The photographs of the tortured body of an opposition official are blurry but chilling.

Posted on the “This is Zimbabwe” blog, they show charred, lacerated limbs and blank eyes staring out from the face of the official, Gift Mutsvungunu, frozen in a death grimace. A note accompanying the pictures says the picture quality is poor considering the photographer was shaking with fear.

Increasingly, Zimbabweans are going online and using cell phone text messages to share stories of life and death

in a country where independent traditional media have been all but silenced, and from which reporters from most universal media have been barred.

“Any organization or NGO working in the area of promotion of free expression is at risk,” Bev Clark, one of the founders of the Kubatana blogging forum, said via e-mail. “Zimbabwe is encased in fear.”

Harare-based Kubatana is a network of nonprofit organizations that runs a blogging forum. The […]

Orginal post by Top Tech News