The Guardian
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African Station Uses SMS To Bypass Censors

The African nation of Zimbabwe has a new take on mobile radio—via SMS, reports Al Jazeera. SW Radio Africa was closed down by Mugabe’s government within days of opening in the country, so set up a new base outside London. A few years later the broadcast was jammed, and SMS turned out to be the most economica method of distributing news. “Gerry Jackson, founder of the London-based station, said about 2,000 Zimbabwean mobiles are currently receiving the station’s news content via text – and interest is growing…The biggest challenge in using texts for news lies in condensing complex stories into a 160 character message.”

Mar 3, 2007 11:38 PM ET
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Posted In: Media & Publishing, Countries

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