MISA-Zimbabwe registers its disappointment with governments lack of sincerity and commitment to free the airwaves following claims that it has not been able to allow private players into the broadcasting sector owing to limited broadcasting infrastructural capacity.
This follows remarks by the Secretary for Media, Information and Publicity George Charamba on 24 March 2011 while addressing villagers and government officials at the commissioning of radio and television transmitters installed by Transmedia in Buliima District in Matabeleland South province.
Charamba said the infrastructure in place did not allow for more players, presumably private broadcasters, to enter the broadcasting sector. In the same vein he, however, urged those interested in establishing community broadcasting stations to organise themselves and come up with licensable structures.
By urging those interested to organise themselves into licensable structures, the inference is that no community radio stations have been licensed because there are no such structures as implied.
MISA-Zimbabwe would like to put it on record that Zimbabwe currently has more than nine Community Radio Initiatives (CRIs) spread throughout the country but mostly in the urban areas. For the record, two of the initiatives, Radio Dialogue FM in Bulawayo and Community Radio Harare (CORAH) are fully equipped and ready to broadcast with the requisite structures in place.
The other initiatives, though not equipped, meet the international standards for community radio stations both by definition and structural configurations. They are either geographical communities or communities of interest. Further, they already have community structures that will enable community participation in the running of the initiatives. Given the opportunity, each of these initiatives would be able to operate community radio stations that are reflective of the communities they represent.
If the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) were to call for licences for community radios, the Bulawayo and Harare CRIs, will be more than ready and happy to submit their respective applications for licences. Since the enactment of the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA) in 2001, the BAZ has simply not found it necessary to call for applications for such licences as required in terms of the Act.
The difficulty and hindrance posed by the BSA though, is that while it defines what a community broadcasting service should be, it does not define what constitutes a community for purposes of community broadcasting in Zimbabwe. This is an issue that can only be clarified and corrected through the repealing or amendment of the BSA . This, among other aspects of the legal conundrum posed by the restrictive provisions of the BSA, validates increasing calls for the repealing of the law in question.
For instance, Section 10 of the BSA gives the BAZ discretion to decide when to call for licences … subject to the availability of band spectrum This provision does not place strict obligations on the BAZ to ensure that other broadcasters are licensed in line with the African Charter on Broadcasting, which obliges member states, Zimbabwe included, to allow for the emergency of the three-tier broadcasting system (public, commercial and community broadcasting).
That notwithstanding, in 2009 the then former information deputy minister Jameson Timba noted that Zimbabwe had the capacity to licence an additional four television stations and 94 radio stations, in both urban and rural areas. A representative of LS Telcom of South Africa revealed at a Broadcasting Stakeholders Conference held in Harare on 5 November 2010 that the country actually has 184 FM frequencies almost double the said frequencies registered with the ITU which could also be increased if Zimbabwe so wishes.
It therefore remains unclear as to what exactly are the infrastructural inadequacies government continuously cites as reasons for its failure to diversify the broadcasting sector through the licensing of private players. MISA-Zimbabwe therefore calls for transparency on the part of the government where it concerns radio and TV broadcasting frequency spectrum as well as openness on the potential of the countrys existing broadcasting infrastructure.
Failure of which can only serve to fortify views that pleading poor infrastructure for the non-licensing of private broadcasters is nothing but an attempt to cover up the authorities reluctance to free the airwaves.
Post published in: News