointed Media Information Committee (MIC) as required under (AIPPA),

whose constitutionality it was challenging in the courts. However, the Supreme Court threw

such, the paper was ordered to first register with the MIC before its case could be heard. The

MIC in turn refused to register The Daily News, citing among other things the expiry of the

110)

  24  

2.2 Impact of closure of The Daily News

In a bid to address my research questions, chief among them being the need to shed light on

the extent to which new media has been instrumental in nurturing democracy and

empowering the populace, I dwell at some length on the ramifications of the unceremonious

closure of The Daily News.

The closure of The Daily News had far reaching implications not only for press freedom but

for the future of democracy in Zimbabwe. With the main critical players silenced, the

Mugabe government could perpetuate its crackdown on activists and other dissenting voices

unchecked. Paradoxically, yet another vacuum for alternative information was created with

this unceremonious closure of a dissenting newspaper.

it has become widely accepted that the media are central to modern democracy as

primary sources of information. This is because democracy as a political system

requires an informed citizenry that is capable of participating effectively in public

debate and in the overall political process, where they have to make informed

decisions. Consequently, the exchange and free flow of information and the ability of

citizens to have equal access to sources of information as well as equal opportunities

(Keane 1991, Lichtenberg 1995).10

Yet in on

its watchdog role, had been wiped off the scene by the Zimbabwe authorities.

                                                                                                                     10 acy in Zimbabwe: A critical analysis of the banned Daily News. Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture.

  25  

The extent to which new media platforms have contributed to re-opening democratic spaces

and promoting the democratic discourse in a dictatorship such as Zimbabwe will be fully

considered in subsequent chapters. In the same vein, the ambivalent opportunities of new

will also be fully

interrogated.

2.3 The Internet and Potentials for Democracy: a review of international perspectives

Information is the oxygen of the modern age. It seeps through the walls. Topped by barbed wire, it wafts across the electrified borders.

___Ronald Reagan, speech in London, June 1989

__________________________________________________________________

Opinion is diverse and varied on the immense potential of the internet for democracy, the

Cyberspace appears to be a contested area, with struggles of private versus public

interests, along one dimension, and civil liberties/civil society versus state power,

along another dimension. The tensions are indivisible from and even proceed from the

formation of our civilian cyberspace from a military/statist core, they will not be

quickly resolved at a political level, although they might be trivialised by the

commercialisation of the Internet (Hurwitz, 2003:101-102).

Such is the strength of this school of thought that other scholars, such as Douglas Schuler,

argue that in spite of the much publicised hype, the internet has no place in politics,

  26  

especially given the growth and prominence of industry and commerce in to

oriented world. Notwithstanding the controversy, some maintain that:

the internet has become a new tool and venue for political groups of all stripes.

Advocacy and interest groups use it to organise their supporters for online lobbying of

local, national, and foreign officials, who themselves need e-mail addresses to be

credible in this information age. Ad hoc responses to major political events, like

impeachment and massacres, can gain national attention in a few days, as network

users redistribute petitions and sample letters to their personal distribution lists.

Revolutionaries, like the Zapatistas in Chiapas, Mexico, and dissidents, like the

Serbian radio group B92, can webcast messages to audiences all over the globe and

receive moral and financial support in return. Survivalist groups can network by

exchanging pointers to respective websites and thereby increase the possibilities of so

called leaderless resistance (Hurwitz, 2003:102).

ions ie, seeking to elucidate the input of

new media in fostering democracy in authoritarian regimes, it is imperative to start by

looking at the potentials of the internet for democracy more broadly: What role has been

played by mobile phones and the virtual public sphere in promoting civic and political action

globally? What are the potentials posed by such digital technologies in this respect?

Platforms which will also be considered are, in particular, the world wide web as it allows

different tools such as blogs, wikis and social networking sites to flourish.

New media offers numerous possibilities to various stakeholders: proponents of democracy,

Journalists or even the hegemonic group Politicians. As Rena Kim Biven notes:

  27  

Rising public documentation via mobile phones inserts a new element into

s the potential for boundless discussion

among the public and also engagement with New Media by news organisations

(Bivens, 2008: 113).

In seeking to describe the input of new media in the democratic discourse, I am well aware of

the challenges posed by some new media platforms such as the Internet for instance. In the

words of Sarah Oates and Rachel Gibson:

The study of the Internet has defied traditional scholarship in two primary ways. First,

the Internet has changed so rapidly and so fast that it is enormously difficult to keep

up with its content and direction, much less try to predict how it may affect political

behaviour and civil society (Oates, and Gibson , 2006:2).

Such an observation should caution against reaching simplistic judgements in my evaluation

of the impact of new media in fostering democracy in authoritarian regimes. Oates and

role in politics, but relatively little research that can be replicated and discussed across

impact of the Internet on democracy in a third world country like Zimbabwe, nonetheless,

this study seeks to illuminate the input of new media in aiding/hindering democracy in third

world countries such as Zimbabwe, suggesting parallels and ways of analysing similar media

in similar contexts, as previous research has tended to focus on case-studies to do with

countries such as the US and Britain, whose histories and political systems are in many

respects different from African countries.

  28  

The Internet as a new media platform is highly complex. As (Oates and Gibson 2006:2)

sums up:

One of the primary problems in looking at the Internet is that it is paralleled in the

study of the mass media in general. The Internet is a sphere that can involve virtually

all levels of the political world simultaneously, from the officials who are

broadcasting their policies via websites, to the mass media that are interpreting the

messages on separate websites, to the citizens sitting at their computers and absorbing

internet content. Therefore, just as with traditional mass media, it is important to

consider which level of analysis is under examination.

Andrew Chadwick has written extensively on this area: the interface between democracy and

new media. He is of the view that the internet has now become heavily politicised and this

trend is likely to intensify. He argues there is now growing pressure for control of the internet

some of the hype about its nature being always pro-democratic:

Political actors are increasingly attempting to use the Internet to enhance their

presence and legitimise their activities in ways that are genuinely new but which still

have affinities with older media strategies long ago designed for traditional print and

broadcast media. States are increasingly attempting to regulate social and political

behaviour online and are monitoring the use of the internet by groups and movements

considered to be a threat to political stability and the interests of key economic actors.

In the meantime, such economic actors are themselves lobbying governments to act to

protect their positions (Chadwick, 2006:2).

Relations between states and civil society have not always been amicable, and this trend is

-democracy and Internet-enabled

  29  

grassroots mobilizat

2006:2)

In some studies, it is clear that a view prevails that the Internet has empowered ordinary

people. In this view, whereas they used to be largely marginalized by the mainstream

broadcast media and television, now they can turn to the Net for deliberative democracy. The

relative speed and fluidity of cyberspace sometimes allows marginal groups to thrust their

agenda into the political mainstream (Mitra, 2001:34). The authoritative status of powerful

institutional players over information, at the very least and be they governments,

corporations, or mainstream media has certainly been loosened (Chadwick, 2006: 6). For

some, the very notion of authoritative communication has been challenged (Mitra, 2001:34).

Institutional power in the offline world certainly travels over to the online world, but power

in cyberspace is apparently much more fragile and contingent. Compared with the relatively

passive consumption of broadcasting, cyberspace is a more interactive and participatory

communication ecosystem in which it becomes more difficult for the powerful to intervene to

draw discussion to a close (Chadwick, 2006: 6).

The complex potential of the Internet and especially the world wide web in aiding democratic

discourse is seen by the diverse ways some governments the world over have sought to

regulate and contain the internet for their own parochial interests. This has however not been

without setbacks as the internet is not that easy to regulate unlike other forms of media such

and control access to Internet content. Some governments have tried and have achieved

surprising successes, most notably, in authoritarian systems such as China and Singapore.

Physical seizure of computers is one option, as is state rationing of access to

effectively do, short of full-time keystroke, screen

  30  

capture, or processor-level surveillance, is prevent even a slightly motivated person from

-known technical

fixes for state censorship, such as using proxy servers, encryption, and other anonymity tools

to route around controls. This should not be misconstrued that the internet cannot be

regulated, as has often been claimed. Rather, the comparative difficulty of regulating it

depe

Of much importance/relevance to my research questions is the mere fact that authoritarian

regimes vigorously seek to contain and regulate the internet. This, in a way, highlights the

immense potential of new media platforms such as the internet in harnessing democracy,

-

strive to contain and regulate the internet, their efforts seem futile. However, there still

remains the thorny question of skills and access. Just because technology is available to

enable information seeking and debate does not mean that it will be used for this purpose. As

is not so much the physical availability of

onic information can have a positive

impact in promoting democracy in Africa, by providing civil society with greater leverage

vis-à-vis the state and political elites (Ott, 1998: 1). Others argue similarly:

The general belief holds that representative government is the only form of democracy

-states. However,

interactive telecommunications now make it possible for tens of millions of widely

dispersed citizens to receive the information they need to carry out the business of

government themselves, gain admission to the political realm, and retrieve at least

  31  

some of the power over their own lives and goods that many believe their elected

leaders are squandering (Grossman, 1996:6).

Therein lies Habe

good use, new media platforms such as mobile phones, and the internet in challenging

tyranny and plotting a way foward.

Oates offers alternative and refreshing perspectives on the interface between democracy and

the Internet. She poses interesting questions:

Do the particular features of the Internet, particularly its greater ability to promote

user engagement and subvert national regulation; make it a particularly useful tool for

aggregating interests and expressing the views of citizens in non-

2003:2)

She goes further and argues that such questions can only be fully addressed by discussing

fundamental issues to do with the Internet, such as:

Is the Internet qualitatively different from the more traditional forms of the media? Of

real potential to improve civil society through the wider provision of information and

more direct communication between government and citizen? Can the Internet serve

as a defender or even rallying point for certain elements of a civil society --- such as

freedom of speech, the development of social movements and the consolidation of

political parties --- or is it effectively controlled or even subverted by authoritarian

regimes (Oates, 2003:2).

