Owatalk

• Home
• Contact
• About

Zanu PF grabs the airwaves

The recent awarding of licences to operate radio statios to AB Communications and Zimpapers has seen Zanu PF literally grabbing the airwaves for themselves.

Kiss FM and Radio VOP were the ones to lose out to stations that are very much aligned to Zanu PF which is more or less an extension of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation(ZBC).

What's the point for example, of granting a newspaper licence to the ZBC? This is what has been done by granting a licence to the Zimpapers.

The Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) needs to be seen to be promoting media plurality instead of having more of the same.

Now I understand they are now asking for applications for city licences. Its very hard to see any of those being a success apart from maybe Harare and Bulawayo.

This is because the Zimbabwean cities don't have the big stations required to sustain a commercial station. Instead BAZ should have awarded community radio stations for towns like Marondera.

In a country with such high unemployment I cannot see why this radio and television communications sector cannot be used to create new jobs.

By opening that sector to more players, a lot of people will get jobs. I can imagine how many jobs will be created by just awarding television licences to two other players.

Post a comment:

Name

(required)

E-Mail

(required, but not published)

Website

(optional)

Comment
Enter Code


Notify me of follow-up comments via e-mail