State of Broadcasting and Digital Migration in the Region https://zimbabwe.misa.org Africa, but also with analogue TV – is a solution in search of a problem.”14 Such a focus broadened the scope of this position paper so that the question is not only about how digital migration would help the advancement of the right of access to information and freedom of information in SADC and Zimbabwe, but also a question of whether this right was in fact being fulfilled during the analogue period. Thus, digital migration is not the magic wand; human behaviour before and after digital migration is. But such observations could not be made without research, hence, the key informant interviews that anchor this position paper. Another argument that has been offered in favour of digital migration has to do with what is called signal swamping, which basically is cross-border interference of signals. The question posed then is if that is a serious problem in Africa t o warrant a digital migration cut-off date of 2015 as initially set by ITU, why is it that five years later many African countries are still lagging behind in terms of digital migration and there does not seem to be any serious issue with that? In fact, millions of African citizens are yet to receive analogue television signals. Then there are others who receive spill-over signals without receiving their own countries’ signals, or those who welcome spill-over signals as alternatives to their countries’ tightly controlled broadcasting. The spill-over content itself may not provide much of a choice. Their right to accessing information is yet to be remotely fulfilled. This is probably why many African countries have assumed a lackadaisical approach to digital migration, or have pointed at Africa’s perennial problem of funding constraints. This means that the question of rights may be too advanced in such a scenario and may need to be problematised. The question therefore, is, what is the place of rights in this scramble from analogue to digital, a scramble which is largely a response to this digital hype and not really because of a serious obligation to do so on the part of African countries? The fulfilment of the right of access to information and freedom of information may not depend entirely on digital migration but on other factors. 14 25 It is also obvious that what digital television portends is an enhancement of people’s digital behaviour. Because there is more content which people can interact with, they have the ability to choose. Which means the choice of what they can actually watch is not channelled from the supply side. They cease being passive recipients and become interactive consumers of content. As they receive content from television, they can personalise it, add more to it, and send it out to others. This means the consumer is also playing the role of having freedom to create information and pass it on. Thus, digital migration should also be understood in the context of the complete digital world itself (not just television) where television content can be re-created, edited and sent. Thus, in terms of this whole digital world, what have been the experiences of Africans so far? Have their governments allowed access to information and freedom of information? Will digital migration improve the relationship between Zimbabweans and their government? All these questions were important to consider to bring awareness of what is at stake in the context of digital migration and the way the interview questions were supposed to be phrased and couched. G. Berger, 2010. Challenges and Perspectives of Digital Migration for African Media. Dakar: Panos Institute of West Africa, p. 24