Byo okays Broadcasting Services Amendment Bill

Nqobile Tshili

Bulawayo Bureau

STAKEHOLDERS in Bulawayo have endorsed the Broadcasting Services Amendment Bill, saying its enactment will revolutionise Zimbabwe’s broadcasting landscape and ensure the national broadcaster produces quality programming.

Some of the stakeholders, while fully backing proposals to retain licence fees and ensure that all vehicle owners paid for radio licences, wanted to see licensing move from the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation to the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe, and the resulting licence income distributed to others besides ZBC.

The Bill seeks to align the Broadcasting Services Act with the Constitution and the Public Entities Corporate Governance Act. Notable clauses include a provision limiting the tenure of the chief executive officers for the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) and the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) to two five-year terms, subject to performance contracts.

The Bill also proposes that motorists must buy radio licences before buying insurance and vehicle licences, or at least at the same time, so that it becomes impossible to escape licensing the vehicle radio. The Bill also sees foreigners able to own up to 40 percent of a broadcasting entity, a significant departure from the current law prohibiting foreign ownership but still making sure citizens remain the majority shareholders.

Chairperson of the Information, Publicity, and Broadcasting Services Parliamentary Portfolio Committee Caston Matewu facilitated the public hearing on Thursday, inviting participants to debate the Bill’s provisions.

National University of Science and Technology (Nust) media lecturer and veteran journalist Mr Methuseli Moyo spoke of the need for adequate funding for ZBC to produce quality programming since without sufficient funding, ZBC could not deliver quality content.

“If there is no money, there is no way it can produce quality content. No one will put their content for free at ZBC; content creators want to be paid for their content,” said Mr Moyo.

He said creative people need to be paid for their work. If the Bill addressed funding, it would resolve many issues.

 “If this Act is going to address the area of funding, then it will answer all these things. I worked there for some time. It was very painful to see creatives coming to beg for the content that they would have supplied,” said Mr Moyo.

Ms Wendy Sibanda, a Bulawayo resident, emphasised the societal benefits of a well-funded broadcasting sector.  She said ZBC is often criticised for being boring.  “But how will it produce quality content when it does not have funding? Right now the society is raising concerns that young people are abusing drugs, some of them are not properly dressed and this is because they are learning all those things from content creators from other countries who do not censor things that they produce,” said Ms Sibanda.