MEDIA-ZIMBABWE: Hopes For Alternative Broadcasting Dashed

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Lewis Machipisa

HARARE, Apr 5 2001 (IPS) - Hopes for those clamouring for alternative broadcasting were dashed this week when Zimbabwe’s ruling party, ZANU-PF, passed a new law to maintain a lid on public broadcasting ahead of next year’s presidential elections.

The new Broadcasting Services Act, passed in parliament on Wednesday, gives the minister of information much power to switch off anyone he deems not consistent with democracy.

Zimbabwe holds its presidential elections in 2002 and political analysts say the government would want to maintain its monopoly on broadcasting.

Cheaper than newspapers, radio reaches a far wider audience especially in the rural areas, where bad roads and poor infrastructure make it almost impossible for wider access by the print media.

Since independence in 1980, there has been no private broadcasting station in the country, and Zimbabweans have relied on a state-run media for information.

Under the regulations, only companies owned by Zimbabweans would be allowed to enter the country’s broadcasting industry and operators could be jailed for denigrating the presidency.

The regulations make the minister of Information, Jonathan Moyo, the final authority in the issuing of licences, and establishment of a Broadcasting Authority after consultation with President Robert Mugabe.

This is in contrary to regulations in neighbouring South Africa, or Europe, where the regulatory authority is an autonomous body.

In Zimbabwe, the Broadcasting Authority only has an advisory role to play. The final decision lies with the minister of information.

There are fears that critics of the government will not be awarded licences before the presidential elections.

The Act stipulates that the “minister, after consulting the Broadcasting Authority, may suspend or cancel any licence if there is evidence that the licensee acted in a manner prejudicial to the defence, public safety, public order, public morality or public health of Zimbabwe.”

It is up to the minister’s discretion to decide what is of public order or not.

“A publicly and transparently appointed Broadcasting Authority, representative of all Zimbabweans should be the licensing authority,” says Capital Radio, one of the private radio stations hoping to be licensed.

“The interpretation, by the minister of what constitutes ‘national security and integrity’ is arbitrary and open to abuse,” says Capital Radio in a critique of the new act.

Under the law, the minister “shall endeavour to secure that members are representative of groups or sectors of the community”.

Last October, two independent radio stations, Capital Radio and FM-100 hit the airwaves before armed police, swooped down on Capital Radio and seized its equipment accusing them of being a “pirate” station.

This was after the Supreme Court nullified the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation’s (ZBC) monopoly on the airwaves.

The same ruling also declared that Section 14 of the Radio Communication Services Act was inconsistent with Section 20 of Zimbabwe’s Constitution. And therefore, it’s invalid in so far as they prohibited any person, other than the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, from possessing or working a radio station for the purpose of carrying on a broadcasting service in Zimbabwe.

According to the regulations, besides the state-controlled ZBC, only one national broadcaster will be given a licence. The rest will be given community licences and other radius confined licences.

The regulations also note that it shall be the condition of every broadcasting licence that not less than 75 per cent of the programmes broadcast by it, in any year, shall be programmes with Zimbabwean content produced within Zimbabwe.

In a case of a commercial radio broadcasting licensee, that not less that 50 per cent of the music broadcast by the licensee is produced within Zimbabwe, and that not less than 10 per cent of the non-Zimbabwean music is African music.

No political party or organisation shall hold or have control of any broadcasting licence or signal carrier licence.

The government has argued that by allowing individuals to set broadcasting stations, the country’s security is put in great jeopardy.

But Capital Radio says it will launch a Supreme Court application to contest the constitutionality of the new law.

“It is our belief that this is part of the minister to ensure that no free and independent broadcasting can occur in the country prior to next year’s presidential elections,” says Mike Auret Jnr of Capital Radio.