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Cde Denford Masiya (sixth from right) chairman of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Media, Information and Broadcasting Services and his team touring Star FM in Harare yesterday

Daniel Nemukuyu Senior Reporter
The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Media, Information and Broadcasting Services yesterday praised standards of operations at Zimpapers, saying the company was capable of running a television station if granted the licence.
Despite the harsh economic environment, the legislators said they were impressed by the quality of work at the country’s leading media house.
Zimpapers publishes The Herald, Chronicle, The Sunday Mail, Sunday News, Kwayedza, H-Metro, B-Metro, Umthunywa, Manica Post, Zimbabwe Travel and The Southern Times.

The company also operates Star FM Radio.
The eight-member committee, led by Chiredzi East legislator Cde Denford Masiya, visited Star FM Radio and Herald House yesterday before touring Alpha Media Holdings.

On behalf of the committee, Cde Masiya hailed the standards of operation at Star FM and the Zimpapers print publications urging the management to keep on working hard.

“We were very pleased with the quality of work at Star FM. Their quality of work is good and more importantly, they are managing the business in this harsh economic environment while relying mainly on advertising.

“That is the aggressiveness that we expect from media players unlike having many cry-babies who seek to rely on handouts.
“The committee was impressed with the general look at Star FM and if we have more studios of the same standards, then Zimbabwe will be home and dry in terms of dissemination of quality information,” he said.

Cde Masiya said Zimpapers had the capacity to successfully run a television station.
“Our tour of this place shows us that Zimpapers is undoubtedly capable of running a television station if granted a licence,” he said.

The committee members drove to AMH premises in Harare where they got straight into the boardroom and held discussions with management.
AMH group editor-in-chief Vincent Kahiya urged the legislators to quickly align media laws with the new Constitution to avoid situations where journalists are arrested and harassed on the basis of bad laws.

“The legislation remains the biggest challenge in the industry despite having a Constitution that allows for freedom of the press.
“We still have bad laws in our books. AIPPA has still not been amended and the police at the moment can just arrest us on the basis of the laws that have not yet been amended in line with the Constitution.

“We need to speedily align the statutes with the new Constitution. In some cases, the Constitution exonerates us from offences, but the police will still arrest us on the basis of the bad laws,” Kahiya said.

Kahiya said the working environment had improved for the private media.
“There has been a change in the working environment for us. For example, we are now being invited to cover Government diaries.

“The police who used to be hostile to us are now relating well with us. At least we can now call police spokespersons and they give us the required comments without throwing tantrums,” he said.

He said the quest to depolarise the working environment was now evident in the media fraternity.