BPRA is in the process of penning a position paper on Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation Television licences in the wake of stepped up efforts by the country’s sole broadcaster to get residents to purchase the licenses. ZBC employees have in recent months been going around residential areas in Bulawayo informing residents that they should pay their licence fees, pegged at $50 within a week, and also pay an additional $20 as a fine for late payment. The rationale behind the writing of the position paper is to pressure the broadcaster to review its licence fees downwards and improve the quality of programming. It is BPRA’s contention that the license fees that ZBC is demanding from Zimbabweans are unjustified considering the quality of programming by the corporation and the high unemployment in the country. It is a well known fact that in the last eleven or so years, as the country’s economy collapsed, ZBC has been failing to access programmes with viewers being bombarded with repeats of very old programmes that have lost relevance in this modern world. In the same vein, ZBC has during the same period become an appendage of certain ideological positions, airing numerous propagandistic programmes. BPRA believes that reforms are long overdue at the corporation.
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