{"id":4553,"date":"2024-10-02T16:53:52","date_gmt":"2024-10-02T16:53:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/?p=4553"},"modified":"2024-10-02T16:53:53","modified_gmt":"2024-10-02T16:53:53","slug":"community-radio-station-seek-licence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/?p=4553","title":{"rendered":"Community Radio Station Seek Licence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><br>Own Correspondent<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Youth Broadcasting (Y-FM), a community radio station in Bulawayo, has petitioned Emakhandeni Luveve MP Descent Bajila to lobby for a broadcasting license on their behalf in Parliament. Y-FM director Philani Ncube expressed frustration over the government&#8217;s response, citing the limited number of community radios licensed despite the country&#8217;s 15 million population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;As officials in the Information ministry once said, licensing depends on spectrum availability, but we reject this because other Southern African Development Community countries have successfully licensed many community radios,&#8221; Ncube said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Y-FM has been applying for a license for years, questioning the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe&#8217;s (BAZ) criteria requiring applicants to wait for a call for applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Background on Community Radio Licensing<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Broadcasting Services Act may be amended to require BAZ to call for license applications twice a year, subject to spectrum availability.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Community radios can be licensed using available frequencies without interruptions \u00b2.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>BAZ faces technical limitations due to limited national frequencies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Ncube emphasized that frequencies used by licensed community radios, broadcasting within a 20-25km radius, can accommodate more community radios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re not satisfied with the frequency excuse. We&#8217;re seeking clarity on frequency issues and appealing to Deputy Minister Omphile Marupi to urgently address this,&#8221; Ncube said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Y-FM petitioned the government through Parliament in 2020, seeking changes to the licensing process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Key Demands<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Amend the Broadcasting Services Act to obligate BAZ to call for license applications twice a year.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Increase transparency in frequency allocation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>License more community radios to serve the population.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>By rewriting the Broadcasting Services Act, the government can address Y-FM&#8217;s concerns and pave the way for more community radios to serve Zimbabwe&#8217;s diverse population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Zim GBC News\u00a92024<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Own Correspondent Youth Broadcasting (Y-FM), a community radio station in Bulawayo, has petitioned Emakhandeni Luveve MP Descent Bajila to lobby for a broadcasting license on their behalf in Parliament. Y-FM&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4553"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4555,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4553\/revisions\/4555"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zimgbcnews.co.zw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}