Abstract

Elaborate media games have been played to restrain growing political opposition and to maintain ZANU PF supremacy in Zimbabwe. From the dark days of Rhodesia, regime control of public communication remains one of the most enduring sources of ruling party dominance in the country. This history of government containment of a critical media laid the foundation for postindependence control of freedom of expression, something that has proved an effective instrument for blocking envisaged transition to an alternative democracy today. Since 2000 new restrictive laws have shut down four titles and 80 media workers have been arrested or detained for various transgressions. Is the government’s recent strengthening of egregious media laws a defence of communicative sovereignty as it claims, or it is a manifest reversal into authoritarian rule as detractors claim?

Keywords: media policy, communication control, Zimbabwe crisis, political communication, communicative sovereignty, media games

How to Cite:

Mazango, E., (2017) “Media games and shifting of spaces for political communication in Zimbabwe”, Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture 2, 33-55. doi: https://doi.org/10.16997/wpcc.40