Zimbabwe

The Republic of Zimbabwe is a landlocked Southern African republic with an executive presidency and a bicameral Parliament. It gained independence from Britain on 18 April 1980. The country has a population of about 17 million and recent current-dollar GDP per capita estimates in roughly the US$2,600–3,200 range. Zimbabwe has sixteen constitutionally recognised official languages: Chewa, Chibarwe, English, Kalanga, Koisan, Nambya, Ndau, Ndebele, Shangani, Shona, Sign Language, Sotho, Tonga, Tswana, Venda, and Xhosa.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa of the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) has held office since November 2017, when he succeeded Robert Mugabe, and was declared re-elected for a second term after the 2023 harmonised elections. Mnangagwa’s second term has been marked by macroeconomic stabilisation efforts following the April 2024 introduction of the Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG) currency and by the launch of the National Development Strategy 2 (NDS2) framework for 2026–2030. The 2026 National Budget was presented to Parliament by Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube on 27 November 2025 and is the annual fiscal plan for the year ending 31 December 2026.

The Zimbabwean media-regulatory environment is shaped by the Constitution of Zimbabwe, whose Section 61 imposes impartiality and independence obligations on state-owned media, requiring all state-owned media to determine editorial content independently, be impartial, and afford fair opportunity for divergent and dissenting views. In practice, these constitutional obligations have been the subject of repeated judicial findings against the state-controlled broadcaster and newspaper publishers. In 2019, the High Court of Zimbabwe, in a judgment delivered by Justice Joseph Mafusire, found that the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation and Zimpapers acted unconstitutionally during the 2018 election cycle by failing to provide fair opportunity for divergent views.

The 2023 harmonised elections were monitored by the European Union Election Observation Mission, which found that the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation gave over two-thirds of news and current-affairs coverage to ZANU-PF, the President, and the government, and by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) observer architecture, with both observer findings summarised by the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zimbabwe.

The principal legal instruments shaping broadcasting and digital communications include the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (Commercialisation) Act of 2001, the Broadcasting Services Act (amended on 23 May 2025 to introduce a mandatory vehicle radio licence fee mechanism), the Cyber and Data Protection Act, the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, including later amendments affecting expression and national-security offences, and the Official Secrets Act. The Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services is headed since the February 2026 cabinet reshuffle by Zhemu Soda, replacing Jenfan Muswere, who had served as Minister since 11 September 2023 and was concurrently moved to the Ministry of Skills Audit and Development. The sector regulator is the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ).

Reporters Without Borders ranked Zimbabwe 124th of 180 countries in the 2026 World Press Freedom Index, a fall of 18 places from 106/180 in 2025. RSF’s 2026 country data show deterioration across several indicators, and MISA Zimbabwe has separately highlighted continuing concerns about state dominance and legal restrictions in the media environment.

Zimbabwe’s formal state-owned and government-controlled media architecture in this dataset comprises three organisations: two State-Controlled (SC) outlets (the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) and New Ziana) and one Captured Public (CaPu) outlet, Zimbabwe Newspapers (Zimpapers). The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) operates three television channels (ZBC TV, ZBC News (also branded as News 24), and JIVE TV), and six radio stations (Radio Zimbabwe, Power FM, National FM, Classic 263, Khulumani FM, and 95.8 Central Radio) from its Pockets Hill headquarters in the Highlands suburb of Harare, broadcasting in English, Shona, Ndebele, and other constitutionally recognised national languages. ZBC traces its institutional lineage to the Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation (founded 1960), Voice of Zimbabwe Rhodesia (1979), and the present Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (1980); its modern corporate structure derives from the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (Commercialisation) Act of 2001. A new ZBC Board chaired by Helliate Rushwaya was reported gazetted in June 2025; CEO Sugar Chagonda was appointed as substantive Group CEO effective 1 August 2025, succeeding Adelaide Chikunguru.

Zimbabwe Newspapers (Zimpapers) is listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (one of the oldest continuous listings, dating to 8 March 1927) and majority-held by the state-controlled Zimbabwe Mass Media Trust (ZMMT) at 51.09%, operating The Herald, The Sunday Mail, The Chronicle, The Sunday News, The Manica Post, H-Metro, B-Metro, Kwayedza, Umthunywa, Business Weekly, and Suburban, alongside Star FM (launched 25 June 2012), Diamond FM, Capitalk 100.4 FM, and ZTN Prime television. Zimpapers Group CEO William Chikoto was confirmed in the substantive role in November 2025, succeeding Pikirayi Deketeke who exited in January 2025 amid reported internal-audit allegations; the Board is chaired by Doreen Sibanda.

New Ziana, a subsidiary of ZMMT, operates Zimbabwe’s national news wire and publishes eight provincial and community newspapers (Chaminuka, Ilanga, Indonsakusa, Masvingo Star, Nehanda Guardian, Pungwe News, Telegraph, and The Times) and is led by CEO Rangarirai Shoko. The 2026 typology distribution stands at 2 SC + 1 CaPu.