The Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) has expressed concern over the alleged reluctance of the state owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) to air the CFU’s advertisements of a High Court ruling that compels war veterans to evacuate the private farms they have invaded since February 2000. David Hasluck, the CFU director, told MISA-Zimbabwe that ZBC refused […]
The Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) has expressed concern over the alleged reluctance of the state owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) to air the CFU’s advertisements of a High Court ruling that compels war veterans to evacuate the private farms they have invaded since February 2000.
David Hasluck, the CFU director, told MISA-Zimbabwe that ZBC refused to comply with the 17 March order, which gave the CFU the mandate to announce the court’s ruling on the radio and television four times a day for three successive days in Shona, Ndebele and English. Hasluck said that ZBC personnel, approached on the matter on Friday 17 March, “would not co-operate” with him saying that it was an advertising issue that could not be resolved over the weekend.
On Monday 20 March, Hasluck pressured ZBC on the matter with the assistance of his lawyer. Although ZBC assured the CFU that the advertisements would be aired by 24 March, Hasluck told MISA-Zimbabwe that ZBC showed no indications of this actually occurring.
However, on the morning of 24 March, ZBC radio started broadcasting the CFU advertisements.
On the same day, ZBC informed MISA that their policy requires advertising orders to be registered three business days in advance of the proposed broadcast.
Regardless of the events, MISA finds the CFU’s caution over the matter warranted in light of the recent incident when ZBC blatantly refused to air the National Constitutional Assembly’s
advertisements despite a court order compelling them to do so (see IFEX alerts of 13 March and 17 January 2000 and 10 September 1999).
