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Broadcasting Act vitiates against the principles of freedom of expression and economic development
Nyasha Nyakunu, MISA-Zimbabwe
Extracted from Monthly Digest - January 2006
February 06, 2006

As a media freedom and freedom of expression advocacy lobby group, MISA-Zimbabwe is on record acknowledging as progressive recent policy pronouncements on the restrictive nature of the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA).

The deputy minister of Information and Publicity Bright Matonga, has on numerous occasions reiterated that the BSA is not conducive to the entry of private players into the broadcasting sector, hence none have been licensed since its promulgation in 2001.

The chairman of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport and Communications has expressed similar sentiments and reservations albeit with special reference on why the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe is still to invite applications for community radio stations.

In his weekly instalments in The Sunday Mail of 25 December 2005, Media and Information Commission chairman Dr Tafataona Mahoso made reference to a Unesco-funded meeting he had attended in Lusaka, Zambia.

Never one to miss an opportunity to lambast those of different views as agents of "regime change", Mahoso says the meeting had criticised the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, but steered clear of the BSA, among others.

While the agenda of the meeting was the sole prerogative of the organisers, the fact that the BSA was not subjected to similar criticism is neither here nor there.

Of significance is the fact that senior government officials and parliamentary committees have since acknowledged the defects of the law in question in as much as Mahoso might still want to defend it as one that is conducive to the promotion of the free flow of information and plurality of ideas and views.

For the avoidance of any doubt, MISA-Zimbabwe has consistently and openly expressed its reservations on the restrictive nature of the BSA through its Open the Airwaves Campaign and submissions to relevant players and other progressives.

Mahoso is entitled to his own views and as MISA-Zimbabwe we will not move mountains to block him as the lone voice in the wilderness where it concerns defending laws which have since been acknowledged as defective at the highest levels possible.

In any case it is said when a fly dies in the wound it would have died in its anointed place.

What is of concern to MISA-Zimbabwe is the fact that an industry which has potential of generating thousands of jobs notwithstanding its multiplier effect on downstream industries, has remained stagnant because of the muzzling legislative environment.

This is critical particularly at a time when Zimbabwe is desperate for foreign direct investment and expertise to arrest the massive job losses and rescue the ailing economy from the edge of the precipice.

On that basis MISA-Zimbabwe regards the broadcasting industry in Zimbabwe as severely malnourished because of failure, by commission, to come up with legislation that feeds into the principles of promoting freedom of expression as well as access to information as envisaged under the African Charter on Broadcasting.

The charter states that: The legal framework for broadcasting should include a clear statement of the principles underpinning broadcast regulation, including promoting respect for freedom of expression, diversity and the free flow of information and ideas as well as a three tier system for broadcasting: public service, commercial and community.

This is also in line with the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights which states that every individual shall have the right to receive information … every individual shall have the right to express his/her opinion within the law.

A critical and objective analysis of the BSA shows that the Act is a far cry from the envisaged principles of the Charter.

The Act is inherently flawed in that the regulatory body, the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) is accountable to the Minister; the same is true of the board of governors at the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings and the MIC under AIPPA.

Such a situation seriously compromises the independence and impartiality of regulatory authorities and impacts negatively on the editorial independence of media houses.

The Act bans foreign funding and investment in the otherwise capital-intensive sector notwithstanding the obvious need to import equipment and the attendant foreign currency required.

Besides scaring away potential investors this infringes on the right for businesspersons to associate with partners of their choice to ensure the running of a viable commercial entity.

Having barred foreign investment, the Act is even cruel to its own citizens in that it restricts ownership in a broadcasting venture to a maximum of 10 percent. Under the Act no applicant that is a body corporate shall be licensed if any one person holds or controls more than 10 percent of securities in the company.

Sections 15 and 16 gives the minister tremendous discretionary powers to amend, suspend or cancel a licence for whatever reasons.

Provisions pertaining to the licensing fees, national interest, 70 –80 percent local content in all broadcast material and the mandatory one-hour weekly slots to allow government to air its own messages, also need to be critically examined.

These restrictive provisions make a strong case for the repeal of the Act or amendment of the contentious provisions.

It is MISA-Zimbabwe’s view that freedom of expression and access to information should be at the cornerstone of broadcasting in Zimbabwe in conformity with international conventions and charters as well as Section 20 of the Constitution which protects freedom of expression.

The benefits of a Zimbabwean society that enjoys the right to freedom of expression, free flow of information, diversity and pluralism in the broadcasting sector, will not accrue to MISA-Zimbabwe, but to the nation at large.

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