MISA Zambia calls on government to step up preparations for digital migration

The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zambia Chapter has observed that Zambia is running out of time to prepare for the mandatory migration of broadcasting services from analogue to a digital platform.

Speaking during a presentation before the parliamentary committee on Information and Broadcasting on the subject: “Digital Broadcasting Migration – How Ready is Zambia?”, MISA Zambia chairperson for broadcasting Mulenga Kabiti urged the government to quickly institute a task force to manage the process effectively in order to avoid an information gap among the economically disadvantaged citizens who are in the majority.

 

Kabiti explained that the migration process would require citizens using the old analogue television sets to purchase a Set-Top Box (STB) for them to receive the digital signals. He called on government to cushion the cost of acquiring the STBs through subsidizing the gadgets because the cost of such devices would be beyond the majority poor.

 

Kabiti who was flanked by MISA Zambia Programme Officer for Radio and Good Governance Chanda Mfula said that broadcasters would equally be financially affected through costs of equipment, infrastructure, training as well as marketing so as to encourage high consumer uptake of digital broadcasting.

 

The Broadcasting Chairperson expressed worry that there was little on the ground to show that government was taking adequate steps to address the issue and urged them to immediately appoint an all-inclusive Task Force on digital migration and commit sufficient resources to the process. Kabiti said MISA Zambia had commenced its awareness raising campaign  on digital migration which included lobbying meetings with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services, dissemination of information on the process to the stakeholders and the organisation’s members.

 

Kabiti told the committee that advantages to digital migration were many. He said the current scarcity of frequency spectrum would be addressed as digital broadcasting took up far less space than analogue. This would create room for establishing more broadcasting channels as well as other services such as telephony and wireless broadband which is not traditionally provided on the broadcasting spectrum in analogue. He added that Digital broadcasting would also provide clearer and better quality pictures and sound. He said once effectively implemented, digital broadcasting would also help address the digital divide because it would increase people’s access to information and give them a wider choice.

 

And speaking at the same occasion, MISA Zambia Programme Officer for Radio and Good Governance said though digital broadcasting held far more potential in realizing the dream of universal access to information and knowledge, failure to mitigate the costs of migration on the ordinary citizens could marginalize them and further worsen their lack of access to sufficient information.

 

 

Kabiti thanked the parliamentary committee on Information and Broadcasting which also encouraged the media body to go out to the public and sensitize them on digital migration and to lobby government on the need to provide incentives such as tax waivers on STBs and digital-compliant television sets to make them more affordable for the citizens.

 

 

He called on government to put in place a national policy on digital migration that would promote universal access to information especially for the marginalized communities in rural areas. The policy should also ensure the interests of the broadcasting sector are taken into account and to assure the sector’s growth and sustainability. //End//

 

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Nshamba M. Muzungu

Assistant Information and Research Officer

Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zambia Chapter

P.O. Box 32295

Lusaka, Zambia

Tel: 260-211-294285/06      

Fax: 260-211-292096

Web site: htttp://www.misazambia.org.zm

 

-January 22, 2010 by Nashamba Muzungu

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Source: www.misa.org (received via email alert on 25.01.10)

 

 

 

6. Speaker challenged over media commission nominees

 

Roger Stringer, a Harare publishing consultant, is challenging the Speaker of Parliament Lovemore Moyo to explain the verification process that led to the short-listing of nominees subject to final appointment to serve on the statutory Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC).

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Stringer was reportedly positioned in sixth place out of the 27 candidates who were interviewed by the Parliamentary Standing Rules and Orders Committee (SROC) for possible appointment to the ZMC. In a letter written to the Speaker on 4 January 2010, Stringer alleges that he was dropped from the list of nominees submitted to President Robert Mugabe in order to accommodate Zanu PF politicians. The President has since appointed nine members to serve on the ZMC out of the 12 that were submitted to him.

 

“As a participant in that process who had no party-political affiliation and trusted that it would be conducted in a professional manner, I believe that not only I but the Zimbabwean public as a whole are owed an explanation of what took place,” reads part of his letter according to a report carried by the weekly Zimbabwe Independent in its weekly edition of 22 January 2010.

 

Background

 

The  ZMC which is still to be constituted is the successor body to the statutory Media and Information Commission following amendments to the repressive Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) in January 2008. //End//

 

 

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Reagan Malumo

Programme Officer: Media Freedom Monitoring and Research

Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Regional Secretariat

21 Johann Albrecht St

Private Bag 13386

Windhoek

Namibia

Phone: +264 61 232 975

Fax: +264 61 248 016

Mobile: +264 81 311 2626

E mail: reagan@misa.org

www.misa.org 

 

 

-January 25, 2010 by Reagan Malumo

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Source: www.misa.org (received via email alert on 25.01.10)