Herald Reporter
ZIMPAPERS Talk Radio’s editorial policy will be guided by principles of fairness, balanced reporting and objectivity when the radio goes on air in two months, officials said yesterday. Appearing before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Media,

Information and Communication Technology yesterday, Zimpapers group chief executive Mr Justin Mutasa said the radio was going to operate purely on a commercial basis.

Mbizo legislator Mr Settlement Chikwinya (MDC-T) chairs the committee.
Mr Mutasa was responding to questions from legislators who wanted to know if the radio was going to offer divergent views.

The MPs asked if the radio was not going to be biased towards a particular political party, saying there was a general feeling that Zimpapers was biased. 
“You are entitled to your own opinions. We are a public listed company and we subscribe to the Zimbabwe

Stock Exchange. We are going to be commercial because this is a business venture where we will have to sponsor ourselves,” Mr Mutasa said.

Zimpapers group chief operations officer  and editor-in-chief, Mr Pikirayi Deketeke, added that the radio’s operations were going to be influenced by economic forces than any other assumed forces.
“We believe in balanced coverage and various cultural and political views as people air their views,” Mr Deketeke said.
“We believe there is a niche market that will attract advertisers and our content is market content. We strive to make sure Zimbabweans are informed because if we

don’t do that then we will lose the market.”

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He said Zimpapers wanted to be an integrated media empire that cuts across print and electronic media.
Zimpapers Talk Radio general manager Mr Admire Taderera said the radio was going to be on air in the next two months.
He said the radio had a roll out plan that would see it having signals in Harare and Bulawayo before going national.

“We want to make this station, the station that people would want to listen to. We are going to be covering arts, social issues and other issues. We also have a strong sports news because at the moment we are being told how Manchester United played Arsenal but we are not told about Dynamos versus CAPS United,” Mr Taderera said.

He said the radio station’s equipment is expected this week.
Mr Taderera said the station was going to have new broadcasting talent. He said there was a challenge with Transmedia that did not have capacity to reach out to the whole country.

Uzumba MP Cde Simbaneuta Mudarikwa said there was need for independent players to offer transmission services to complement Transmedia.
AB Communications that was also given a licence to operate appeared before the same committee.
The company’s chief executive officer Mr Supa Mandiwanzira said their radio station was going to be on air in the next three months.

Some legislators asked Mr Mandiwanzira if his shareholding of 70 percent in AB Communications was not going to influence the editorial content.
They also asked if his company had been awarded a licence because of his links to a political party.
“The speculation on the basis of a political party is a symptom of polarisation in our country where we always want to define each other on political basis,” he said.

Kiss FM representative, Ms Sharon Mugabe and Mr Phibeon Gwatidzo, told the committee that they were not happy with the outcome of the adjudication process that saw them failing to get a licence.

They claimed that the reasons given for their failure were farfetched.