Freedom Fone is a project, where people can dial in to listen to pre-recorded messages in various languages or they can send in their own voice messages to the platform.
Only last month, the founders of the project were awarded in a category that recognised innovation and original use of new technology to circumvent censorship and foster debate, argument or dissent.
The awards were organised by Index on Censorship. Zimbabwe has tight broadcasting laws that make it virtually impossible for new entrants and the Freedom Fone project was seen as a way of going beyond that censorship.
But BAZ was particularly peeved with a drama on sexual health the service was running, saying this was infringing on the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA) and should stop the service forthwith.
“They have asked us to stop, but we will respond since this is a telephony service rather than a broadcast one,” Brenda Burrell from Freedom Fone said, adding that they did not want to pre-empt how they would deal with the directive.
In December last year, the authority said the call-in programmes were tantamount to broadcasting and should be halted immediately. BAZ chairman, Tafataona Mahoso declined to comment and referred all questions to the authority’s CEO, who was again not available for comment. Repeated calls to the authority’s offices were fruitless, as the CEO was said to be out of the office.
Burrell described the interference from BAZ as “irritating” saying she was not sure what agency the authority would use to enforce its decision. She said their programmes were very popular and without being specific, she said thousands of people had called in to listen to the radio drama.
It was also used for an audio magazine, Inzwa, that featured news headlines, while a programme where headlines in each day’s newspapers were read out had also been featured.
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Freedom Fone was also used on a constitutional project, where Constitutional Affairs minister, Eric Matinenga would respond to questions.
High call costs rendered the project restrictive: Burrell
However, the cost of making telephone calls hadmade the project out of the reach of many. “It limits the number of people who can access the service,” Burrell admitted.
“But for people who are illiterate or do not have access to the internet and newspapers, its money worth spending.” For organisations intending to set up their own platforms, Freedom Fone may also be costly, as some key devices are expensive, but the runners of the project said they gave free software.
Freedom Fone is presently in use in Rwanda, Tanzania, Niger, Cambodia and South Africa, where Burrell says it has been more successful. The Freedom Fone project was initiated by Kubatana, a body that aims to capacitate Zimbabwean non-profit organisations to communicate and mobilise by incorporating electronic tools such as e-mail and internet into their media strategies.