Pertinently for this dissertation, Oates asks whether the Internet is not in effect acting as a

double-

  32  

e to show here how even the changing

media functions incited by new media can be manipulated as a propaganda tool by despotic

regimes. In the same vein, changed technologies do not necessarily alter political realities:

- ulterior motives and self-interests to acquire political

power and thus can use these new media platforms to further rhetoric which is far divorced

from democratic ideals. In the final analysis, useful insights can be drawn on the immense

potential/ limitations of the internet in furthering/hindering the democratic discourse in

authoritarian systems, as noted in the foregoing international literature review. The topic

under study is a huge research area which cannot be limited to one sphere of the world. As

noted in the review, the interface between new media and democracy has a universal appeal

in various parts of the world. Much as new media has an international presence in

undemocratic regimes the world over, it is useful to once more refer to Oates and

ne area I hope my study will help to

plug especially in shedding light on the input of new media in authoritarian regimes in third

world countries such as Zimbabwe. The third world seems to be a little considered sphere in

this respect as current academic scholarship has tended to largely focus on the role of the

internet in politics in the developed world. Before moving into the case-studies that constitute

my study, however, chapter 3 will examine in more detail the methods used to gather and

analyse data.

  33  

Chapter 3 - Research Methodology                              

3.1 Research Approaches

This chapter seeks to identify and discuss the various research methods I have employed and

the methodologies that underpin them. I will also strive to establish and justify

methodologies I feel best address my key research questions. The merits and de-merits of the

numerous research approaches will also be taken into account, as this has an impact on the

credibility of conclusions drawn in the end. Equally important is discussion of the kind of

data used as evidence, and also the methodologies most commonly applied to them. Methods

of inquiry can be differently inflected, especially when analysing electronic and print sources.

Especially worth looking at is the use of propaganda as a tool at the disposal of an existing

of propaganda (1988)11will therefore be central in my analysis. It will be ideal to preview

some articles and electronic

using, for instance, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA).

Informed by a belief that the fusion of methodologies in a single research design enables one

to come up with a superior piece of research in which the weaknesses of one are

complemented by the strengths of another (Bryman, 1984:86, Strelitz, 2003:92), my study

will mainly use the Qualitative research paradigm. Thus a multi-method research design

combining elements of the case study approach, interviews and content analysis seemed

appropriate.

                                                                                                                     11 Herman E, S and Chomsky N, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, (1988). Through this book, Herman and Chomsky popularized the propaganda model, although it is not without its shortcomings.

  34  

3.2 E thical Challenges

In line with academic standards which my University has to comply with, before one

embarks on a research topic, I had to complete an Ethics form setting out among other things:

project title, professional ethics and specific ethical issues to take into account. I faced

unforeseen setbacks as the first form I submitted was not approved by the Academic Board

for the MA Media programme. They felt my choice of topic was very sensitive, and given the

nature of the Mugabe regime, I was putting not only myself to risk but also my family. In

close liaison with my Supervisor, I had to rethink how I would uphold ethical issues to the

letter, respect and closely guard the privacy and confidentiality of my sources unless they

granted me permission to quote their names in my study and protect family and myself. These

ethical challenges had ramifications on my research design which I had to alter in some

instances. For example, when interviewing various stakeholders, I had to use an assumed

identity, and had to surf political blogs under a pseudonym. In one extreme case, I had to

terminate a planned interview with a pro-regime online news Editor who became intrusive

wanting to know my precise personal details.

3.3 Case Study Approach

Since my study is an investigation, I will mainly use the case study approach, focusing on

Zimbabwe and the extent to which new media has helped in fostering democracy. A case

study approach is normally undertaken as a way to circumvent generalisations, or when

multiple perspectives are being sought. It has been argued that a case is a specific, unique,

bounded system whose particularity, in and of itself, merits research. (Stake, 1995:4) For a

case to yield richer and multiple insights into the phenomenon under study, it maybe

necessary to employ various methods of enquiry. (Hamel, Dufuor and Fortin 1993, Yin 1989,

Flick 1992 cited in Stake 1995 and Olaf Tietje 2000). Thus a researcher should not simply

  35  

find the most appropriate method but a combination of methods, which produce a better and

deeper understanding of the research question.(Hansen et al, 1988) This explains why I have

opted to employ a combination of methods in my research within the qualitative research

ambit.

The case study approach is the most suitable method for situations where one wants to obtain

a wealth of detail about a particular phenomenon or situation, from which to draw new

interpretations and insights. The technique is open to the use of various other methods, in fact

the more the data sources that can be brought to bear in a case, the more likely that the study

is valid. (Wimmer and Dominic 1991: 150) Thus the study consists of a qualitative content

analysis of the blogs: http://kubatanablogs.net and

http://www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe in which individual posts will be considered.

Content analysis equips one with tools for the systematic analysis of large amounts of media

output. (Hansen, et al, 1998:91, Deacon, et al 1995:115). Although hits on blogs can be

considered unreliable indicators of the relative popularity of blog posts, these should be

looked at in relation to other factors such as: the number of other blogs that lists them on their

3.4 C ritical Discourse Analysis (C D A)

Overall, I will employ, (CDA) as an investigative tool to investigate and critique the input of

new media in fostering/impinging democracy in Authoritarian regimes and in addressing

other research questions. CDA falls within the Qualitative Research paradigm. The validity of

critical discourse analysis remains a matter of interpretation. Some have argued that as there

1994:101) Even the best constructed arguments are subject to their own deconstructive

  36  

reading and counter-interpretations (Frohmann, 1994: 101). Thus, it is my intention to

news with a bearing on Zimbabwe.

CDA is a type of discourse analytical research that primarily studies the way the abuse,

dominance and inequality of social power are enacted, reproduced and resisted by text and

talk in the social and political context. CDA seeks ultimately to resist social inequality (Teun

A. Van Dijk, 1998:1). CDA model fits in quite well within the scope of my study and the

critical theory perspective. Norman Fairclough is one of the chief proponents of CDA, and I

will use his approach to CDA (1995) especially when I do textual analysis.

-

occupation will be the site of struggle/the constant clash between hegemonic discourse as

ed by some new media actors.

conclusions on the potentials of Blogging for democracy. The frequency and intensity of blog

postings, both by users and Host will also be taken into account. Questions such as the

following will thus need to be considered: what is the frequency of postings on the blogs

like? Is there an increase in Blog traffic at certain times, such as Election time or is it

consistent at a particular level?

I will also strive to use sampling of the blog posts, as it is not each and every posting I will

consider. I will consider blog posts made in the period leading up to the watershed March

2008 joint Parliamentary and Presidential elections, the aftermath of the elections, the

subsequent one man sham Presidential election of June 28, and its volatile aftermath. I will

also look at the post September 15th signing of the proposed Government of national unity

tion, scenario. I have chosen these particular

  37  

time frames, following random sampling and close survey of blog postings, which revealed to

me the best ways to quantify the input of new media in enhancing/undermining democracy in

Totalitarian regimes, could justifiably be noted in both pre and post election scenarios in

individual countries like Zimbabwe for instance. I noticed an increased traffic of internet use

within this time frame.

Through applying CDA, the study will also briefly preview some journalistic articles, blog

postings, speeches by the hegemonic group such as Politicians, in a bid to assess the input of

new media in aiding/undermining democratic discourse. The preview is intended to be a

snapshot only, as a much more detailed analysis will be the subject of chapter 4 and 5. Of

greater importance to me is the need to focus on the power in language as a discourse, taking

3.5 Sample Case Studies - Mugabe and Hate-Speech

The media in authoritarian regimes such as Zimbabwe is largely state-owned and, quite

evidently, usually advances a hegemonic point of view. Public media institutions such as the

sole broadcaster and Television station ZBC-ZTV and the two government dailies, The

Herald and Chronicle c

therefore seek to explore the diverse ways in which language can be manipulated by the

powerful and the hegemonic organisations to entrench and buttress their self-interests.

A salient example of how language can be manipulated to serve the needs of the hegemony

can be seen through the machinations of Mugabe and his henchmen in Zimbabwe. One needs

to look at their speeches to gain an insight into this phenomenon. A brief historical note about

Mugabe is therefore essential.

  38  

politics for over two decades. He has sought to manipulate the colonial ideology as expedient

rhetoric to perpetuate his rule indefinitely. Subsequently, he enjoys an audience in Africa and

parts of the Middle East where he has created cult status as an anti-colonial icon. Possibly, for

heydays (the 1960s usually dubbed the anti-

colonial days in Africa), it was his anti-colonial stances that made them supporters and he has

retained some pan-African support in that guise.

-West rhetoric has inevitably led to propaganda of higher proportions

unfolding. An example of this propaganda can be seen in a news article, published on the

BBC website: http://www.bbc.co.uk on 12 December 2008, in which responding to the

cholera epidemic which was then ravaging the country, Mugabe and his spin-doctors claimed

that the cholera epidemic was a creation of the Americans and British to get rid of the

Zimbabwean people. Ludicrous as it appears, anti-imperialist slight of hand has become

Americans and

British. Such uses of language can have considerable effects on a predominantly rural

populace, whose only source of information is the government controlled radio, and who are

therefore likely to be unable to check alternative sources or be exposed to opposing

viewpoints from outside their own communities. Mugabe has consistently demonised the

opposition MDC as an American and British creation. To some ordinary Zimbabweans, this

propaganda has led them to believe that the opposition MDC is a

Mugabe is also a past master at using hate-speech and inflammatory language without being

challenged for it.

speeches he has used time to time to intimidate opponents and stifle the democratic discourse.

