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Public broadcaster should produce editorial charter
MISA-Zimbabwe
October 14, 2005

The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH) should be taken to task on why it has failed to produce the long-awaited editorial charter as part of efforts to ensure that it performs its mandate as a public broadcaster.

Former ZBH chief executive officer Munyaradzi Hwengwere, told a public meeting organised by MISA Zimbabwe on the occasion of the three-day Southern Africa Social Forum which opened in Harare on 13 October 2005, that the issue of whether ZBH is serving its public mandate evolved around its governance structure and the legislative environment.

In addressing the question of whether the state broadcaster is serving its public mandate, Hwengwere said it was trite to note that ZBH was now a holding company comprising eight private companies.

The meeting, which was held as part of MISA-Zimbabwe’s, open the airwaves campaign, focused on impediments to ZBH’s public service mandate, editorial independence and prospects for the entry of private players into the broadcasting sector.

Hwengwere said the editorial charter would be used as a monitoring tool to check whether the ZBH is serving its public mandate.

He said parliament, which has conducted several commissions of enquiry on the goings-on at the government-controlled public broadcaster, should instead focus on why the editorial charter has not been put in place.

The charter in question should be widely publicised to enlighten the public on what is expected of a public broadcaster.

ZBH should also be compelled to publish annual reports on audience growth, finance, content and programming.

The public broadcaster should be accountable to the public through regular publication of audience surveys and annual meetings with stakeholders, said Hwengwere.

New players should also be allowed to enter the broadcasting sector as that would assist in checkmating ZBH "to make things a little exciting".

However, Oscar Kubara, the chief executive officer of Munhumutapa African Broadcasting Corporation (MABC), said the prospects for private players entering the broadcasting arena, were dim given the prevailing legislative environment.

The MABC was denied a licence to operate a commercial television after the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe ruled that it had failed to demonstrate that it had the financial muscle to launch a television station.

The Broadcasting Services Act enacted in 2001 has been widely criticised as entrenching the monopoly of ZBH as it bans, among other restrictions, foreign funding and investment in the otherwise capital-intensive broadcasting sector.

Former editor-in-chief Shepherd Mutamba, attributed ZBH’s failure to perform its public mandate to political interference which came to the fore during Professor Jonathan Moyo’s tenure as Minister of Information and Publicity.

Mutamba recalled the "endless midnight meetings" with the former minister where he was told who to fire, suspend, promote or reward with numerous foreign trips.

Mutamba resigned in frustration after serving for six months as editor-in-chief.

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