[HCDX] Zim radio faces likely closure

["Alokesh Gupta" <alokeshgupta@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Zim radio faces likely closure
----------------------------
23/05/2005 09:38  - (SA)

Nairobi - An award-winning Zimbabwean radio station in exile on Sunday
warned it could be forced to close down by the end of this month if pledges
of donor funds are not delivered, its manager said.
In April, the Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI) awarded SW
Radio Africa, which broadcasts to Zimbabwe on shortwave from London, the
2005 "Free Media Pioneer" prize for being a "voice to the voiceless".
The radio will receive the price on Tuesday at the end of the ongoing IPI
general assembly in the Kenyan capital.
"If the funds promised by our donors do not arrive before the end of the
month, we will be forced to stop our activities," said Gerry Jackson, the
founder and manager of radio.
However, it was not clear how much money the exiled station needed in order
to continue operating.
Jackson, a Zimbabwean journalist, set up the station in December 2001 after
being forced to leave Zimbabwe following the closure of an independent
station he set up after being fired from a public radio station.
According to IPI, the radio, which has nine employees in London, "remains a
rare independent voice" in Zimbabwe.
The Harare government regularly jammed broadcasts in the months before the
March legislative election, and continued after them, according to the press
watchdog, which also in its report in March chided the Southern African
nation for limiting press freedom.
Previous winners of the prize, created in 1996, include the Russian NTV
television station and the Serbian B-92 radio station.

http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/Zimbabwe/0,,2-11-1662_1709110,00.html

-------------------------
Alokesh Gupta
New Delhi.

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