  39  

3.6 President's F ighting Talk

shall have been the product of the gun. The gun which produces the vote should

remain its security officer -

and damning once and for all the bootlicking British stooges, the traitors and

sellouts, the political witches and political prostitutes, political charlatans and the

two-

Sources: Times archives (http://timesonline.co.uk F ebruary 2009)

A critical deconstructive reading of such speeches reveals the immense power of

language as a discourse especially in a nation in which information dissemination is

largely the preserve of the ruling government. The recent genocide in Rwanda and

Burundi is a living testimony of what happens when leaders fan hate speech through the

medium of radio, for instance. The endemic political violence and gross human rights

  40  

documented and those who commit them, I suggest, are encouraged and emboldened by

such hate speech.

3.7

Zimbabwe is currently under sanctions both by the European Union and the United

States of America. These sanctions are avowedly aimed at forcing Mugabe and his

regime adhere to democratic principles of good governance, respect for the rule of law

and observance of human rights. The EU has recently renewed the sanctions for a

further twelve months, effective from February 2009. Of greater significance to note on

propaganda, day in day out, defending and fanning violence, falsehoods and human

rights abuses. Names of key Mugabe propagandists Caesar Zvayi, Judith Makwanya,

on the EU sanctions list. None sums it better than a report by the respected, independent

media watchdog in Zimbabwe MMPZ: Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe,

commenting on the state of the public media in Zimbabwe:

spokesman Charamba, with the State media conspicuously silent on hundreds of

deaths and thousands of cases of torture, assault, arson and destruction of homes in

state-driven lawlessness.

broadcaster and Zimbabwe Newspapers, led by the daily Herald in Harare, broadcast

people to violence.

  41  

PZ says.

(http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com - February 2009)

to the death of about a million people

there in 1994.

known, which identifies biases in the media that attempt to drown dissent and build

consensus around authoritarian ideas.

In the case of Zimbabwe, the public media is largely owned by the state, thus the state

of

ownership, in the sense that the sort of information and news presented to the

Zimbabwean populace by the public Broadcaster and newspapers is blatantly biased as

-democracy and human rights

careers, in which case their anti-dictatorship talk becomes mere empty rhetoric, as once

such self-interested cliques assume power, society witnesses a perpetuation of the same

-

Zimbabwe, following the swearing in into office of the GNU as of February 2009,

vindicates such scepticism, as will be shown in analysis in subsequent chapters.

  42  

3.8 Language as Power Discourse

and propaganda writings. Through its significatory powers, the media constructs what it

becomes central as it is the medium through which meanings are produced (Hall 1982:

al analysis is based on a

critical perspective of society. He argues that mediated communication is an arena of

contest, as language is used to exercise power (Fairclough, 1995: 58).

But how do we explain the massive glare of publicity that has bedevilled the autocratic

regime in Harare? Publicity which has seen images of human rights violations, assaults

-

beamed out around the world, such that the crisis in Zimbabwe has assumed global

prominence? The answer lies in the advent and proliferation of new media actors

working across different new media platforms. In a telephone interview I conducted

with prominent Zimbabwean journalist and Editor of the online news website:

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk, Wilf Mbanga, who now lives in exile in the United

Kingdom, the explanation is all too palpable. Now, with the prevalence of new media,

information is no longer the sole preserve of the ruling elite or big media institutions.

Much as Mugabe and his henchmen strive to undermine the democratic discourse, the

tide is beginning to turn against dictatorships as will be shown in my case study

analyses in chapter 4 and 5.

New media has largely played an emancipatory role as it enters the hitherto

governed enabling them to question the status quo. If subjects are unhappy in the way

  43  

then they can harness new media and agitate for political

reform as is currently the case in Authoritarian regimes such as in Zimbabwe.

In summary, through a combination of CDA, content analysis, interviews with Editors and

contributors to online news webs

and 5 to establish their input in aiding/or inhibiting the democratic discourse. I propose to do

a close textual analysis of similar news articles and assess how they are treated in these

-establishment media/sites. It will especially be

helpful to look at how authoritarian regimes are responding to online challenges of new

media platforms to their power base. In choosing a particular time frame to focus on, in my

textual analysis of individual news articles, I have decided to let the time frame be an open

cheque approach and will focus on what I deem to be pertinent news stories. I have made

this decision given the currency of news values with regard to the situation currently

obtaining in Zimbabwe, as major newsworthy events emerge daily. Such an approach will

help in ensuring my study remains current and contemporary.

  44  

Chapter 4 - Historical Case Study: Z imbabwe Politics and Media

4.1 Repression and C losure of Democratic Space

Southern African nation for over two decades. Zanu PF long lost the mandate and legitimacy

to be in power in Zimbabwe, way back in 2002 when Mugabe rigged his way back into

office.12 The last Presidential election of March 2008 saw Mugabe coming second place to

opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai of the (MDC) party. Mugabe held on to the election

results for close to two months, plotting ways to doctor the results. In the end, Mugabe and

his military junta, won the day as they declared no-one had won the elections with adequate

votes to claim outright victory, thus a run off had to be conducted, as a way out of the

impasse13. What followed was a dark period in the history of modern Zimbabwe. It saw

14.

Violence won the day. Opposition leader Tsvangirai pulled out of the impending run-off

election, citing gross violence and intimidation perpetrated against his supporters by Zanu PF.

He took sanctuary in the Dutch embassy in Harare, as his own life was under threat.

Predictably, Mugabe went ahead with a farcical one-man election on June 28, 2008 in which

he -

-election.

There was no government in the country for several months. It was only after February, 2009

                                                                                                                     12 .The Presidential elections of March 2002 in Zimbabwe were largely dismissed by the International community as fraudulent as there were allegations of vote rigging and impropriety corroborated by the EU and independent election monitors and observers. 13 .Diverse Journalistic articles by respected Journalists such as Angus Shaw and Raymond Maingire among others back my interpretation of historical events. View the following articles which appeared on: http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com

historical events. 14 .Interpretation of political and historical events backed by Journalistic articles, see footnote 2 above for details.

  45  

that a new coalition government, comprising Zanu PF, and the two MDC formations: came

into being as a Government of National Unity (GNU).

ho used to be dined and wined by the

West, seen in the same mould or hall of fame as living legends like Nelson Mandela? How,

especially, can we explain his exposure as corrupt and violent when almost all media were

banned or controlled by him? In this dissertation, I explore the part played by new media in

undemocratic practices. Such exposure helped to conscientise an otherwise docile populace,

who began to question how they were governed and subsequently to agitate for political

reform.

The Mugabe government in a bid to consolidate its hegemony and control the democratic

space especially from the 1990s enacted a plethora of legislations to undermine human rights

and media freedoms. These draconian pieces of legislations have been referred to in chapter

215. However, new media platforms such as the Blogging phenomenon have contributed to

empowering the populace, by equipping them with tools to fight undemocratic political

tactics. My main focus is on two blogs as case studies. In tandem, also in Chapter 5, I

consider how mainstream and pro-dictatorship forces are responding to online challenges and

how they are using both older and new media forms to maintain their hegemony.

4.2 Blogging Phenomenon Case Studies

Blogging has become one of the fastest growing forms of online activities, and is proving to

have potential as a media platform which can enhance citizen participation in public life                                                                                                                      15 See Laws Restricting Media Freedom section in Chapter 2

  46  

(Blood, 2003, Singer, 2005, Hiler 2002). In societies with little public and mainstream media

freedom, rather than being mere online diaries or repositories for skills and knowledge on

particular topics as they often become in the USA, blogs appear to provide a virtual public

sphere where pe

In addition, blogs are diverse in terms of their focus; they can focus on personal thoughts and

commentary or public and social issues. Most blogs have facilities for readers to leave

comments and other messages, thus creating a community of readers centred on a particular

blog. Although it can be argued that blogs are nothing more than electronic diaries, some

scholars contend that blogs offer an interactive communication outlet for alternative voices

which are traditionally left out of the mainstream media (Blood, 2003: 62, Lasica, 2002: 72).

Here I carry out a critical deconstructive analysis of articles from two blogs:

http://www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe/ and http://www.kubatanablogs.net

blog with an interface on the politics and mundane life of Zimbabwe. The nomen clature of

the two terms: Zvakwana/Sokwanele is highly illuminating. Zvakwana and Sokwanele are

Zimbabwe vernacular terms which mean, enough is enough, possibly implying, people have

-active and do something!

On homepage are the words:

Zimbabwe Civic Action Support Group.

Campaigning for freedom and democracy in Zimbabwe

Further down the page, they describe themselves as:

-democratic political parties,

civic organisations and institutions.

  47  

Sokwanele

restored to the country and protected jealously for future generations to ensure that

Zimbabweans will never be oppressed again.

(http://www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe/ - April 2009)

Such examples of how pro-democracy groups characterise themselves provide insights into

the possible dangers of overlooking the gaps between rhetoric and reality even in well

intentioned pro-democratic forces such as these. This should be kept in mind during the

coming sections.

4.3 The Case of New Media & German Company: G iesecke & Devrient:

A critical discourse analysis of sections from This is Zimbabwe is ideal to address my

research interests. From July 2008, This is Zimbabwe waged a systematic, concerted

campaign against tyranny in Zimbabwe. In their highly publicised campaign, bloggers

lobbied and appealed to both the International Community and the German government to

desist from supplying an economic lifeline to the despotic regime by ensuring German

Company: Giesecke and Devrient stopped printing money for the regime in Harare. Extracts

of the campaign will be reproduced here:

The mone

(JOC) campaign of terror is exclusively supplied by the German company: Giesecke and

Devrient in the form of banknotes printed and delivered to Zimbabwe. The Reserve

Bank of Zimbabwe, which is headed by Gideon Gono (one of the five people comprising

JOC), is supplied with ever increasing quantities of banknotes despite the fact that

  48  

printing money leads to spiralling hyper-inflation.

