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Yeukai Karengezeka Herald Correspondent
THE Netherlands Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Dr Margret Verwijk, yesterday paid a courtesy call on Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Deputy Minister, Kindness Paradza, at his Munhumutapa offices in Harare where they discussed ways of enhancing cooperation in the media sector between the two nations.
Ambassador Verwijk said they had a fruitful discussion on the subject of media freedom.
“We discussed one of the recommendations from the Election Observation of the European Union to the elections on the importance of access to media by all political parties.
“I was told that access was very much available at ZBC and was channelled through the office of Zimbabwe Electoral Commission providing access to television broadcasting and also time on air to all political parties prior to the elections,” she said.
Ambassador Verwijk however, shared her concerns on how the media freedom index went down in her home country following the assassiantion of prominent Dutch crime journalist Peter R de Vries in central Amsterdam by hitmen linked to organised crime syndicates.
Ambassador Verwijk said she has learnt a lot of things about how Zimbabwe is making strides in promoting the freedom of the media.
“We care about media freedom and at times there are workshops that we are able to support. We agreed to stay in contact and continue with our exchange on freedom of media,” she said.
Deputy Minister Paradza said he had a robust exchange of views with Ambassador Verwijk regarding the state of the media in this country. The Government requested to interact more and have exchange programmes with the European country.
“I took her on a journey from when we started off in terms of our media law reform programme. How the media landscape has changed since 2018 with the coming in of the current President Mnangagwa.
“We discussed the repeal of AIPPA and its replacement with the Freedom of Information Act. We discussed the upcoming bill, The Zimbabwe Media Practitioners Bill and the opening up of the airwaves,” Deputy Minister Paradza said.
So far the government has granted licences to six national commercial television stations, 14 community radio stations and seven campus radio stations.
As part of Vision 2030 of transforming media into a multi-million dollar industry, Deputy Minister Paradza said the Government was going to amend the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Services Act so that foreigners are allowed to come in and invest in the media industry.
Online Reporter