“Playing” in the Eyes of the Ferret Team: Examining the Use of Surveillance Strategies by Zimbabwean Journalists

ABSTRACT

The Zimbabwean state has in recent years stepped up its surveillance efforts on citizens, civil society and journalists who are viewed as the “enemies of the state”. This state surveillance has been argued to infringe on citizens’ right to privacy and access to information. We are mindful that the “Second Republic” or the “New Dispensation” government has invested heavily in surveillance to silence its critics, among them activists, opposition leaders and journalists. Based on this, the study critically examines the use of surveillance strategies by Zimbabwean journalists and assesses the challenges and opportunities. The study uses in-depth interviews with selected journalists from Zimpapers, Alpha Media Holdings and freelance journalists around the country. The data show that journalists in Zimbabwe use different surveillance strategies, while some are benefiting from state sources for surveillance. Journalists further indicated that they live in fear of the state, which tracks them down. As a result, however, journalists have resorted to various means of security, which include “hunting in packs” and deploying digital security strategies. Findings further demonstrate that newsrooms are poorly equipped with technology for surveillance.

KEYWORDS:

• Journalism
• surveillance
• Zimbabwe
• field theory
• Zimpapers
• Alpha Media Holdings

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 https://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2007/07_08/2007_07_17_Mpofu_PiusNcube.htm

2 “Gukurahundi” is a Shona term that literally means “the rain that washes away the chaff from the last harvest, before the spring rains”. In the Zimbabwean political landscape, the Gukurahundi denotes state-orchestrated massacres committed against predominantly Ndebele-speaking people in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces between 1983 and 1987 (CCJP and LRF 1997; Tshuma and Ndlovu 2020).

3 Mduduzi Mathuthu, together with Hopewell Chin’ono, played a major role in exposing the corruption of Minister of Health and Child Welfare, Obadiah Moyo, in what became known as the Covigate scandal. Because he went against the grain and exposed other corruption scandals, Hopewell was incarcerated while Mathuthu went into hiding, fearing for his life. The state reacted by using the “ferrets” squad and abducted Tawanda Muchehiwa and Mathuthu’s two nephews.

4 https://zimbabwe.misa.org/2019/07/05/shocking-freedom-of-information-bill-gazetted/

5 https://www.newsday.co.zw/2020/03/army-to-monitor-social-media/?cn-reloaded=1

6 https://zimbabwe.misa.org/2020/10/14/right-to-privacy-increasingly-under-threat-in-zimbabwe/

7 There are several cases where journalists from the private media have been tortured by the state. These include Samuel Takawira and Frank Chikowore, who were once arrested for exposing state brutality.