ZBH personal theatre of minister of info – MISA

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ZBH personal theatre of minister of info – MISA

HARARE - Henry Muradzikwa has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings. He takes over from Rino Zhuwarara, a University of Zimbabwe media lecturer.
Muradzikwa is the former Editor-in-Chief of the New Zimbabwe InterAfrica News Agency (ZIANA).
The ZBH has been hunting for a new CEO for the past three months after the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport and Communications came up with a report critical of the state broadcaster on 1 June 2006.
MISA-Zimbabwe expressed concern that while the ZBH has been turned into a company through the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Commercialisation Act of 2001, the same station is expected to play a public mandate role at the same time operate for profit.
“There is need for an act that governs the public broadcaster and guarantees its independence from political and economic influence. These glaring policy contradictions indicate a lack of commitment to turning the ZBH into a public broadcaster and lends credence to a 1999 parliamentary report that the ZBH is, in fact, a personal theatre of every minister of information who comes into office. The new appointments at ZBH are, therefore, unlikely to change anything as the station will remain under the tight grip of the executive and closed to any alternative voices,” says MISA.