JOHANNESBURG - After two years of National Unity government, The Zimbabwean on Sunday continues to publish many desperate stories of Zimbabweans who have had no reprieve from poverty, intimidation, political persecution and state-sponsored violence.
A new billboard advertising campaign, aimed at keeping alive the battle for freedom of speech in Zimbabwe, tells harrowing real life stories of life in Zimbabwe. Launched in South Africa on Friday the new campaign is entitled Give a voice to the voiceless, echoing the newspapers masthead slogan.
With the world transfixed by the tumultuous changes and protests in North Africa and the Middle East, the newspaper is campaigning to protect freedom of speech within Zimbabwe by giving a voice to both resident and exiled Zimbabweans and by urging the worlds media not to forget the daily struggles taking place in that country.
We will not see people-powered [democratic] change in Zim without protecting the peoples right to speak out and the medias right to report what is going on, said the editor, Wilf Mbanga.
Two years on from the formation of the Government of National Unity (GNU), in which President Robert Mugabes Zanu (PF) party power-shares with Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirais Movement for Democratic Change, the situation for the average Zimbabwean remains bleak.
Everybody is asking the question: After the events in Tunisia, Egypt and now Libya, will we see change in Zimbabwe? The people are weary yet resilient. Not much has changed since the formation of the GNU and the situation remains desperate for millions of people.
Nine Zimbabweans who wanted their stories to be heard will ignite the Give a voice to the voiceless campaign. A spokesman for the advertising agency that masterminded the campaign, TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris, said: We hope their courage and dignity will inspire their countrymen and women to make their voices heard and also to support the many independent journalists who risk intimidation and imprisonment just to report the reality of life in Zimbabwe. Clearly, neither the people nor the media will be silenced.
The campaign, which will also be unrolled on social media sites using Twitter and Facebook, provides three platforms for free speech: a series of billboards by world-renowned photojournalists showing real-life subjects of the everyday hardships experienced by Zimbabweans; a fully interactive website, thezimbabwean.co.uk, where visitors can interact directly with the stories behind each of the images, subscribe to the newspaper and share their own stories and how their lives have been affected by the current political and economic situation in Zimbabwe; and a number storyboxes installed in Johannesburg and London which will record spoken accounts to be uploaded to the website.
We want to give a voice to all Zimbabweans both in and outside the country. Something like two million citizens live outside Zimbabwe in South Africa and another million or so in the diaspora. Many exiles find themselves isolated, marginalised and we all yearn for home. It is important that they can tell their stories and articulate the fears and frustrations about the issues concerning them, said Mbanga.
In an effort to connect with the Zimbabwean diaspora and to keep the plight of Zimbabwe on the world agenda the newspaper first partnered with ad agency in 2009 to develop the Trillion Dollar Campaign, which became the most highly awarded campaign in the history of advertising.
Post published in: News