COMMUNITY radio stations have called on government to share with them revenue collected by the national broadcaster ZBC through licence fees, arguing that they are also doing a service to society.
They also said the US$1 000 licence fees they pay annually was too expensive as most of them are non-profit organisations.
This was revealed during a week-long Community Radio Governance Training workshop organised by the National Community Radio Station in partnership with Friedrich Ebert Stiftung at Masiye camp this week.
Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe representative Matthias Chakanyuka said they took note of the issues that were raised about the licence fees being too high.
"There was a suggestion that we scratch out the licence fees completely, once they are scratched out they would not be able to pay, the next one was to say the fees be reduced by 50%. Currently they are paying US$1 000 per annum per station.The suggestion was that they pay US$500 we then say for those who comply with the law they are getting exemption for the next year. Part of the compliance is payment of frequency fees of US$30 monthly as part of regulation cost," Chakanyuka said.
He said some of the conditions for compliance were that they broadcast fresh content for 18 hours, broadcast 75% of local content and to protect in terms of programming saying that if they comply with those issues then they will be able to scratch out the licence fees for the next year.
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Chakanyuka said that they felt that the broadcasting fees must assist all community radio stations, adding that they had taken note.
"The issue of sharing revenue collected by the national broadcaster with the community radio stations is a policy issue. A lot of movement will take place once a board has been appointed which will mean the alignment of laws," he said.
Community radio station consultant Kudzai Kwangwari said they realised that there were a lot of gaps in terms of how community radio stations were governed.
"We looked at issues to do with structures of governance so that they cannot be a duplication of duties, policy development and strategic plans because it is the one that gives one the vision and direction and says how we can assist each other," Kwangwari said.
One of the community radio station managers Clara Madhuku from Vemuganga FM in Chipinge said the community radio station concept was well accepted but there was still a lot of misconceptions. Communities do not understand that they should support their radio station for sustainability purposes by placing adverts.
National Community Association of Community Broadcasters Co-ordinator Yvonne Tshedu Buzwane, who is also a station manager for Radio Bukhalanga, said the workshop was meant to share successes and challenges involving self-regulation, legislation, statutory obligations and policy framework interface with government departments, regulation authority, funding and financial sustainability, human resources and volunteering, community engagement, broadcasting and office equipment and peer learning, accountability, among other topics.
Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services ministry director Jonathan Gandari said broadcasting was about building connections.
“It is a way to give a voice to those often overlooked and underrepresented,” Gandari said.
Some of the community radio stations that were represented are Ntepe Manama, Lotsha, Lyeja and Twasumpuka FM.