(MISA/IFEX) – On 17 June 2000, Minister of Information Chen Chimutengwende told the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) that liberalisation of the airwaves would be a top priority for the next parliament. Zimbabweans will choose members of the next parliament later this week. Minister Chimutengwende, who was speaking during an interview on ZBC’s main news programme, […]
(MISA/IFEX) – On 17 June 2000, Minister of Information Chen Chimutengwende told the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) that liberalisation of the airwaves would be a top priority for the next parliament. Zimbabweans will choose members of the next parliament later this week.
Minister Chimutengwende, who was speaking during an interview on ZBC’s main news programme, said the government was presently working on a law which would open up the airwaves. He said that once the law was passed, limited licences would be made available, since it will be not be possible to issue unlimited licences. The minister did not elaborate on this point.
In the same interview, the minister attacked the new Netherlands-based radio station which began beaming into Zimbabwe on 13 June, saying that it wanted to destabilise the country. He reiterated that the government believed that Capital Radio, whose application to the Supreme Court for the striking of Section 27 of the Broadcasting Act was rejected recently, was part of the new radio (see IFEX alert of 16 June 2000).
The minister also attacked the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) World Service, Cable News Network (CNN) and other international broadcasters, accusing them of trying to keep Zimbabwe and the rest of the southern African region in their spheres of influence. He said Zimbabwe needed to intensify its efforts of channelling the correct information about the country. The minister added that the press attaches of the various Zimbabwean foreign missions were not doing enough to counter the propaganda churned out by these international organisations. He went on to say that because of the biased reporting by the international media, Zimbabwe needed to modernise its broadcasting services so that it reached a wider audience.
Background Information
The government embarked on a programme to liberalise the airwaves in 1997, and in 1998 it gazetted the Communications Bill. The bill intended to open up the broadcasting and telecommunication sectors. The process had reached an advanced stage and government had, to a certain extent, consulted interested stakeholders for their inputs. All this positive progress came to nought when, in July 1999, the government announced that opening up the airwaves was no longer on its agenda. It said that it was only opening up the telecommunications sector and that broadcasting would be looked into at a later stage. Thus, the Broadcasting, Postal and Telecommunications Bill was re-written and became the Postal and Telecommunications Bill. The bill was passed by parliament on 8 March, and is now awaiting the President’s signature.
