STATEMENT ON THE BOMBING OF VOP OFFICES

Thursday, August 29 2002

The Media Monitoring Project (MMPZ) condemns outright the bombing of the Voice of the People (VOP), a private radio station, as a cowardly and desperate attempt to silence independent and alternative sources of information to the Zimbabwean public. The bombing is a blow to Zimbabweans' constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of expression and to receive and disseminate information unhindered. It further erodes the nation's democratic aspirations.

Zimbabwe has in the past three years witnessed three incidences of bombing of private media offices and printing presses. This morning's bombing of the VOP offices is the fourth such attack. A worrying aspect of all this is that, in the previous cases, no arrests or successful prosecution have been reported.

The Zimbabwean public depends upon fair and accurate reporting from a variety of news media if it is to make informed decisions. An attack on any media institution is an attack on us all.

MMPZ therefore calls upon the authorities to ensure that justice prevails in order to discourage further attacks, and to reaffirm the authority of the rule of law.

Ends For more information, comments and queries, please contact the Acting Project Coordinator, MMPZ, 15 Duthie Avenue, Alexandra Park, Harare, Tel/fax: 263 4 703702, 263 91260664, 26311716645, E-mail: monitors@mweb.co.zw, Web: http://www.mmpz.org.zw/

BACKGROUND INFORMATION (Source: MISA Zimbabwe chapter)
ACTION ALERT: RADIO STATION BOMBED
29 AUGUST 2002

The Voice of The People (VOP) radio station, an aspiring community radio station in Zimbabwe had its premises bombed today (29 August) 2002 around one in the morning.

VOP radio station was bombed by three men who came to the premises in Milton Park, a suburb in Harare. The whole building was razed to the ground and everything inside was destroyed. MISA- Zimbabwe was informed by the VOP security guard that three men approached him and told him in the vernacular (shona) language that he must step aside lest he dies for something that he is not involved in. The three men, according to the guard had come by foot, and may have parked their car at a distance from the premises. The guard also told MISA-Zimbabwe that the police came to the premises around 2 am after being informed of the bombing.

The coordinator of VOP, John Masuku said that his secretary phoned him around 8 am when he was preparing to go to work. Masuku told MISA-Zimbabwe that there was nothing suspicious when they left the office yesterday (28 August) and no one had threatened them. Masuku said that he was in the process of contacting their lawyer and was not in a position to say much at the moment.

The radio station, which had not yet been licensed, was not broadcasting in Zimbabwe but was recording its programmes, which were being broadcast of short wave from outside Zimbabwe.

The bombing of VOP comes against a background of an acrimonious relationship between the authorities and the station. The government accuses VOP of "tarnishing the image" of the country through it's reporting. On 4 July 2002 the police raided the radio station. The police accompanied by officers from the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) and armed with a search warrant, raided the V.O.P in search of a transmitter and anything used in broadcasting. After failing to find the transmitter the police confiscated 133 tapes and files from the office. Masuku informed MISA-Zimbabwe that the tapes and files that the police had taken had since been returned.Radio Dialogue in Bulawayo has, in the past, been subjected to similar searches.