Independent Radio Station Bombed in Zimbabwe
IMCitsa | 31.08.2002 01:31
As world leaders meet in Johannesburg, the offices of the aspiring community radio station The Voice of The People (VOP) were bombed on 29 August 2002 in Zimbabwe.
From: IFEX - International Freedom of Expression Exchange
http://www.ifex.org/alerts/view.html?id=11175
Originator: Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
Date: 2002-08-30
Country: ZIMBABWE
Source: CPJ
29 August 2002 CPJ press release:
ZIMBABWE: Offices of news production company are destroyed
Unknown persons bombed the offices of the Voice of the People (VOP) Communications Trust yesterday morning. The private news production company, which has been producing shows since June 2000, was housed in a suburb of the capital city, Harare.
The explosion is the fourth such attack on the independent media in the last two years. Since 2001, the Daily News, Zimbabwe's only independent daily newspaper, has been bombed three times.
According to several Zimbabwean and international reports, three men approached the VOP security guard outside the company's headquarters at about 1 a.m. They told him not to put up a struggle, warning him that, "you don't want to die for something you know nothing about."
Two of the men then smashed the office's windows and threw what appeared to be explosives inside the building. Soon after, there was an explosion and the entire building was razed to the ground.
Although no one was hurt in the explosion, all of the company's equipment, including computers, office equipment, and production machines, was destroyed.
The VOP, which was founded by former employees of the state- owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), is an independent production company and does not broadcast directly within Zimbabwe. Instead, local VOP staffers produce programs on a variety of community and political issues and send them to a Radio Netherlands shortwave transmitter located in Madagascar.
The shows, all with the tag "Radio VOP: Voice of the People" are then relayed into southern Africa. VOP was created just before the run-up to the 1990 elections to counteract the state monopoly of broadcast news.
VOP's independent stance and widespread audience has put it in opposition to the Zimbabwean government, which has accused VOP of "tarnishing" the country's image. In July members of the Zimbabwean Police Force raided VOP's offices, accompanied by officers of the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe. They searched the offices for a transmitter, broadcasting equipment, and other evidence that VOP was violating the Broadcasting Services Act of 2001, which bars stations from broadcasting without a license. (No licenses have been granted since the Act was passed.) The police did not find a transmitter, but confiscated 133 tapes and files from the office. The tapes and files were later returned.
CPJ is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit organization that works to safeguard press freedom worldwide. For more information about press conditions in Zimbabwe, visit www.cpj.org.
More Information:
For further information, contact Yves Sorokobi (ext. 112), Wacuka Mungai (ext. 106) or Adam Posluns (ext. 107) at CPJ, 330 Seventh Ave., New York, NY 10001, U.S.A., tel: +1 212 465 1004, fax: +1 212 465 9568, e-mail:
africa@cpj.org, ysorokobi@cpj.org, wmungai@cpj.org, Internet: http:// www.cpj.org/
http://www.ifex.org/alerts/view.html?id=11175 Originator: Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
Date: 2002-08-30
Country: ZIMBABWE
Source: CPJ
29 August 2002 CPJ press release:
ZIMBABWE: Offices of news production company are destroyed
Unknown persons bombed the offices of the Voice of the People (VOP) Communications Trust yesterday morning. The private news production company, which has been producing shows since June 2000, was housed in a suburb of the capital city, Harare.
The explosion is the fourth such attack on the independent media in the last two years. Since 2001, the Daily News, Zimbabwe's only independent daily newspaper, has been bombed three times.
According to several Zimbabwean and international reports, three men approached the VOP security guard outside the company's headquarters at about 1 a.m. They told him not to put up a struggle, warning him that, "you don't want to die for something you know nothing about."
Two of the men then smashed the office's windows and threw what appeared to be explosives inside the building. Soon after, there was an explosion and the entire building was razed to the ground.
Although no one was hurt in the explosion, all of the company's equipment, including computers, office equipment, and production machines, was destroyed.
The VOP, which was founded by former employees of the state- owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), is an independent production company and does not broadcast directly within Zimbabwe. Instead, local VOP staffers produce programs on a variety of community and political issues and send them to a Radio Netherlands shortwave transmitter located in Madagascar.
The shows, all with the tag "Radio VOP: Voice of the People" are then relayed into southern Africa. VOP was created just before the run-up to the 1990 elections to counteract the state monopoly of broadcast news.
VOP's independent stance and widespread audience has put it in opposition to the Zimbabwean government, which has accused VOP of "tarnishing" the country's image. In July members of the Zimbabwean Police Force raided VOP's offices, accompanied by officers of the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe. They searched the offices for a transmitter, broadcasting equipment, and other evidence that VOP was violating the Broadcasting Services Act of 2001, which bars stations from broadcasting without a license. (No licenses have been granted since the Act was passed.) The police did not find a transmitter, but confiscated 133 tapes and files from the office. The tapes and files were later returned.
CPJ is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit organization that works to safeguard press freedom worldwide. For more information about press conditions in Zimbabwe, visit www.cpj.org.
More Information:
For further information, contact Yves Sorokobi (ext. 112), Wacuka Mungai (ext. 106) or Adam Posluns (ext. 107) at CPJ, 330 Seventh Ave., New York, NY 10001, U.S.A., tel: +1 212 465 1004, fax: +1 212 465 9568, e-mail:
africa@cpj.org, ysorokobi@cpj.org, wmungai@cpj.org, Internet: http:// www.cpj.org/
IMCitsa
Comments
Hide the following 3 comments
clampdown continues
31.08.2002 04:46
Zimbabwe's police raided the offices of human-rights organisation Amani Trust in Harare on Thursday afternoon, and arrested Dr Frances Lovemore.
Lovemore had said in a report at the weekend that Zanu-PF militants were raping hundreds of women and children as part of a retribution campaign against the opposition.
free press
Not an 'independent' radio station
31.08.2002 12:07
VOP is no way an 'independent' station, it is funded by the official United States Information Service and the Soros Foundation, as anyone can check with a simple search. Its programmes are transmitted by the official Radio Netherlands.
This gives a feeling of deja vu - this is the story of Radio B92 all over again. B92, also financed by the Soros Foundation, broadcast on a BBC satellite into Yugoslavia during the Kosovo war, as part of western efforts to topple Milosevic. Nevertheless it succeeding in presenting itself as an 'independent' radio station.
Paul Treanor
who cares ?
31.08.2002 21:38
baba