Transmedia Corporation must ensure that Zimbabwe achieves universal access to local broadcasting services, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Dr Jenfan Muswere has said.
Addressing Transmedia's strategic planning review workshop in Harare yesterday, Dr Muswere said it was important that mainstream media is adequately resourced to further the correct national narrative.
Presently, the Minister said, social media had been allowed to set the national narrative, something that should not be the case.
"By virtue of the low coverage in terms of television and radio in our country, we have allowed social media superiority in our country. This affects our technological sovereignty and has allowed social media pluralism to be in a position to set the national narrative.
"What is of great importance is not to counter each other on social media, but to put in place the necessary infrastructure across the country that will allow the main media industry, the main broadcasting industry, to be able to generate the correct national narrative based on facts, based on reality.
"Not the noise that we experience across all social media platforms," he said.
Dr Muswere said the responsibility to ensure media sovereignty in the country in terms of the signal carrier, lies with Transmedia.
"So, we trust that this strategic planning reviewer is going to ensure that there is a coordination of activities, a coordination of tactical moves, a coordination of reality, and a coordination of intellectual prowess which will be able to develop a sustainable digitalised society before we get there," he said.
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The board, he said, should coordinate and come up with alternative strategies to develop robust infrastructure and not to allow intellectual laziness to create inertia in the organisation
The Minister said the country was also lagging behind in terms of its transition from analogue to digital, hence more needed to be done to ensure it catches up.
"The 2006 International Telecommunication Union (ITU) decision was made to ensure that we transition from analogue to digital.
"And the cut-off date was 2015. Now we are nine years behind in terms of the implementation of the transition from analogue to digital.
"So, I hope and trust this strategic planning review workshop will focus primarily on ensuring that we transition as a country from analogue to digital," he said.
Dr Muswere urged the organisation to employ cost-cutting measures and get rid of its penchant for extravagance.
