HARARE - The Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) has formally written to the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) demanding a meeting to discuss the issuance of   broadcasting licenses to new players in the sector.

According to a Zimbabwe media commissioner who declined to be named, the formal letter was this week written after several verbal meeting requests to BAZ had born no fruit.

“We have written a letter to chairman BAZ Tafataona Mahoso who happens to be our Chief Executive officer (ZMC) requesting a meeting with him over the broadcasting licenses. We spent the rest of last year verbally requesting for that meeting but he was dilly dallying,” said the commissioner.

Mahoso doubles as the BAZ chair and ZMC Chief Executive - a situation critics view as a conflict of interest, compromising his duties.
The commissioner said they were expecting a quick response from Mahoso so that they could deliberate the next course of action.
“We want to know what is going on because as it is there is nothing being talked about or being done on this issue,” he added.
Efforts to get a comment from either Mahoso or Information and Publicity  minister Webster Shamu were  fruitless.
The government is silent on the issue of opening the airwaves despite the formation of the coalition government which is premised on media pluralism and diversity including the opening of the airwaves.

Despite President Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his deputy Arthur Mutambara agreeing to appoint the board of the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ), no concrete steps have been taken.

Early last year, Shamu unilaterally appointed the BAZ  board chaired  by Mahoso. This was later rejected  by the cabinet.
It is hoped that once the BAZ board has been appointed it will call for applications for broadcasting licenses. Until then, state-controlled television and radio continue to monopolise Zimbabwe’s airwaves.

Early this week a Bulawayo non-governmental organisation, Radio Dialogue, threatened to take the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) to court if the body failed to issue a broadcasting licence.

There are 12 community radio stations in the country, under the Zimbabwe Association of Community Radio Stations (ZACRAS), waiting for licences to operate.

By The Zimbabwean