(http://www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe/ - April 2009)

(JOC) stands for the Joint Operations Committee.16 In encouraging activists to support the

campaign against the German company, This is Zimbabwe bloggers acted as mentors,

providing civic information to members of the public. This is especially evident when they

make a rational argument as in the excerpt below:

Our sample letter provides more information on why we want you to lobby Giesecke &

Devrient, but we would like to particularly call your attention to the fact that the money

printed by Giesecke & Devrient is used by the Zanu PF regime to pay war veterans,

militia, the army and the police to conduct a carefully coordinated campaign of violence

and brutality against the Zimbabwean people. Please note that a recent statement

released by Genocide Watch includes this terrible warning:

ZANU-PF militias, the Zimbabwe army and police, and ZANU-PF mobs have pushed

Zimbabwe to Stage 6, the preparation stage immediately preceding political mass

murder. (http://www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe/ - April 2009)

It is instructive to note that, in the preceding excerpt, not only do bloggers make a rational

argument to legitimize their campaign, but by providing a sample letter to be used by

members of the public in executing this campaign, they are going a step further by

providing training in civic skills. Thus it can be argued new media is empowering the

public in their bid to make politicians accountable to the electorate.

This became a sustained and well-coordinated online campaign, organised especially through

the auspices of the blog Sokwanele. Among other platforms used, bloggers employed various

                                                                                                                     16 (JOC) stands for Joint Operations Committee, a coterie

  49  

methods to publicise the issue: they contacted the German government and Giesecke &

Devrient Company directly, appealed to the ethical code of conduct as espoused by the World

Bank, and how the German Company was in violation of this by continuing to sup with a

discredited Dicta

avalanche of e mails, phone calls and letters from Zimbabweans and concerned activists, the

campaign gathered momentum.17(See Appendix 1 for details) Bloggers went as far as

providing six e mail addresses of the Bank employees of the German company on Sokwanele

blog. A sample letter to be replicated was drafted. In the detailed letter, bloggers appealed to

the Banking Ethics code and charged: continued sustenance of the Mugabe regime made the

German company complicit in acts of terror. (See appendix 2 for full excerpt of the letter,

ideal to view the letter.)18

Through drafting such an elaborate sample letter and encouraging the public to use it, the

immense potential of Blogging in aiding the democratic discourse is highlighted. The letter

is also reflective of the connections between economics and politics as it sheds light on

how money supplied by the German company is used by the despotic regime in Harare to

Initially, the German government was lukewarm in its response, with German Chancellor,

Angela Merkel dismissing it as a private matter, between Devrient Company and the

Government of Zimbabwe. However, activists were unfazed in their vociferous campaign,

which went on unabated. By early July 2008, activists were beginning to reap positive

dividends in their campaign against the German company, as the German Development

Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul eventually relented and requested that Giesecke and

Devrient stop delivering banknote paper (which is printed to denominations in Harare) to

                                                                                                                     17 . Appendix 1: Action Plan as espoused by Bloggers. 18 . Appendix 2: Sample Letter drafted by Bloggers.

  50  

Zimbabwe. She said that the firm had signed an ethical code to which it is bound, that this

code included human rights violations, and that the delivery of money served to stabilise

http://www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe/ - April 2009).

In July 2008, there were a series of demonstrations by human rights organizations in front of

the corporate headquarters of Devrient in Munich. Finally, the company succumbed to

pressure and announced it would stop supplying Zimbabwe with paper used to print money.

Interestingly, the company did acknowledge they had reached this decision owing to:

"Our decision takes account of concerns about the worsening political situation in

Zimbabwe which we had expected to improve," Karsten Ottenberg, managing director of

Giesecke & Devrient said in a statement. "It also reflects the critical views from the

international community, the government and general public."

(http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/ - April 2009)

It can thus be noted, under pressure from diverse quarters, Guisecke and Devrient Company

relented and decided to stop supplying money to the Zimbabwean government. Subsequently,

as predicted by the pro- - or in what some would

to unfold in Harare and the Zimbabwe government was yet to pay its employees, civil

servants,mainly soldiers, nurses, teachers their July salaries. The Guardian newspaper

pay its workers and more importantly the military, after it was forced to severely cut back on

printing money because sanc

(http://www.guardian.co.uk July 2008)

  51  

There is little doubt, the massive online global lobby initiated by Sokwanele blog, played a

pivotal role in persuading Devrient Company to sever ties with the Mugabe regime. It would

however be inconclusive to strive to establish conclusions on the immense power of blogging

based only on one case study. A wider scope is required. Another example closely related to

the Devrient Company is that of Jura JSP.

4.4 The Case of Jura JSP & Software L icense

Buoyed by its overwhelming victory, the blog activists of This is Zimbabwe blog decided to

lauch an action alert on the 24th of July 2008, again asking people to take action against Jura

JSP an Austro-Hungarian Company that specialised in securing printing and provided the

software the Zanu PF Government needed in order to continue printing more money. The

activists calculated: if considerable pressure was exerted on the Austro-Hungarian Company

to deprive Zanu PF of the printing software licence then that would grind the printing presses

in Harare to a halt

(following the unceremonius closure of the German Devrient company source), if the

software license is pulled, - then everything comes crashing down and Zanu PF can no longer

pay off it http://www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe - April

2009)

Bloggers used similar tactics they had previously employed in lobbying the German

company: Giesecke and Devrient in a prior campaign. An action plan was drafted (see

Appendix 3)19, sample letters written up to be despathced to the Austro-Hungarian company

Jura JSP, among other measures. Bloggers were also unanimous in celebrating the success

made by their campaign as reflected by the diversity and celebratory nature of their postings:                                                                                                                      19 . Appendix 3 Action Alert: Lobby Jura JSP to suspend or not renew their software licence to the Zimbabwe government.

  52  

1. Dear Sir

As a former resident of the beautiful and previously prosperous country of

Zimbabwe I would ask you and your company to sever all links with the brutal and

illegal regime of Robert Mugabe. Please help to prevent the suffering of the people

of Zimbabwe.

Yours truly,

Raymond Allan.

Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. 24. July 2008.

2. Done. Have sent off emails all over. We need Angela Merkel to push for this

again. She was instrumental with the Giesecke and Devrient case.

3. There is an article in an Austrian newspaper about our protest mails to JURA

JSP. One new fact seems to be that at least the Vienna Ministry of Economic

Affairs is investigating this matter now.

(http://www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe - April 2009)

4.5 K ubatana Blog:

Kubatana is an online community for Zimbabwean activists. Through their blog

available on: http://www.kubatanablogs.net , fellow Zimbabweans share their comments,

analysis and thoughts on activism, politics and social justice in Zimbabwe, as they battle

which

incidentally is one of the key theoretical frameworks informing my study).

  53  

3,800 subscribers. Increasingly, Zimbabweans are going online and using cell phone text

messages to share stories of life and death in a country where independent traditional

media have been all but silenced, and from which reporters from most international

media have been barred. (http://www.news24.com April 2009)

Zimbabwean bloggers are mainly opposition activists whose themes range from

underground networks can be forums for unsubstantiated rumour, but they also provide

valuable independent information and can even make news. (http://www.news24.com

April 2009)

for political reform in their home country and provide information on programmes of

action being taken to this end. It is worth explaining the nomen clature of the term,

Kubatana. Kubatana is a vernacular Shona word which means coming together and

joining hands in a show of unity. This seems to be in tande

thrust whose brief in their own

interactive sister website:

http://www.kubatana.net

r home page, is illuminating:

  54  

4.6 Hypocrites: Beware the Curse of Power , M r Minister A Case Study of

the new GNU especially with regard to MDC Politicians who it appears seem to be

-year when they were in

ther evils of dictatorships.

Though written in a light-hearted tone, the article touches on numerous pertinent issues,

chief among them being the chasm between rhetoric and reality as preached by

politicians and how civil society needs to keep pressure on politicians so that they

remain accountable to the electorate. Incidentally, the blogger touches on Frantz Fanon,

one of the theorists informing my study: ie the post-colonial psyche of dictatorships in

Africa.

uctive, it is ideal to look critically at them.

In his introductory remarks, the blogger asserts:

In our quest to remind our leaders of the basic errors of governance, let us consider

gainst the

failures of the post-independence era and promised a new dawn.

The idea here is to consider tell-tell signs of when Mr Minister may be crossing that

very thin line that separates the new from the old. In other words, how can we tell if

Mr Minister has really created new footwear or if he has simply stepped into the old

shoes? Mr Minister, who has now escaped the ranks of the opposition begins to speak

the language of authority; the language of law and order. Suddenly, he has become a

defender of even those laws which not so long ago were employed against him. Now

  55  

he understands the need to ensure adherence to the laws of the country, however

(http://www.kubatanablogs.net - April 2009)

There is an interesting play in the linguistic discourse used by the blogger above in which he

acknowledges the immense power of language to buttress authority. Equally interesting is

how former opposition politicians, now in a government of national unity manipulate the

linguistic discourse to buttress their new found hegemony, hence the floating around of terms

-alia. This fits in well with one of

imensional design

framework for conceiving of and analyzing discourse, specifically discourse as texts, that is

the linguistic features.

w of the shortcomings already being exhibited by the

GNU.

As opposition politicians, MDC leaders used to speak passionately against using the official

Mercedes Benz cars as they regarded these as obscene and tasteless in a country reeling in

squalor and abject poverty. However, such sentiments can be rightly dismissed as political

rhetoric and demagoguery as the reality obtaining is all but one MDC ministers have accepted

the symbol of power and opulence in African politics, the Mercedes Benz (valued at

US$50,000 per model), with a few of the ministers offering flimsy justifications on why they

are reneging on their pledges. Prominent human rights advocate, Eric Matinenga, now MDC

rcedes.

