Zim government ‘gagging community radio stations’

There are 10 commercial radio stations in Zimbabwe, eight of which are licensed to broadcast on a local level and two nationwide.

“The ones we have are far from community radio stations, they are commercial,” Zimbabwe Association of Community Radio Stations (ZACRAS) programmes officer Kudzai Kwangwari told DailyNews Live.

“The government is not willing to license genuine community radio stations based all over the country.”

Radio licences are issued by the Broadcast Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ), which has come under fire for a unilateral chain of command from the minister of communication without involving the communities it is supposed to serve.

Kwangwari said some radio stations were licensed in an attempt to deceive listeners into thinking that legitimate community radio stations existed.

Among the licensed radio stations are Ya FM (Zvishavane), Nyaminyami FM (Kariba), Breeze FM (Victoria Falls), Diamond FM (Mutare), Skyz Metro FM (Bulawayo), Capitalk 100.4FM (Harare) and Faya FM (Gweru).

Kwangwari said the names of some stations bore a resemblance to the community radio stations BAZ was refusing to licence.

“There is a community radio station called Kumakomo FM based in Mutare which BAZ has not licensed,” he said.

“But they decided to license Diamond FM Kumakomoyo owned by newspaper publisher and commercial printer Zimpapers. In Kariba there is a community radio station called Patsaka Nyaminyami which has not been granted a licence. However, BAZ licensed Nyaminyami FM.”

During the official launch of Masvingo’s Hevoi FM in July, the secretary in the Ministry of Media, Information and Broadcasting Services, George Charamba, said the terminology used to define “community radio” needed to be re-examined.

“Let’s interrogate the terminology that we use and see whether it has sense in our own circumstances,” Charamba said.

“The word ‘community radio’ presupposes that there is a radio that does not serve the community, so if there is a radio that does not serve the community, who is it speaking to? Does a national radio station not serve a community?”

ZACRA John Chirinda later said: “It is unfortunate that an official from the ministry mandated with promoting broadcasting diversity and pluralism in Zimbabwe believes that calls for community radios are unwarranted

“Unlike commercial radio, community radio by its very nature and definition is cheaper to run, accessible and allows citizen participation at all levels.”

In a 2014-15 study conducted by Amnesty International, the NGO’s Southern Africa director Deprose Muchena said: “The failure to grant licences to community radio stations violates the right to freedom of expression.”

In 2014, the offices of Radio Kwelaz were raided by state security officers after the community station was accused of operating illegally. State security seized equipment and CDs contanining content on cancer, sexual violence, education and issues affecting the local community in Kwekwe.

“Rather than targeting these potential service providers, the Zimbabwean government should embrace them as facilitators of the development and free exchange of information and ideas on matters of public interest,” Muchena said.

In 2001, the Zimbabwean Broadcasting Services Act introduced a three-tier system that makes provision for the existence of public, commercial and community broadcasting.