The Daily News (Harare)
9 July 2002
The police last week raided the offices of the Voice of The People (VOP), a private radio station in Harare, and confiscated 133 tapes and files.
According to a spokesman for Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)-Zimbabwe, the police, accompanied by officers from the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe, (BAZ) and armed with a search warrant, raided the VOP offices on Thursday around 4pm in search of a transmitter and any other broadcasting equipment.
After failing to find any transmitters, the police "confiscated 133 tapes and files from the office".
Bruce Mujeyi, of Gollop and Blank, the radio station's lawyers, who was present when the police searched the offices, said the police and the BAZ officers wanted the transmitter the VOP was "using" to transmit its programmes.
Mujeyi said the VOP trust deed disappeared in the confusion during the search and it is suspected the police or BAZ officers took it. Mujeyi said in terms of the law, the police must return everything they seized.
"We are waiting for a decision on whether to apply to the court for a speedy return of the confiscated equipment or appeal against the harassment to which VOP staff were subjected," Mujeyi said.
MISA-Zimbabwe said it was reliably informed that VOP had no transmitter in Zimbabwe or anywhere else, and was not violating any part of the Broadcasting Services Act 2001 because it is not broadcasting.
The Broadcasting Services Act 2001 bars anyone from broadcasting without a valid licence.
No other broadcasters have been licenced since the law was passed in 2001. Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, controlled by the Department of Information and Publicity in the President's Office, remains the only broadcaster in the country.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2002 The Daily News. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