  56  

(http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com - April 2009)

4.7 New media and the Public Sphere:

New media approached in Zimbabwe through the blogging phenomenon can be seen to have

played a pivotal role in highlighting the excesses of both dictators and the shortcomings of

the rising -year were in opposition. This incidentally takes me to

sphere on the blogosphere vis-à-vis Zimbabwe and beyond the borders? What is the quality

of this public sphere, is it rational, vibrant, horizontal and vertical? Are people in power

listening to concerns raised by the public? What of the peers, are they listening to each other,

is there real engagement out there? Habermas defined the public sphere as: a virtual

community which does not necessarily exist in any identifiable space. In its ideal form, the

abermas, 1962: 176). Based on my analysis and via the

case studies above, this seems to be the case with Zimbabwe, a chief difference being that the

public sphere community does in fact exist as evidenced by the diversity of bloggers, and

activists advancing multiple viewpoints on the contested politics in Zimbabwe. As Rutherford

points out: Through acts of assembly and dialogue, the public sphere generates opinions and

attitudes which serve to affirm or challenge therefore, to guide the affairs of state. In ideal

  57  

Analysis of the preceding case studies coupled with a plethora of debate both in cyberspace

and the blogo

very much active and alive vis-à-vis Zimbabwe with activists, bloggers, campaigners striving

to ensure leaders are accountable for their actions. Human rights violations by the Mugabe

dictatorship are well documented. By continuing to encourage lawlessness, Mugabe is

obviously not listening to the demands of the International community that respect for human

rights and property rights be observed if sanctions are to be lifted and the much needed aid

given to the GNU. It is equally doubtful Tsvangirai is listening, if the barrages of letters, e

mails addressed to him through the public sphere are anything to go by. An interesting

development is, in responding to the challenges of new media platforms such as Blogging,

the Establishment has resorted to using both older and new forms of media such as online

news websites as will be noted in the following chapter. In my concluding chapter, I will look

at the polarization of views

divergent viewpoints through the public sphere.

  58  

Chapter 5 - New Media Case Study: Online News W ebsites

5.1 An Emerging Counter Phenomenon

Historically, societies living under repressive regimes have always come up with alternative

technologies in recent years has brought new forms of alternative media with greater

possibilities for trans national and even wider citizen participation and empowerment (Moyo,

2007: 81). In seeking to address my key research questions, this chapter considers how new

media platforms have sought to promote democracy and empower the populace in

Zimbabwe. In addition, the ambivalent nature of new media, especially how mainstream and

pro-dictatorship forces are responding to online challenges utilising both older and new

media, will be considered. The contribution of online news websites and their input to the

now endemic crisis besetting the country will be critiqued. Equally important is the need to

consider the polarisation of group views exhibited by some of the news websites which, in

most cases, have fragmented audiences, undermining the democratising function they purport

to serve. The quality of the public sphere obtaining on the ground is inadvertently brought to

the fore and warrants interrogation.

ace has spawned a multiplicity of alternative public

spheres that enable groups and individuals to continue to participate and engage in the wider

debate on the mutating crisis gripping the country since the turn of the century (Moyo, 2007:

81). This study has previously referred to the repressive and restrictive climate prevailing in

platforms have become a welcome apparatus embraced by the populace.

  59  

The recent events and controversy following the disputed Presidential elections in Iran offers

useful parallels especially in terms of how the people of Iran like their Zimbabwean

counterparts have turned to the Internet in confronting tyranny. Reference will be made to

these as such parallels are instructive in shedding light to my study. In line with my chosen

research methodology and that of other research which aims to study the virtual public sphere

(cf. CivicWeb, www.civicweb.eu), I employed various methods including conducting

interviews with stakeholders involved in producing the selected news websites, with an

analysis of the interactive nature of the websites to gauge the input of ordinary people.

Telephone interviews were conducted with Editors working for some of the selected sites

between January and May 2009. The sensitivity of my study meant that ethical and safety

considerations impeded access to pro-establishment site editors. There was also the problem

of some interviewees requesting anonymity when expressing their views. This part of the

study also relies on personal observations and uses textual analysis/critical discourse analysis

to interpret some of the major trends in the websites. The diverse ways in which news

websites might promote or undermine democracy will be fully addressed. The thesis mainly

considers:

http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com

http://www.swradioafrica.com

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk

http://www.talkzimbabwe.com

Talk Zimbabwe will be particularly instructive as it has a pro-government stance.

  60  

Zimbabweans at home and in the diaspora have embraced new media, mainly harnessing it to

promote good governance. Online campaigns have been initiated, on news websites, blog

platforms and through mobile phones. In May 2009 an online campaign was initiated by

activists to have Mu

daughter should not prosper abroad while other children are deprived of educational

opportunities. The campaign is being masterminded by: http://www.zimdaily.com,

http://www.swradioafrica and ZINASU, the overall grouping for students in Zimbabwe.

Campaign material of both groups will be previewed through critical discourse analysis

5.2 Z imdaily W ebsite: Fair Deal Campaign

The Zimdaily news website is one form of new media platform agitating for political reform

in Zimbabwe. Zimdaily is unique as a media platform in that it has an internet radio station to

complement its efforts. Previously, Zimdaily championed an online campaign -

through which they vigorously campaigned for the extradition and deportation of children of

Australia and Canada.

The Fair Deal campaign was supported by ma

forum at the bottom of its news articles where readers can input comments with regard to a

engagement with the cause, the general response to the campaign was positive as suggested

in the following posts:

  61  

I want to say thank you very much Zim-Daily for coming up with such a brilliant

move against the hypocrites at home who profess to hate the West when they send

their kids to get the best education in the world yet our fellow parents are suffering

and denied freedom to express their will. This is the only way in which we can

collectively tame the ZANU PF hardliners. They will feel the pain we are going

through when their kids are deported.

Posted by Sydney Malunga (http://www.zimdaily.com May 2009)

Another contributor maintains:

Whether your father is a ZANU PF Minister or not, if you have connived with ZANU

PF in one way or another to steal elections and ideals of democracy which are

sacredly held in the Western world, your only fate is to be back at home to face the

same music with the rest of Zimbabweans, who have unceremoniously suffered trying

to improve the standards of living at the hands of Mugabe and his cohorts. There is

nothing sinister or vengeful about this stance. That is what your fathers, uncles, and

brothers deserve. We need change in Zimbabwe and sending back of people in the

where it hurts most.

Posted by A ll Democracy Bigots (http://www.zimdaily.com May 2009)

The diversity of such postings shows how the public sphere is thriving as concerned activists

debate and argue on how they want their country to be governed by those who have usurped

democracy. An interesting dimension in this debate is that some of the children of ZANU PF

officials targeted by the campaign have responded to calls for their deportation advancing

ments:

  62  

I am totally surprised by the way you think. Sending these people home will not get

you the visas that we have. It will not change the fact that we have a political problem

in our beloved Zimbabwe.

Posted by Man K ambtzs (http://www.zimdaily.com May 2009)

Another posting from someone claiming to be the son of a former cabinet minister in

son and I want to know what I should do. Can I choose parents; can I force him to

resign from his former employment? How?

Posted by K Chidzero (http://www.zimdaily.com May 2009)

It is worth mentioning how because of a prevailing online campaign children of officials are

forced to engage with the whole argument. This shows the potency of cyber space.

3 February 2007 can be regarded as victory day for the input of new media in instigating

change which it is hoped may force despots such as the current regime in Zimbabwe to

promote democracy. The Australian government took the unprecedented step of deporting

seven children of the ruling elite of Zimbabwe from Australia, revoking their study permits in

the process.

Australian

student visas, an extension of existing sanctions against Zimbabwe, was provoked by

(http://www.dniinoi.wordpress.com - May 2009)

  63  

My own assessment is, it is fair to attribute the success of this campaign to the relentless

efforts of Zimdaily. The campaign which Zimdaily ran for over three months saw

Zimbabwea

in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia. (http://www.dniinoi.wordpress.com May 2009)

Following the huge success of Fair Deal, Zimdaily is now waging another battle, to have

B O N A F O R U Z Y ES W E C A N!

beacon of excellence in higher education in Africa, but now reduced to a ghost of its former

self.

5.3 Support Hong Kong L egislator Emily Lau Wai-K ing to get Bona deported!

obse

Maiswa concedes:

We did what we could as a portal to contribute to the Zimbabwe Struggle and the

struggle continues. One must realize the infinite power of the media and should never

undermine or weary the patience of angry millions. (http://www.dniioi.wordpress.com

May 2009)

body, they seem to have genuine concerns. They are an interested party, bearing the

  64  

They are compelled to pay for their education in United States dollars currency, in a nation

where there is over 90% unemployment, with the remaining employed workers paid in the

worthless currency eroded by galloping hyperinflation. In the midst of this, Mugabe deems it

fit to have his daughter educated in Hong Kong. According to http://www.swradioafrica.com

another prominent news website, ZINASU launched their campaign on 26th January, 2009.

SWRA is in the same league as Zimdaily, in that it has numerous media platforms: a thriving

internet radio station, mobile phone texting and podcasting services. The site goes on to

ns of

the petition is ideal:

(ZINASU), representing the students of Zimbabwe calls for the return of Bona

Mugabe, the daughter of President Mugabe back home to come and suffer with other

patriotic students studying in State Universities. It is disheartening to note that the

first family insolently sent daughter Bona Mugabe under an assumed name to the

University of Hong Kong, China to further her studies while students in Zimbabwe

suffer.

