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Talking Harare Newsletter Vol. 18
Givemore Chipere, Community Radio Harare
September 08, 2009

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Minister Shamu, community radio initiatives meet
By Talking Harare Reporter

Community radio initiatives in Zimbabwe and the Minister of Media, Information and Publicity, Webster Shamu, met in Harare on 19 August 2009 and held consultations to discuss issues that are of concern with respect to the issue of community broadcasting licencing.

The meeting was held at the invitation of Minister Shamu who said community radios could play an important role in the transformation of the society. "The government is in the process of seeing what can be done to satisfy the needs of our nation in terms of information, education and entertainment needs. Community radios can assist us in making sure that we are a successful nation and so today we have invited community radio initiatives as a special group of the media and see how we can move forward for the better of our country," said the Minister in his opening remarks.

Chairperson of Zimbabwe Association of Community Radio Stations (ZACRAS), Chris Mhike, told Minister Shamu that many community radio initiatives were prepared to broadcast but the issue of licencing was impacting negatively on them. "Community radio initiatives represented here are prepared to broadcast once they get broadcasting licences and so the government should urgently assist them. We are concerned that the national broadcaster, ZBC, reaches only 20% of the national population and therefore feel that community radios can fill in that gap and ensure that there is free flow of information to all the people of Zimbabwe," said Mhike.

Besnath Dube of Hwange Community Radio who attended the meeting said it was good that the government has recognized the existence of community radio initiatives in the country. "We are happy that the government has recognized our existence and this invitation that they extended to us is testimony that things might be turning and we are sure we will get licences once BAZ is constituted as the minister promised," commended Dube.
Other issues that were discussed include that of ensuring that all parts of the country have a community radio, the need to do a needs assessment in areas that community radios want to operate and also that these radio initiatives should wait for the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) to invite them to submit applications as BAZ is already working towards that.

Community radio initiatives that attended the meeting include those from Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare, Hwange, Masvingo, Kwekwe, Kadoma and Gweru.

Zimbabwean media laws allow for the granting of licences to private players but to date no one has been licenced with the state-run ZBC being the country's sole broadcaster. However of late things seem to be changing as the government has announced plans to allow private and community broadcasters to operate and Minister Shamu's meeting with community radio initiatives can be seen as a positive step towards media diversity and development in the country.

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