The Broadcasting Providers Modification Act No.2, 2025 (Hereinafter known as the Act/ Modification Act) represents a major shift in Zimbabwe’s media regulation panorama.
The Broadcasting Providers Modification Act No.2, 2025 (Hereinafter known as the Act/ Modification Act) represents a major shift in Zimbabwe’s media regulation panorama.
Promulgated as a part of broader media regulation reforms, the modification goals to align the Broadcasting Providers Act [Chapter 12:06] with constitutional rules, technological developments and regional finest practices.
Nevertheless, whereas the Act introduces commendable enhancements, it additionally raises substantial considerations concerning media independence, digital rights and regulatory integrity.
One of the crucial notable enhancements is the formal recognition of on-line broadcasting companies and digital platforms.
The Modification marks an essential step in modernising Zimbabwe’s media regulation by formally recognising internet-based broadcasting akin to podcast, streaming platforms and social media stay streams.
This can be a well timed and progressive reform, contemplating that viewers habits have shifted dramatically towards digital content material consumption.
By acknowledging the position of on-line platforms, the Modification Act makes an attempt to align Zimbabwe’s media regulation with twenty first century realities, the place conventional radio and tv are now not the only and even main sources of knowledge for a lot of, particularly the youth.
This recognition doubtlessly creates house for digital content material creators, entrepreneurial media start-ups and community-driven on-line platforms to function inside a regulated surroundings.
It might additionally encourage international funding and technological innovation within the media house, significantly if it allows licensing frameworks which might be truthful, clear and inclusive.
Nevertheless, this alignment just isn’t with out dangers. Whereas the Act seeks to align with web and technological developments, it went about it the fallacious method by failing to supply a transparent and slender definition of what constitutes web broadcasting service.
This vagueness opens the door to regulatory overreach, the place citizen journalists, bloggers and even social media customers could possibly be subjected to licensing necessities meant for giant scale broadcasters.
The potential for selective enforcement is excessive particularly in politically delicate durations akin to elections, turning what ought to be for protecting measure right into a software for digital censorship and surveillance.
Due to this fact, internet-based broadcasting should be anchored in strong safeguards that guarantee digital rights, freedom of expression and non-discriminatory regulation.
With out these, the modernisation dangers turning into a digital leash, somewhat than a progressive leap ahead.
The Modification Act makes a notable try and diversify Zimbabwe’s broadcasting panorama by increasing the classes of companies recognised underneath regulation.
Along with conventional codecs akin to public, industrial and neighborhood broadcasting, the Act now formally contains subscription administration companies, internet-based broadcasting, webcasting, satellite tv for pc uplinks and datacasting companies.
This can be a progressive growth that displays the altering nature of worldwide media, the place convergence between telecoms, broadcasting and digital content material platforms is more and more turning into the norm.
By formally acknowledging these new classes, the Act opens the door for brand new entrants, particularly within the digital and pay-TV sectors, and supplies authorized recognition for content material distributed on-line.
This might stimulate competitors, technological innovation and viewers selection, whereas additionally giving a regulatory identification to beforehand gray areas of media exercise akin to podcasting and over-the-top companies.
Additionally it is commendable that neighborhood broadcasting stays prioritised with clearer licensing and funding help mechanisms launched to boost linguistic and cultural inclusion, particularly in rural and underrepresented communities.
The Modification Act makes a modest however essential try to boost girls’s illustration in media governance constructions.
Particularly, the Act mandates that at the least three of the seven Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) board members be girls.
Whereas this quota indicators progress, its affect will rely closely on implementation, transparency in choice processes and whether or not these appointment translate into actual affect over coverage selections.
Significant illustration goes past numbers, it requires creating house for girls’s voices in content material creation, regulation and media management.
However, the promotion of neighborhood broadcasting companies marks a doubtlessly transformative step for inclusive media.
The Act supplies for a licensing framework that encourages grassroots participation, significantly by marginalised and rural communities.
The Modification Act additionally states that neighborhood broadcasters should predominantly use languages spoken by their goal neighborhood and guarantee neighborhood participation in content material creation and station governance.
One of the crucial obvious flaws within the Modification Act is the continued lack of institutional independence of the BAZ.
Whereas the Act claims to enhance regulatory transparency and promote democratic media governance, Part 4 entrenches government dominance by giving the President sole energy to nominate all members of the BAZ Board, merely “after session” with the minister and the Committee on Standing Guidelines and Orders.
This language is deliberately weak.
“Session” doesn’t require settlement, rendering each the minister and the committee successfully powerless to affect the ultimate appointments.
