(FXI/IFEX) – Nhlahla Masuku, chairman of the Broadcast Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ), has accused the Zimbabwean High Court of failing to understand the administration of airwaves in the country, “The Daily News” reported over the weekend of 3-4 November 2001. The BAZ chairman attacked the judiciary for its ruling in a case involving Capital Radio, […]
(FXI/IFEX) – Nhlahla Masuku, chairman of the Broadcast Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ), has accused the Zimbabwean High Court of failing to understand the administration of airwaves in the country, “The Daily News” reported over the weekend of 3-4 November 2001.
The BAZ chairman attacked the judiciary for its ruling in a case involving Capital Radio, a privately-run broadcaster, against Minister of State for Information and Publicity Jonathan Moyo.
Capital Radio started broadcasting on FM 90 on 28 September 2000, following its successful Supreme Court challenge of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation’s (ZBC) monopoly. The government then fast-tracked new regulations, under which it is illegal to possess a transmitter without a broadcasting licence. “It is a pity that our judicial system was about to become an international disgrace by failing to understand the need for the international administration of airwaves,” Masuku said. He explained that according to an international convention to which Zimbabwe was a party, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) oversaw the allocation of airwaves to regional blocks such as the Southern African Development Community and different countries, to ensure that there was no interference of airwaves. “You cannot allocate yourself an airwave,” Masuku said. “An international convention is powerful. You cannot break it.” He was speaking at the unveiling of BAZ’s logo at the authority’s offices in Harare.
The authority was set up by an Act of Parliament in late 2000 in order to oversee the liberalisation of airwaves in Zimbabwe. Masuku said a signal-carrier company to be branched off of the ZBC would provide transmitters for other broadcasters wishing to enter the industry. The company would invest money to purchase more transmitters in order to achieve 100 percent coverage of Zimbabwe. At present, the ZBC only covers about forty percent of Zimbabwe, at most, through its Radio 2, which broadcasts mostly in Shona and Ndebele. Masuku denied this would give an unfair advantage to the ZBC over its competitors, since the new Broadcasting Act provided for the establishment of another private signal-carrier company. The ZBC’s signal-carrier company would eventually be privatised, he said. He added that it would actually cut costs for locals intending to get into broadcasting as foreign participation in broadcasting was limited. Locals would be able to rent airwaves from the signal-carrier company, he said.
Masuku noted that his authority had just finalised drafting a national broadcasting map for radio airwaves and was now working on the map for television broadcasters, before registering them with the ITU.
