Zimbabwe
3.12

The public broadcaster offers as much diverse and creative
local content as economically achievable.

ANALYSIS:
Jonathan Moyo in his time as Minister of Information introduced a
local content quota of 75 %, aiming at 100 %, in both radio and television. Most productions are propagating the ruling party’s ideology – even music. Moyo himself, for example, produced a 21-track
album of his songs that was on high rotation and played over and
over again. Another example are jingles such as “Rambai Makashinga (continue being strong/ persevere) that were propagandist in
nature. These would be played every 30 minutes on all four radio
stations as well as on ZTV at the same time, giving listeners and
viewers no option but to listen to them.
After it became more and more difficult to fill the airwaves with
local content, “local” was then expanded to mean “African”. This
quota is still in place but western music and programming is slowly
being re-introduced.
SCORES:
Individual scores:

1, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2

Average score:

1.4

Overall score for section 3:

1.1

30

African Media Barometer - Zimbabwe 2006

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