SECTOR 3 The fact that the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services owns 98% of the ZBC and directors only own 2% leads to a high degree of political interference in news content. Scores: Individual scores: 1 Country does not meet indicator 2 Country meets only a few aspects of indicator 3 Country meets some aspects of indicator 4 Country meets most aspects of indicator 5 Country meets all aspects of the indicator Average score: Score of previous years: ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ 2.0 2006: n/a; 2008: n/a; 2010: 1.1; 2012: 1.5; 2015: 2 3.7 The state/public broadcaster offers diverse programming and formats that cater for all interests, including local content and quality public interest programmes The ZBC does try to feature diverse content with programmes for minority groups, including news in minority languages. There is also a national radio station for minority languages. The issue of language is important. Hardly any valuable public information is published in local languages. Although the ZBC is trying to be more diverse in terms of languages, there is still a dearth of local languages in the print media. The local language newspapers that exist tend to focus on tabloid stories, but not on the major stories that matter. Also, the president delivers his State of the Nation Address and other speeches (including during rallies in the rural areas) in English, but most people do not speak English. Furthermore, in certain regions, even Shona or Ndebele are not understood, so more needs to be done in promoting all local languages. 35 AFRICAN MEDIA BAROMETER ZIMBABWE 2020