The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) has threatened to take the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH) to court if it does not reverse its steep viewers and listeners’ licence fees charged in foreign currency. ZBH inspectors recently embarked on a blitz targeting businesses and households demanding the exorbitant licence fees.
The cash-strapped national broadcaster is demanding US$10 from radio listeners in rural areas and US$20 from those in urban areas. For television licences, households are expected to fork out US$50 and those with television sets in their business premises pay US$100.
Car radio licences have been pegged at US$30 while a licence for an employer owned vehicle costs US$80. The fee for sound and television in vehicles is US$100.
ZLHR, which was recently forced to pay the fees under protest, said their exorbitant nature rendered the fees illegal. The lawyers warned the ZBH management that the broadcaster would be dragged before the courts if the fees were not reviewed within five days. “We consider that the sum that is required is so exorbitant as to be rendered illegal,” read the letter ZLHR wrote to ZBH on 25 March.
“The sum charged is furthermore excessive not only in its own regard but also when one has regard to the quality and content of programming that ZBC provides and the lack of choice in this regard.”
Zimbabweans have been resisting paying the licence fees arguing that programming on ZBH, which is biased towards Zanu PF, does not justify the scale of the charges.
The ZLHR also accused the national broadcaster of breaching the constitutional standards relating to the freedom of expression and access to information due to its inability to offer listeners and viewers’ diversity in terms of programming. The lawyers are also arguing that ZBC does not have the necessary authority to charge the fees in foreign currency and wants them reversed until the broadcaster is properly cleared.
The letter was copied to the Minister of Media, Information and Publicity, Webster Shamu and his deputy Jameson Timba as well as the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zimbabwe chapter and the Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe.
(Source: The Standard)
