regard, as it is capable of reaching large numbers of people, including people who are illiterate. The ruling party controls electronic broadcasting and it operates the only daily newspaper in the country. These media have been disseminating a constant stream of pro-ruling party propaganda. They have largely ignored opposition campaigns except when vilifying the opposition. This has given the ruling party a completely unfair political advantage. Until three weeks before the election, despite being under a legal obligation to do so, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) had done nothing to ensure that there was fair and balanced coverage of elections by the government controlled media. The reforms to the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA) were supposed to have led to some relaxation of the stifling controls over the broadcast media and to open up private and community organisations outside the government-controlled Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation which presently is the sole electronic broadcaster in the country. The reforms to the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIIPA) were supposed to relax the stifling restrictions that were used to harass independent journalists to prevent them from operating freely and to close down newspapers considered to be anti-government. The only independent daily newspaper, The Daily News, that was closed down under AIPPA has still not been allowed to operate again. These reforms are far too little far too late. The new regulatory authorities that are supposed to implement the altered legislative provisions have not been established and the old pro-ruling party bodies continue to operate. Additionally, the reforms have not resulted in media diversity in Zimbabwe and journalists continue to be subjected to harassment from the same body that harassed them before the amendments. ZBC continues to be the sole public broadcaster. It operates national television and radio-broadcasting services. There are no commercial or community broadcasters. The recent changes to the BSA have not led to the opening up of the airwaves (as publicly promised by senior government officials) and the government monopoly over electronic broadcasting remains in place. No other broadcasters will be allowed to start broadcasting before the elections. The ruling party has used this monopoly to disseminate a constant stream of one-sided self-serving propaganda. The detailed reports of Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ) clearly establish that with only a few weeks left before the elections, the public broadcaster was continuing to provide partisan coverage of the election campaign. There was massive, favourable coverage of ZANU PF’s election campaign and minimal coverage of the campaigns of the opposition. The little airtime devoted to the opposition was mostly of a disparaging nature. 12