Community radio station for Masvingo

ons of the Broadcasting Services Act that allow for the establishment of community radio stations in Zimbabwe.

Members of the committee will conduct a community awareness campaign to further enhance the popularity of the initiative as well as lobby parliamentarians, the Minister of Information and other government officials and the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe for them to be granted a broadcasting license.

Meanwhile, a Parliamentary committee has recommended that the Broadcasting Services Act be amended to allow more players in the broadcasting sector, where the state-run Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings enjoys monopoly status.

Parliament heard recently that there was concern ‘that the national broadcaster continues to enjoy the monopoly of airwaves despite the recent Supreme Court ruling which opened the airwaves to other players’. A Parliamentary sub committee also noted the deterioration of the quality of programming and programmes on radio and television, and taking cognisance of the government’s call for maximum utilisation of resources by parastatals, resolved to adopt the previous committee’s inquiries on the activities of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings companies to review the process of the unbundling.

“The committee was also informed by the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe that Transmedia, the only organisation licenced to provide transmission infrastructure, had no resources to undertake the erection of transmitters. It recommended that that the operating licence for Transmedia should therefore be rescinded forthwith as it had no resources to fulfil its mandate as the national signal provider. – Staff Reporter