The Zimbabwe government has announced that it will protest to South Africa over a new television station that is expected to start broadcasting from the neighbouring country this week, as the 31 July presidential elections loom ever nearer.
Sponsors of the new station, known as 1st TV, said it will be accessible to Zimbabweans through the free-to-air satellite platform.
1st TV promises to “provide impartial, factual news to the people of Zimbabwe as well as broadcasting popular films, soap operas and comedies.”
Zimbabwe’s state broadcaster, the ZBC, provides the country’s two television channels and four of its radio stations. It is under the tight control of Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu PF party, and is often seen as its official mouthpiece.
Two commercial radio stations were licensed last year, but both have close links with Zanu PF.
Mugabe’s spokesman has told state media that the government was exploring ways of stopping the new television station. He said the government would also engage the South African government over the matter, which he said was against Zimbabwe’s interests.
“We will be taking decisions mindful of the need to cripple this pirate television broadcast station,” the spokesman said.
“We have been aware of the technical corroboration between VOA [Voice of America] and Sentech [the South African signal distributor]. What we did not expect was this expansion of the corroboration.”
VOA hosts a shortwave radio station, Studio 7, that broadcasts into Zimbabwe and is run by journalists forced out of the southern African country.
Two other “pirate” radio stations broadcast into Zimbabwe, one of which is South African and the other British. Zanu PF claims that the stations are sponsored by governments seeking to remove Mugabe from power.
