REDCLIFF Zimbabwe has the capacity to licence an additional four television stations and 94 radio stations in both urban and rural areas, a top government official said at the weekend. Addressing media personnel on the need to open up the countrys airwaves, Deputy Information Minister Jameson Timba said an assessment done by the ministry revealed that the countrys radio and television spectrum could still take in 31 radio licences in urban areas and 60 in the country. Timba also revealed at the meeting that there would be a fresh appointment of the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) board.
In the coming weeks, a new board for BAZ will be set up as the one announced by the minister last month was not constituted properly, he said. He said the television spectrum allowed for additional licensing of three ultra-high frequency (UHF) television licences and one very high frequency (VHF) television licence. He added that the spectrum also allowed a capacity to issue two national frequency modulation (FM) radio licences. President Robert Mugabe and the previous Zanu (PF) government had not registered any new players in the broadcasting sector because of stringent laws that promoted state monopoly in broadcasting.
While the unity government has now achieved progress on economic reforms, political and media reforms have moved at a snails pace, amid quarrelling by coalition partners.
Last month, there was a misunderstanding over the appointment of the new BAZ when Information Minister Webster Shamu announced a new board chaired by former Media Information Commission (MIC) chairperson Tafataona Mahoso. This was shot down by the MDC (T) as unprocedural because other coalition parties had not been consulted. As a result, the arrival of new players on the scene could be delayed.
Post published in: News