A new satellite television station targeting audiences in Zimbabwe is being launched in South Africa on Friday.
1st TV will be broadcast into Zimbabwe by satellite. The BBC reports it is headed by Andrew Chadwick, former communications director for prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
The station insists it will be independent and aims to represent all parties and views in Zimbabwe.
State TV, which has a domestic monopoly, is widely seen as being biased in favour of President Robert Mugabe.
"We will be taking decisions mindful of the need to cripple this pirate television broadcast station,'' the Herald newspaper quotes government official George Charamba, an ally of the president, as saying.
Elections are due to be held on 31 July.
