John Mokwetsi
25 February 2007
THE world media will next Saturday set aside a day to focus on music censorship as part of a global media campaign by anti-censorship organisation, Freemuse, to save world music from censors.
Freemuse is an independent international organisation advocating freedom of expression for musicians and composers worldwide. It has its secretariat in Copenhagen, Denmark.
In Istanbul in November last year, musicians, journalists, academics, writers and activists set aside 3 March as Music Freedom Day in which Freemuse invites broadcasters to participate in a global media event on the subject of Music and Censorship.
Speaking from Denmark Ole Reitov, Freemuse programme officer, said of the origins of 3 March:
"One of the outcomes of the conference was to designate a specific date for the world's media to explore the issue of music and censorship . . . in their own countries, in their own mediums, and in their own way."
However the chief executive officer of the state-controlled Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH)'s Power FM, Admire Taderera, said they would not be participating in the initiative.
"What these guys are saying is: Let the music play. But what we are saying is we cannot play all the music because we have to censor some of it with respect to the needs of our consumers.
"We cannot just say 'everything people sing, we put on air'. For an example, our cultural norms and values do not accommodate obscene music. Naturally we have to censor it. We will therefore not participate."
A disc jockey who asked not to be named said it "would have been good, in the interest of growth and productivity, to join the whole world in this initiative".
Zimbabwe has been a major concern for Freemuse, which has for over five years run stories on their website www.freemuse.org of rampant music censorship in Zimbabwe.
Several musicians and composers in Zimbabwe are banned, albeit unofficially, for singing "politically incorrect" music. Musicians such as Thomas Mapfumo, Leonard Zhakata, Hohodza Band and Alishias Musimbe aka Maskiri have had some of their music banned from the airwaves because of either a political message deemed hostile to the government, or language considered obscene.
To this day, the Censorship and Entertainment Control Act (Chapter 10:04), whose date of commencement is 1 December 1967, survives in almost its original form despite a revision in 1996.
Big institutions such as the BBC, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Daily Times Pakistan, FM 101, Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, Sweden Broadcasting Corporation and Danish Broadcasting Corporation, and several online radio stations as well as print media around the world, will be commemorating Music Freedom Day -- not ZBH.
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