Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister, Dr Jenfan Muswere yesterday told Senate that the Broadcasting Services Amendment Bill was meant to align the law with the Constitution and the Public Entities and Corporate Governance Act, among other objectives.
Dr Muswere said this while presenting his second reading speech in the House following its passage in the National Assembly two weeks ago.
"The objective of the Broadcasting Services Amendment Bill, 2024, is principally to align the Broadcasting Services Act with the Constitution and also with the Public Entities Corporate Governance Act.
"Certain sections of the Act have become inconsistent with the new Constitution, something which has necessitated the current alignment process.
"Technology has also evolved rapidly over the last few years pointing to the need for the broadcasting laws to be aligned with other legislations," he said.
The BSA contains 21 clauses and Clause 2 introduces additional definitions for new classes of broadcasting services licences introduced in section 7 to ensure that all instances of broadcasting that are done over the internet are covered.
"Clause 3 amends section 2A of the principal Act to provide that the role of the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) as to regulate and manage the broadcasting service bands for sustenance rather than control broadcasting service bands. The intention is to move away from a perception that the legislation is intended to stifle the freedoms guaranteed by section 61 of the Constitution and instead to focus on necessary regulation of the airwaves.
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"Clause 4 amends section 4 of the principal Act is amended to reduce the number of board members from 12 to seven. The Clause also provides for gender balance within the Board. This is to ensure that the number of Board members is commensurate with the size of the Institution and in line with other such as POTRAZ," Dr Muswere said.
The boards minister added that the Bill in Clause 5 amends section 7(2) of the principal Act, which provides for classes of broadcasting services and systems which may be licensed by the Authority.
"The amendments have been necessitated by developments in technology, where classification of broadcasting services should be independent of the platform from where the service is delivered or received as developments in technology result in new platforms emerging or existing platforms evolving to deliver broadcasting services, which will require frequent reviews to the classification," he added.
"Clause 6 amends section 10 of the principal Act to introduce predictability in the applications mainly for granting or refusal of licences. What this means is that there will be predictability for licences that make use of the broadcasting frequency spectrum which will be applied for once a year. Amendments to subsection 6 are to ensure that only services that make use of the band spectrum, a national public resource, go through a public inquiry."
Clause 7 amends section 11(4) of the principal Act by ensuring that broadcasting service licensees broadcast in all languages spoken in the area they serve to promote the use of officially recognised languages identified in the Constitution.