Colleges and Universities in the country have failed to open since 2008 amongst other

reasons, exorbitant and dollarization of fees, lecturers striking over poor

remuneration, serious brain drain of staff resulting in students failing to sit for

examinations. (http://www.swradioafrica.com May 2009)

In the preceding excerpt, new media can be seen to be taking on the role that old media was

supposed to have in exposing scandal and corruption and lobbying for change.

It is not clear whether Hong Kong authorities will comply w

asked for a comment, a University official at Hong Kong University responded:

  65  

denied the right to education because of their family background or what their parents

http://www.telegraph.co.uk May 2009

Incidentally, these remarks echoes what one of the affected young people themselves had

posted. It is significant to point out how the efforts of an online organisation have made

people in official positions engage with the whole argument. Although it is unclear whether

especially on the role being played by new media in keeping in the spotlight contentious

issues, which it is hoped may force Politicians to become more accountable to their

constituency, the people.

- A Case Study

In a telephone interview, I conducted with Wilf Mbanga veteran Journalist and Editor of

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk, he cited two significant events, which he conceded

pro-establishment forces

when reporting on similar events. Two conspicuous events were the assault of then

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and civic leaders in 2007, and coverage of the

Presidential election in 2008. A close textual analysis of the two stories as covered by both

-establishment forces is ideal.

Frantz Fanon talks of violence as a weapon at the disposal of the hegemony to buttress their

authority.20 As already mentioned, Mugabe constantly uses the coercive power of violence as

                                                                                                                     20 . According to Frantz Fanon: Post Colonial theorist, the violence and force of post-colonial rule mimics colonial rule. Mugabe has rthis predicament requires a new postcolonial identity that would find expression through the development of

  66  

a political tool. In March 2007, Morgan Tsvangirai was brutally assaulted by the police,

Images of a badly bruised Tsvangirai with one blinded eye streaming with blood were

beamed around the world. What is significant about this brutal assault is the diverse ways it

was covered by pro-

sites strove to show police brutality and heavy-handedness, state media through the Herald

and ZTV-Newsnet site sought to exonerate the police, apportioning blame to Tsvangirai and

fellow activists for instigating violence. Useful parallels can be drawn with Iran. A similar

scenario is prevailing in Iran in th - democracy

forces have used the internet to highlight tyranny and police brutality in unparalleled ways.

and that of his Iranian counterpart. The diverse ways pro-democracy activists have responded

harnessing the internet to champion democracy is equally illuminating.

Language as discourse becomes a powerful weapon.

For instance, police spokesperson, Bvudzijena, always one to repeat the official line as is the

norm with the partisan police force in Zimbabwe, was unflattering in his comments on the

assaulted MDC leader and activists, blatantly accusing them of instigating a fight with the

police although eye witness accounts pointed to the contrary. Bvudzijena said: Tsvangirai

and his entourage (assaulted whilst in police custody) had been arrested because they had:

http://www.newsnet.co.zw21

May 2009). Even in the face of a fatal police shooting which claimed the life of one

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         positive representations in cultural practices, such as literature, drama, and film/media. (Probert D and Graham A, 2008: 19) 21 . http: //www.newsnet.co.zw Newsnet website is another arm of the Public Media in Zimbabwe which works in tandem with the state owned daily: The Herald newspaper. In most instances, stories from the site are replicated in The Herald. Newsnet site usually toes the party line by reflecting its ideology and government thinking.

  67  

(http://www.newsnet.co.zw

May 2009). Appearing on state television, Bvudzijena maintained: three police officers had

been taken to hospital, following an attack on them by MDC activists. He warned of dire

consequences to befall those who continue to flout laws of the land in the name of political

violence.

Language is deployed as a power discourse in the schism between the hegemony and

populace. In a democracy, Police should be professional and not align with politicians as

appreciate the unholy alliance between politicians and state machinery in an authoritarian

integrating classes and groups through consent, so that the articulation and re-articulation of

orders of discourse is correspondingly one stake

93). Mugabe has mastered this well, if the rapport between his system of governance, police

force and other arms of government is anything to go by. In a dictatorship, it is often difficult

to draw a distinction between party and government structures. State media institutions,

which are supposed to uphold the Public Service Remit, are unashamedly biased in favour of

the ruling party of the day. Many a times, Mugabe and government officials abuse state

media to further party political interests to the exclusion of other voices. It is only now with

the proliferation of diverse new media platforms that other voices can be heard empowering

activists, which is one of the objectives of this study.

  68  

5.5 Coverage of the 2008 Presidential E lections Diversity of Opinion or Polarised

V iewpoints?

Besides employing older forms of media such as its flagship daily, The Herald, the regime in

Harare has also been using newer forms of media: news websites, some of them covert like

http://www.talkzimbabwe.com renamed The Zimbabwe Guardian. I terminated my interview

with the Editor of this site before I had the chance to conduct the interview as he became

intrusive about my precise personal details. Issues of safety being paramount, it seemed

expedient not to pursue a potentially dangerous source. Articles from the site will be pre-

viewed to shed light on how new media platforms can also be manipulated by the hegemony

to buttress their authority.

The polarisation in viewpoints in the coverage of the 2008 Presidential election in

Zimbabwe among the diverse news websites is shown in the discrepancy in news stories.

There appears to be a well orchestrated ploy to exclude certain stories at the expense of others

receiving prominence, depending on the political allegiance of the sites in question.

Illustrative of this is in one instance; The Zimbabwe Guardian site goes on an all out war

castigating BBC, sanctimoniously admonishing it should desist from fanning flames of war in

Zimbabwe:

Zimbabwe has been a very peaceful country before the coming of Mr Tsvangirai as a

political leader. He came from the British to disturb the government of President

Mugabe because of his land reform. Mr Tsvangirai is a rebel whom the British want

to use and kill Mugabe to take the land from the blacks and hand it over to the white

minority again.

  69  

President Dos Santos of Angola calling for Mugabe to stop the violence whereas the

perpetrator is clearly Mr Tsvangirai, who seems to be scheming to get money for the

acquisition of arms and probably dole out some of it to his family abroad.

(http://www.talkzimbabwe.com May 2009)

This excerpt is illuminating in showing how the regime is now employing cyberspace

responding to online challenges. Mugabe has never hidden his contempt for the opposition

MDC whom he constantly dismisses as a crea

propagandistic viewpoint has been constantly replicated in the state media and is now finding

its way online.

5.6 New media: Constant critique, even of the critics

The role of new media in fostering democracy in a new dispensation: Government of

National Unity (GNU) previously referred to in chapter 4, seem to have polarised the

cracks amongst the diverse news websites, activists and peers. To hold the new Prime

Minister and government policies to scrutiny and accountability or not, has been a key

concern. The public sphere has remained vibrant in the meantime, with columnists, writers,

and activists going further, debatin

Some news websites and columnists believe Tsvangirai is sacrosanct and that it is unpatriotic

and counter-productive to the spirit of the GNU to criticise his shortcomings as a Leader.

There is an i

discourse.

  70  

The legitimate role of the media in a democracy should be to strive to make politicians

accountable and transparent. A hero-

post independence Zimbabwe. Writer/commentator, Tendai Dumbutshena has been

constantly criticising Tsvangirai and his MDC party as ineffectual partners in the GNU. In

(http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com May 2009), Dumbutshena laments the impotence and

human rights abuses being perpetrated against opposition supporters. Dumbutshena urges the

MDC to pull out of this charade of a GNU as it is unlikely they will ever succeed in turning

things around, with Mugabe at the helm. In a show of vibrancy of the public sphere some

This debate is now narrowing to individuals at the expense of national discourse. I

totally agree with Tendai, but if we narrow our debate to Tsvangirai and Mugabe, we

will be playing into the hands of the actual authors of this tragi-comedy, the

securocrats. Issues like this need cool-headed approach not childish tantrums of

calling for a pull out at every glitch.

I humbly suggest brother Tendai articulate his best way forward after the pull out.

(http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com - May 2009)

Some further postings made by peers were libellous and defamatory of the writer: I deemed

it inappropriate to quote them. What is important to draw from such intolerance, coming from

aw to the fore the acutely polarised

nature of diverse voices failing to get common ground on the volatile public sphere. Anyone

  71  

can express authoritarian views in cyberspace but equally, pro-democracy movements do not

always practice what they preach. Suc

spurred by genuine democratic values, or are there ulterior motives at play? And, does the

internet simply make it easier for anyone to critique anyone else rather than making rational

arguments heard?

New media enables the potential for boundless discussion among the public,

engagement with new media by news organisations.

At the same time however, information overload inevitably leads to filtering and

potential group polarisation of views, both which fragment audiences and contradict

the democratising function supposedly inherent within new media.

(Bivens, 2008: 113)

new media platforms in a quest for democracy. News websites are so polarised one can

discern the thinly veiled hate language directed against each other, peers, columnists and the

individual personalities they purport to serve. It is not uncommon to note some online news

sites being labelled pro-Tsvangirai/pro-Mugabe. The irony is that such sites are supposed to

be promoting democratic discourse, but in practice, they are intolerant of opposing views like

on the quality of the public sphere.

  72  

In another article Dumbutshena opines:

There are those who wish to repeat mistakes of the 1980s by placing this new inclusive

government above criticism. They argue, it should be given a chance to succeed. Those

who incessantly criticize it like this columnist are dismissed as unhelpful doomsayers.

Obvious shortcomings of the inclusive government must be ignored. Naïve optimism

http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com May

2009)

structive especially in highlighting questions about what

should be the legitimate role of the media in a democracy. Its guiding principle should be

serving the public, and acting as a democratic watchdog, which role various new media

platforms have been facilitating in the struggle against tyranny in Zimbabwe. In line with

one of my theoretical framework: critical theory, - it is worth mentioning how in some

cases the media does not always fulfil this legitimate purpose as its an ideological tool

subjec

In such instances, the media has the power to select what to represent as reality and what to

exclude. New media has largely sought to play a deflective role countering the state owned

5.7 The Fourth Estate and the Public Sphere

pre-occupation with framing narratives in particular ways and reporting facts only as they

fit within those narrative frames. In most instances, this has amounted to a culture of

speculative journalism, in which stories are published with unnamed sources and no by

lines.

