The press and popular organizations in Zimbabwe: A frayed alliance

In: Southern Africa report, Volume 12, Issue 3, p. 13-16

Abstract

The article looks at the effects of economic reforms and the structural adjustment programme introduced in 1991. It shows how the largest private media had been key participants in the private sector's campaign for neoliberalism in the late 1980s, negative implications of the economic reforms for the existing media and its capacity to reflect a variety of social perspectives. The difficulties faced by the private press because of shortage of capital are explained, also how political horizons in the press have been narrowed by economic reforms, the privatizing passion of the ruling ZANU (PF)'s neo-liberal state and how the centre of democratization struggle has shifted closer to the grassroots of civic activism in the 1990s. (DÜI-Sen)