The press is free to write and publish opinions, but they encounter difficulties when those opinions are not accepted and respected by civil institutions and government. Press freedom is exercised as long as what it entitles the press to do is perceived to be within the public interest. Many journalists in Zimbabwe have been persecuted, harassed, threatened and even fired for living up to the requirements of those freedoms. In many instances, those who published have been damned. The incarceration of the press does not mean that there is no freedom of the press.
Freedom is there, but it is limited.
Open society and the emergence of the privately owned press in competition with the government-owned press has fostered press freedom and access to alternative information. Press freedom has allowed previously stifled voices to be heard, but more should be done to open Zimbabwean society to different opinions. More public debate on national issues like taxation, investment, voting and political freedom is needed in Zimbabwe. Journalists realize that people, if they know they hold contrary views to what is accepted, are afraid of talking to the media about certain subjects such as political affiliation. In Matabeleland, many people still fear discussing the atrocities perpetuated by the notorious Fifth Brigade during the early 1980s.