  73  

One pro-establishment site http://www.talkzimbabwe.com is notorious for peddling stories

which border on fiction, speculation or gossip dressed as news. One salient story they ran

attendance of this meeting, in December 2008, he had no passport, as the regime was

denying him one. Tsvangirai had taken the issue up with the courts in Zimbabwe. What is

significant is why a news website could blatantly peddle falsehoods: and the answer in this

has no passport.

Equally paradoxical is that the very same publication which claims Tsvangirai was in

Brussels over the weekend, in an about turn of events, barely three weeks after this

they do acknowledge the MDC leader had been without a passport for over a year. No

retraction of the earlier story is made. It is therefore inconceivable how the MDC leader

would have managed to travel to Europe without a passport.

rpose of the press in Zimbabwe,

both the private and public media, both print and online publications is to obfuscate and not

to enlighten, to speculate and not to report, to dissemble and not to inform, and above all,

to make us all pawns in their games of one-

(http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com May 2009). This study has striven to show the

extent to which new media has been central in trying to foster democracy in a repressive

environment. The quality of news reports by some of the news sites cited, the acrimonious

debate generated in the online public sphere, can to some extent align these sites to

  74  

5.8 SW Radio A frica -

In seeking to shed light on the input of New media in promoting/hindering democracy in a

repressive environment, how new media platforms have sought to empower ordinary

people, the story would be incomplete without referring to http://www.swradioafrica.com .

in Harare. Run by Gerry Jackson and former Journalists from Zimbabwe, it broadcasts

from London. Ms Jackson set up the first ever private radio station Capitol Radio in Harare

in 2000 but it was forcibly closed by the police and her broadcasting equipment seized.

The site has perfected the use of mobile phone technology as a tool to promote activism

and fight authoritarian regimes in Zimbabwe, even though they are operating miles away.

SWRA facilitates the sending of text messages to anyone in Zimbabwe, provided

ch then sends

news/pertinent stories to those in Zimbabwe. This is an excellent way to beat the harsh

media laws and censorship in Zimbabwe. According to SWRA founder, Gerry Jackson, the

daily sms headline service has proved popular with 100 new requests a day for those

wanting to join the service. (http://www.news.bbc.co.uk May 2009).

5.9 Dictatorship Dealing With Online Challenges

Authorities in Harare have responded to SW radio broadcasts by using jamming equipment

obtained from China. The sophisticated jamming equipment prevents broadcasts from

being transmitted to listeners in Zimbabwe. In some instances, broadcasts are inaudible or

totally wiped out. Broadcast Journalist, Lance Guma concedes:

  75  

The Zimbabwe government invested many thousands of pounds in Chinese

equipment to be used in jamming SWRA shortwave broadcasts. Even after the

station moved to medium wave they switched to jamming another Zimbabwean

station: Voice of the People which broadcasts to Zimbabwe via Radio Netherlands.

(http://www.swradioafrica.com May 2009)

and recently introduced a text messaging service as a complementary effort. Text

messaging has been highly successful in disseminating news to the ordinary people in

Zimbabwe where most households own a mobile phone.

The regime has also adopted various measures: the state has set up a short wave

propaganda

radio project appears to have suffered a still birth, in the face of self-jamming as a result of

gagging equipment installed to block broadcasts from foreign radio stations such as Voice

http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com May 2009)

Mugabe has also signed into law the Interception of Communications Act which empowers

government to spy on messages transmitted through the telecommunications system, cell

phones and the internet. Internet Service Providers are obliged to install software that

allows the monitoring to happen secretly. (http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com

May 2009) Whether such a move will succeed remains to be seen as media savvy activists

anachronistic ideas. Already, activists are encouraging use of counteracting softwares:

Psiphon and Tor.

One other way the regime has responded to online and offline challenges can be seen in the

  76  

satellite dishes) in April 2008, foll

elections. Zimbabweans were coerced under threat of violence to pull down their home

TV and DSTV channel. (http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk May 2009). War veterans and

secret police were drafted in to enforce this campaign. It became much more bizarre when

ostensibly to prevent

them from listening to independent radio stations broadcasting outside Zimbabwe. As one

MDC official summed it at the time:

This operation is a concerted effort by the regime to close all spaces through which

information can be disseminated, with the objective of stealing the impending run-

off election.

The regime is determined to cut off Zimbabweans from the rest of the world by

ensuring that they are unable to receive news from outside Zimbabwe about what is

happening in their own country. (http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk May 2009)

The very fact that the regime has responded to the diverse challenges posed by new media

bodes well for the potential impact of these platforms. They must be doing something

positive, getting the desired effect, if the hegemony have seen it worthwhile to invest huge

sums of money in counteractive measures. However, equally, the more successful they are,

the more danger there is to their survival as free and uncensored sources.

In summation, this chapter has striven to shed light on the varying levels to which new

media have assisted in fostering democracy, opening up spaces for the populace to express

their opinions in the process, as they actively debate and argue contested issues. The

ambivalent nature of new media has also been considered, especially how it can be

manipulated by those in power to subvert democracy and perpetuate tyrannical viewpoints.

  77  

Diverse ways in which mainstream and pro dictatorship forces are responding to online

challenges have been reviewed. Although I have tended to concentrate on news websites,

most of these have either an attendant sister newspaper or online radio station which

s are also a useful barometer which has helped me

gauge the vibrancy of the public sphere online.

It is also instructive to note that most of the websites I have used in this study (other than

the pro-regime site http://www.talkzimbabwe.com

http://www.newsnet.co.zw ) have been blacklisted by the Zimbabwe government as it

-war to effect regime change agenda against

Mugabe. (http://www.thezimbabweindepent.com May 2009) A total of 41 websites have

been listed, though the regime has not indicated what form of action it will pursue with

  78  

Chapter 6 - Conclusion

A central focus of this study has been to describe, understand and take a critical look at the

role played by new media in fostering democracy in parts of Africa, especially repressive

regimes as is my main case study Zimbabwe. This has been done through an appraisal of

various platforms facilitated by new media, ie blogging, e mail, mobile phones, text

messaging and online news websites among others. A wealth of information and detail has

been offered on the subject under investigation, which it is envisaged will form the basis for

new insights and interpretations. This strikes a chord with one framework of my research

methodology, critical discourse analysis, where instead of coming up with definitive clear cut

answers, useful insights for future investigation are drawn.

In trying to shed light on the input of new media in aiding/or undermining democracy in

authoritarian regimes several issues have arisen: whereas new media platforms can be put to

good use, promoting democracy, good governance and observance of human rights and the

rule of law, it is not plain, simple and clear cut that this is what always happens, either in

western or in African nations. New media in the hands of the unscrupulous can still be abused

manipulate new media platforms to consolidate their power base. It has been noted in the

study how mainstream and pro-dictatorship forces are responding to online challenges

utilising both older and newer forms of media. In the case of Zimbabwe, a catalogue of

counteracting measures adopted by the despotic regime have been highlighted, some as

bizarre as forcing people to pull down their satellite dishes and also confiscating their radios.

New media, civil society actors and citizen journalists have also sought to promote

democracy in many respects as demonstrated in the case studies in chapters 4 and 5. It is clear

from the study that dynamic and ideologically opposed new media groups have emerged in

  79  

Zimbabwe. On the one hand we have pro-

http://www.newsnet.co.zw and http://www.talkzimbabwe.com. These seek to legitimise and

consolidate the dictatorship, advancing its ideology in the process. Then there is a plethora of

further

they struggle for control of what emerges as a kind of Habermasian public sphere. In the

midst of this, comes to the fore a central question: what should be the role of all media both

in a democracy and a dictatorship: to continue to be manipulated as an instrument of

oppression against the people or be a democratic watchdog?

The blogging phenomenon has revealed its immense potential as the platform for democracy

especially as seen through the success stories of the campaigns with the German Company:

Giesecke and Devrient and Austro-Hungarian Jura JSP Software License campaigns dealt

with extensively in chapter 4. Extensive analysis of articles and postings from the alternative

blogs shows the vibrancy and potency of online activism. Such success stories can be

regarded as a befitting microcosm of the platform in furthering the democratic discourse.

Although the regime has been employing diverse methods to confront online challenges, I did

not come across any evidence of their using blogging as a counteractive measure/strategy.

Notwithstanding their shortcomings and paradoxes, new media platforms such as the plethora

of news websites examined have actually empowered the populace in their fight against

tyranny by giving them space to voice critiques and acquire information, by articulating

viewpoints that previously could not have been possible to publicise given the harsh media

essaging service, and radio

broadcasts among other services springs to mind. The recent electoral successes which have

seen the monolithic giant Mugabe defeated in elections is perhaps one living testimony to the

potency of new media platforms.

  80  

The radical political content carried on some of the websites stresses resistance to dominant

viewpoints and models the campaign against repression. Overall, the majority of the websites

have considerably reduced the traditional gate-keeping role that the mainstream state

controlled media have enjoyed over the past two decades. This is evidenced by the unearthing

of cases of corruption, abuse of power and human rights violations, which could otherwise

have remained concealed. (Moyo, 2007: 101)

Challenges and limitations remain however. As has been pointed out, the Internet is no longer

the preserve of democrats alone, because of its accessibility, it can therefore fall into the

hands of anyone and there is a real danger it can be manipulated to undermine democracy and

the democratic discourse just as mainstream media can. This is a legitimate concern with

despots whose prime concern is upholding their power at all costs. To this end, I have been

wary not to eulogise new media platforms. I have consistently referred to the dangers of

motivated by pursuit of group interests which may be far removed in reality from democracy

and its values. In most instances there end up being chasms between rhetoric and reality even

in strongly egalitarian or pro-democratic forces. The shortcomings of the erstwhile opposition

party in Zimbabwe, the MDC now in government as part of the GNU have been noted in

analysis in both chapter 4 and 5.