In follow, which means that the BAZ Board will be composed solely of people handpicked by the Government, with no significant public scrutiny, parliamentary oversight, or stakeholder participation.
This set-up utterly undermines the credibility, neutrality and public belief {that a} broadcasting regulator should have in a democratic society.
As an alternative of serving the general public curiosity, such a board is extremely susceptible to political patronage, and its selections particularly concerning licensing, content material regulation, and sanctions danger being pushed by partisan pursuits somewhat than constitutional rules.
This framework violates Part 61(3) of the Structure, which explicitly requires that broadcasting regulation be exercised by an unbiased physique free from authorities or political management.
By inserting appointment powers squarely within the arms of the President, the Act defies the letter and spirit if this constitutional safeguard.
It additionally contradicts worldwide finest practices akin to these outlined within the African Constitution on Broadcasting (2001), which requires the media regulator to be institutionally, functionally and politically unbiased.
The risks of this association are usually not hypothetical.
Zimbabwe’s broadcasting historical past is plagued by examples of State-aligned media monopolies, selective licensing, and the exclusion of dissenting voices all enabled by a regulatory physique beholden to political elites.
Below this modification, the identical system is just rebranded, not reformed.
The Act mandates all motorists to pay ZBC radio licence earlier than acquiring automobile insurance coverage, no matter whether or not they use ZBC companies.
Whereas ostensibly supposed to help public broadcasting, in actuality, this measure is coercive and opaque.
The problem is the truth that ZBC just isn’t topic to clear public accountability or unbiased audit concerning how the collected charges are used.
With out authorized ensures of transparency in how these funds are allotted, the measure dangers eroding public belief and the system will simply resemble a State-sanctioned income scheme.
Furthermore, funnelling public cash solely to ZBC, an establishment traditionally criticised for political bias, additional undermines the rules of public service broadcasting.
A plural funding mannequin the place revenues are distributed amongst quite a lot of public and neighborhood broadcasters might guarantee broader help for media variety and equity.
A very troubling side of this provision is the shortage of clear, revealed standards for acquiring an exemption certificates.
Whereas the Act supplies a declaration type permitting motorists to swear their automobile just isn’t geared up with a radio receiver, it doesn’t outline how exemption functions are assessed, who qualifies or what verification procedures are in place.
This opens the door to inconsistent, subjective and even discriminatory utility of the regulation by ZBC or affiliated businesses.
Part 6 of the Modification Act launched a provision that requires the BAZ to ask broadcasting licence functions at the least as soon as yearly, “topic to the supply of band spectrum”.
At first look, this seems to be a progressive step towards higher regulatory consistency and transparency.
Mandating an annual name for functions might, in idea, create alternatives for brand new entrants, particularly neighborhood broadcasters and unbiased gamers who’ve lengthy been excluded from the media panorama.
Nevertheless, this provision is finally a combined bag, and the potential for misuse far outweighs the supposed advantages.
The conditional phrase “topic to the supply of band spectrum” is imprecise, unqualified and simply exploitable.
It provides BAZ a built-in excuse to delay or withhold licences indefinitely, with out offering any technical proof, audit mechanisms or public justification.
This loophole arms disproportionate discretion to the regulator, permitting it to arbitrarily block new broadcasters underneath the guise of spectrum shortage.
In actuality, spectrum shortage is now not a reputable justification within the digital period.
Advances in digital broadcasting and spectrum-sharing applied sciences have vastly expanded the capability to accommodate a number of broadcasters throughout the similar frequency vary.
Different African international locations like Kenya and Tanzania have used digital migration as an opportunity to open up house for various, community-based and digital first broadcasters.
Zimbabwe, in contrast, seems to be utilizing it to tighten management.
The progressive factor requiring at the least one public name for functions per 12 months is undermined by the authority’s management over timing, standards, and technical justifications.
Candidates don’t have any proper to use proactively. They’re solely depending on the authority initiating the method, which will be delayed indefinitely utilizing the spectrum line as a canopy.
This turns what ought to be an open licensing framework right into a closed, selective and politically-filtered course of.
Consequently, Part 6 of the Modification Act merely disguises arbitrary licensing underneath a technical pretext.
In conclusion, whereas the Act introduces some welcome reforms akin to recognising digital broadcasting and increasing service classes, it finally falls in need of delivering real media reforms.
The continued lack of regulatory independence, imprecise digital provisions do undermine democratic values.
Mlondolozi Ndlovu is the interim MISA Harare advocacy chairperson. He’s additionally a media lecturer, authorized and media researcher who writes in his personal capability. He’s reachable on e-mail: [email protected]
