Social media and newspapers websites are leading the way in promoting greater discussion of topical issues in Zimbabwe, says the Media Monitoring Project in Zimbabwe (MMPZ).

An MMPZ report, dubbed ‘Social Media Watch Report 1’, closely analyses postings on websites of Zimbabwean newspapers and covers comments posted by readers via Facebook, Twitter and even WhatsApp.

This comes as Zimbabwe has ferociously clamped down on freedom of speech in the country where it is an illegal offence, for example, to insult President Robert Mugabe.

“Through social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and the comments section of online media, including the websites of traditional media outlets, such as newspapers radio and television, the ordinary person has been empowered with an opportunity to comment on topical issues,” says the report.

It says “rather than” having discussion of issues in newspapers “being limited to a few selected comments” on the letters to the editor pages in print newspapers and during phone calls in programs on radio and television stations, “social media does not restrict the number of commentators” and rarely limits the number of words one wants to use.

MMPZ hails this as crucial in a country with strict state media controls, as the body says democracy depends on freely articulated opinion in order to receive ideas and establish popular, rational policies and decision-making that is in the best interests of the people.

“The number and diversity of views articulated in these feedback arenas make these new marketplaces of ideas worthy,” says the MMPZ.

Although social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp have been hailed as a readily available and relatively cheaper alternative medium for information dissemination, experts have called on the government in Zimbabwe to respect citizen rights to freedom of expression and access to information.

A teenage boy has been reportedly hauled before a Zimbabwean court for a posting on his Facebook account that President Robert Mugabe had died and was being kept in a freezer.