In all this, it is important not to lose sight of what should be the legitimate role of the media

old and new, be it in a democracy or even a repressive regime. Ideally, the media should be a

democratic watchdog safeguarding democracy and its values, exposing abuses of power and

providing space for debates over governance and civil society issues. This incidentally is

democratisation function. Habermas argues that when the media lose their autonomy to the

state or the market, then they can no longer be regarded as playing a critical function of

  81  

31).

does not bode well for democracy. As Frantz Fanon notes, in many cases the elite amongst

oppressed groups end up adopting characteristics of the oppressor (Probert and Graham 2008:

19). The disparate voices seem to lack tolerance of alternative views, one of the very evils

sometimes end up pursuing personality cults, aligned to individual political leaders of their

preferred choice.

Speculative journalism also dents the credibility of information published on some of the

draft, then Zimbabwe is in trouble (Gappah, http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com May

2009).

That there are numerous possibilities in new media and related platforms in enhancing

democracy in repressive regimes is not in question, as the study has striven to show. The

recent events in Zimbabwe which have witnessed the regime suffering huge electoral losses,

making political concessions to the opposition, albeit minimal, is a vindication for the

immense potential of new media and the persistence of those who use it. Although I am not

an advocate of the so called GNU or power sharing arrangements in Africa, nonetheless the

very existence of one in Zimbabwe may be celebrated if at all there is a slim chance it can

rescue the country from the dark age of repression, dictatorship, political and economic

oblivion. In the same vein, new media should continue to maintain a reality check on the

GNU and the ruling elite. Checks and balances should be in place to prevent the ruling elite

from manipulating both older and newer forms of media to undermine democracy and

  82  

democracy to avoid the mistakes of yester-year. Activists should continue to raise the banner

of democracy, good governance, observance of human rights and respect for the rule of law

in the public sphere and civil society. Tolerance and respect for alternative views is called

for, as these are the hallmarks of democracy.

  83  

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  89  

W eb References

The following is a list of websites viewed and used in the course of my research:

Online News W ebsites:

www.bbc.co.uk

www.civicweb.eu

www.newsbbc.co.uk

www.guardian.co.uk

www.herald.co.zw

www.news24.com

www.newsnet.co.zw

www.newzimbabwe.com

www.swradioafrica.com

www.telegraph.co.uk

www.timesonline.co.uk

www.talkzimbabwe.com

www.thezimbabwetimes.com

www.thezimbabwean.co.uk

www.thezimbabweindependent.com

www.zimdaily.com

www.zimbabwesituation.com

  90  

General W ebsites:

www.misazim.co.zw

www.en.wikipedia.org

www.dniinoi.wordpress.com

Blogs Used in my research:

http://www.kubatanablogs.net

http://www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe

  91  

Appendices

Appendix 1- Action Plan/or Programme as espoused by bloggers on the blog:

http://www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe - April 2009

A C T I O N: We are calling on all our supporters and subscribers to phone, email and write to

Giesecke & Devrient and demand that they immediately suspend their contract with the

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. We want them to stem the flow of Bavarian blood-money to

Zimbabwe, and to give the Zimbabwean people a chance to survive, to heal, and to determine

their own future without fearing for their lives.

Things are starting to move. W e need to keep up the pressure.

Giesecke & Devrient now need to be put under external pressure into reconsidering their

Write to, or telephone, Giesecke & Devrient. Thank them for reconsidering their

actions. Remind them that the world is watching, and that they take care to follow the

law by making their actions consistent with their code of conduct. See the letter

suggestions provided here -

last a very long time indeed. Send them the link that appeared in the Australian media

today and reminds the world of how Giesecke & Devrient got very rich under the

Nazi party and even used slave labour supplied by Heinrich Himmler from prisoners

in concentration camps. Giesecke & Devrient have only recently had to pay

compensation to these poor people; do they want another stain so soon?

  92  

Write to the World Bank at civilsociety@worldbank.org

Write to the press and point out the relationship between the Governor of the Reserve

Bank of Zimbabwe and JOC

A readers

effective. See the story links in the original post and send your responses to these

stories to the newspapers concerned

Write to European leaders about the responsibility of European companies, and the

questionable legality of their actions. Raise the issue of the World Bank policy and

guidelines. Ask them to urgently review the subject of trade sanctions to include

a European citizen, write to your MEP. Find your MEP here - (please send

us links to other resources like this one for other parts of the world)

  93  

Appendix 2 Agents of C ivic T raining, Sample L etter Drafted by Bloggers

Letter adapted from:

http://www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe - April 2009

L etters:

Please feel free to write your own letters if you wish to, or use ours and adjust to include your

own words, or simply send them as they are. This letter has also been translated into German.

Dear Dr. Ottenberg, Dr. Zattler, Dr. Schlebusch, Mr. Wolfgang Kunz,

Mr. Kuemmerle and Mr. Mihatsch:

Please accept thi

the activities of the Zimbabwean government.

We note that one of the guiding principles included in the Code of Conduct on Giesecke &

dignity, privacy, and rights of every individual,

principle, in relation to Zimbabwean civilians, is compromised by the contract Giesecke &

Devrient has with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to print banknotes.

The Reserve Bank is headed by Gideon Gono, one of five individuals making up the Joint

Operational Command (JOC), which is responsible for coordinating and carrying out a

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multitude of human rights violations aga

finance the terror, using notes supplied by Giesecke & Devrient. A UN Security Council

statement issued on 23 June 2008 makes it very clear that the Government of Zimbabwe is

responsible for the violence in Zimbabwe.

On 22 June, the MDC party in Zimbabwe withdrew from an election scheduled to be held on

an international

newspaper provided one example of how money is used in Zimbabwe to fund terror: it

article stated that this equates to approximately Z$25 trillion - notes supplied by Giesecke &

Devrient.

In addition to this single example, we must point out that the money Giesecke & Devrient

prints is being used every single day to pay war veterans and youth militia deployed to beat,

torture, and intimidate Zimbabwean civilians. This has resulted in approximately 3,000 cases

of political violence (including grotesque torture), and more than 200,000 people who have

been internally displaced from their homes in the two months following the March 29th

elections. Nearly 90 people have been murdered, including a woman who had both her arms

and her legs cut off before she was thrown still alive into a burning hut.

complicit in these acts of terror in that it enables Gideon Gono to fulfil his role in the Joint

Operational Command. We believe that the continued supply of banknotes to the Reserve

Bank of Zimbabwe is playing a critical platform in sustaining a despotic regime.

We remind you that the Government of Zimbabwe has stopped the activities of many

humanitarian organisations in Zimbabwe, critical for providing sustenance to desperate

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Zimbabweans. We were horrified to read in a major newspaper article (in March) that

Giesecke & Devrient earns approximately £382,000 (US$750 000) of Zimbabwean

Please be advised that 1 bag of ground maize meal, the staple diet in Zimbabwe, equates to

roughly US$1, 80 per kg, about £1 per kg. A 10 kg bag would feed a child for a week if that

child was eating two meals a day. Most children only get one meal a day, if they are lucky.

This means that the money Giesecke & Devrient earns to print money that bankrolls the Zanu

ranslates to food for approximately 76,400 children every week.

in light of the many statements condemning the activities of the Zimbabwean Government

emanating from the UN, SADC and many other regional and international governments and

human rights organisations. In particular, Genocide Watch issued a statement on the 19 June

-PF militias, the Zimbabwe army and police, and ZANU-PF mobs have

pushed Zimbabwe to Stage 6, the Preparation stage immediately preceding political mass

Giesecke & Devrient will or will not serve as a willing financer of politicide.

We ask that Giesecke & Devrient suspends their contract with the Reserve Bank of

Zimbabwe immediately.

Yours Sincerely,

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Appendix 3 Action A lert: Lobby Jura JSP to suspend or not renew thei r software

L icense to the Z imbabwe Government.

Action: We are calling on all our supporters and subscribers today to phone, email and write

to Jura JSP and ask them to withdraw the software licence from the Zimbabwean government

on the grounds that the cash they print has been used to primarily support a campaign of

terror, and on the grounds that preferential treatment is given to the armed forces when it

comes to accessing cash. Both these facts show that the Zanu PF regime is using money to

buy the loyalty and support of the armed forces. It clearly shows that this is a government that

prioritises power and control over the people, more than it is concerned with the fact that

ordinary people are struggling to survive.

W e need to keep up the pressure.

Jura JSP is a small company so if we can accumulate as many contact details as possible we

can contact individuals directly. Please seek out details and submit them via our form here

and we will add them to our database.

Write to, or telephone, Jura JSP.

Contact the Austrian and Hungarian media to make sure they are aware of what is

happening in Zimbabwe and how software originating from their nations is helping to

support it.

Targetted sanctions against the Zimbabwean government have recently been reviewed

by the EU so Zimbabwe is fresh in their minds. Write to European leaders about the

responsibility of European companies, and the questionable ethics of their actions.

licence to print blood money.

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Write to the press and point out the relationship between the Governor of the Reserve

Bank of Zimbabwe and JOC [a reminder of that relationship can be found here in our

Giesecke & Devrient post here].

If you see an article appearing in a newspaper in your country, discussing the Jura JSP

connection to Zimbabwe, respond to it: send a letter to the editor and make him or her

aware that this is a topical and important issue. We will add links relevant articles in

this post.

Contact your local MPs and your local press as well.

- (please send

us links to other resources like this one for other parts of the world).