The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) has said it is complying with the national constitution and the Electoral Act by availing airtime to all political parties ahead of the upcoming general elections.
ZBC Director Radio Services, Robson Mhandu, on Tuesday, said ZBC is offering free and paid-for airtime to presidential and national assembly candidates.
Mhandu made the remarks at a National Media Indaba on the 2023 general elections in Mutare where he was representing ZBC chief executive officer, Adelaide Chikunguru. He said:
We have put in place a quality assurance committee that will be looking at all our products.
The committee is comprised of experts from the company and other professionals.
With regard to the issue of airtime, our motivation is to give equal airtime to all the approved candidates through due process.
We have the issue of equitable airtime for National Assembly members. We may not be able to give everyone individual airtime, but our strategy has been through discussion programmes.
Those who are able to attend will have the pleasure of having the ZBC accorded airtime but if they don’t come, it’s bad news.
We have tried to persuade you by advertising that we have your airtime at your disposal, please come to the discussion programmes on the radio in the language which you prefer.
We also have products like poems, jingles and songs so that we give coverage to everyone, leaving no one and no place behind. Our programming schedules have been availed to the authorities.
There is the issue of paying for airtime at reduced rates, not for profit and we abide by that.
We have also planned and put in place recording centres for the convenience of political parties.
We have recording facilities at Pockets Hill, Mbare Broadcasting Centre, Central Radio in Gweru, and Montrose in Bulawayo.
We also have bureau centres in all the provincial capitals for political players to choose the most convenient places.
Zimpapers Editorial Executive, William Chikoto said they had been planning for the elections and are giving free airtime and discounted rates of up to 70 percent “to all political actors.”
In June 2019, High Court judge Justice Joseph Mafusire ruled that ZBC and Zimpapers acted unconstitutionally during Zimbabwe’s 2018 Elections as they failed to provide a fair opportunity for the presentation of divergent views and dissenting opinions.
Source ZBC News
