Alfred Mandere, chief executive officer of Zimbabwe’s state owned transmission company, Transmedia, surprised ruling party MPs when he said during a parliamentary committee hearing that there was nothing wrong with villagers listening to Studio7, the Voice of America programme beamed into Zimbabwe from Washington.
The Zimbabwe Government calls Studio7 a “pirate station”, and has listed it as one of a number of stations it says are part of a Western “regime change” plot.
Mandere told legislators that Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH) should encourage the use of shortwave in areas beyond its FM broadcasts. “But they would end up listening to Studio7,” said Zanu PF Chitungwiza Senator Forbes Magadu. To which Mandere replied: “There is nothing wrong with Studio7.”
(Source: Financial Gazette/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)