Reporters Sans Frontières
Home page - Predators
One of world’s longest-serving rulers, Mugabe was hailed as a “liberator” comparable to Nelson Mandela when he came to power but these days he spends his time mocking his critics. A 2002 law that introduced strict surveillance and control of the media was regarded by Mugabe as a way of combating foreign subversion. The prohibition of the Daily News, the country’s most widely-ready newspaper, in 2003 was just an administrative measure in Mugabe’s eyes.
Mugabe has no problem with the frequent arrests of local and foreign journalists on charges of spying or failing to comply with the draconian media regulations, or with the use of Kafkaesque legal harassment and threats against the media. The use of Chinese equipment to jam exile radio stations has completed Zimbabwe’s transformation from former “breadbasket” of southern Africa into one of the continent’s most repressive countries.
Following his government’s electoral setbacks in 2008, Mugabe has ratcheted up the pressure even further. Editors have been placed under electronic surveillance to check their loyalty to the party, while opposition activists have been abducted and tried for “terrorist plots” in grotesque trials.
SOLIDARITY PURCHASE
INFORMATION TOOLS
