Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation

(ZBC) (English)
Type Television network
Radio network
Country Zimbabwe
Availability National
Owner Government of Zimbabwe
Launch date
1963 (as Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation)
Former names
Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation, and later
Zimbabwe Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation
Official website
http://www.zbc.co.zw

The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) is the state-controlled broadcaster in Zimbabwe. It was established as the Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation (RBC), taking its current name in 1980. Like the RBC before it, the ZBC has been accused of being a government mouthpiece with no editorial independence.[1]

Radio

The ZBC operates six radio networks, providing a mix of news, current affairs, educational programming and music, in English, Shona and Ndebele.

Local radio stations run hourly news bulletins which range from two minutes to the longest being a ten-minute bulletin on weekends and holidays. Presenters include, Admire Mhungu, Innocent Manyenga, Memory Chamisa and Keith Mawoyo.

On the national languages desk readers include Nqobile Malinga, Patience Machokoto, Taboka Ncube, Faith Nare and Caroline Sithole.

Bulletins come out live on SFM at 7 am, 8 am, 1 pm, 6 pm and 8 pm and running from Monday to Friday.

The anchors are Nomalanga Vuma, Theophilus Chuma, Ian Zvoma, Butler Nhepure and Jonathan Marerwa.

Television

Television was introduced in Southern Rhodesia on 14 November 1960, first in Salisbury, with transmissions in Bulawayo beginning seven months later.[2] It was only the second such service in sub-Saharan Africa after Nigeria,[3] and the first such service in southern Africa, as South Africa did not introduce television until 1976. It was initially operated by a private company, Rhodesian Television (RTV) on behalf of the then Federal Broadcasting Corporation, the Central African Federation's state broadcaster. RTV's major shareholders were South African companies, including the Argus Group of newspapers, parent company of the Rhodesia Herald,[4] and Davenport and Meyer,[5] the latter of which operated LM Radio, based in Mozambique, then under Portuguese rule.[6] However, following the dissolution of the Federation in 1963, RTV was taken over by the government.[7] The RBC initially acquired a 51 per cent stake in the service, which became part of the RBC in 1976.[8] RBC TV was funded by advertising and a television licence fee. Television reception was confined mainly to the large cities, and most viewers were whites.

Following independence, colour television was introduced in 1984,[9] with a second channel, available only in Harare, being introduced in 1986. This channel was discontinued in 1997 and replaced by the first independent channel in Zimbabwe known as Joy TV, which operated on a lease agreement with the ZBC.[10] This channel lasted until 2002, when it was controversially taken off the air for allegedly violating the Broadcasting Services Act.[11] The ZBC re-established a second TV channel of its own, Channel 2, in April 2010. However this station was decommissioned in August 2015[12]

ZBC TV news bulletins include the morning Good Morning ZimbabweProduced by Admire mhungu, lunchtime news, Nhau Indaba and News Hour.[13]

Rumbidzai Takawira, the anchor, is usually the host of News Hour,.

See also

References

  1. 'MuckRaker: ZBC has taken over the RBC's mantle', 16 February 2012
  2. EBU Review: Programmes, Administration, Law, Volume 71, Administrative Office of the European Broadcasting Union, 1962, page 12
  3. Zimbabwe's Cinematic Arts: Language, Power, Identity, Katrina Daly Thompson, Indiana University Press, 2013, page 32
  4. Against the Grain: Memoirs of a Zimbabwean Newsman, Geoffrey Nyarota, Zebra, 2006, page 45
  5. Viewing the Foreign and the Local in Zimbabwe: Film, Television, and the Shona Viewers, Katrina Daly Thompson University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2004, page 125
  6. Who's who of Southern Africa, Volume 54, Ken Donaldson (Pty.) Limited, 1967, page 393
  7. Media, Public Discourse and Political Contestation in Zimbabwe, Henning Melber,Nordic Africa Institute, 2004, page 15
  8. Broadcasting: An Introduction, John R. Bittner, Prentice-Hall International, 1980, page 263
  9. A Concise Encyclopedia of Zimbabwe, Donatus Bonde, Mambo Press, 1988, page 410
  10. Culture and Customs of Zimbabwe, Oyekan Owomoyela, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002, page 58
  11. Zimbabwe: CURTAIN COMES DOWN ON JOY TV, Pambazuka, 6 June 2001
  12. Zimbabwe: ZBC to Launch Channel Two, The Herald, 13 April 2010
  13. ZBC-TV Programme Line Up
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