STATE BROADCASTER, ZBC has blamed all its problems, including delay of bulletins, on the inclusive government, saying it had been chronically underfunded during the Global Political Agreement (GPA) era, as the corporation seeks to ward off a wave of criticism.
REPORT BY SILAS NKALA
In a statement, ZBC spokesman, Sivukile Simango, in response to media criticism, said ZBC had run without government funding and this had compromised quality.
“Hopefully, the writers are aware of how the inclusive government was run and ZBC had to operate without adequate capital,” he said.
“Suffice to add that it is easy to unleash the potential for the national broadcaster if the policy and legislation is revised and the corporation recapitalised. Otherwise the management remains resilient and optimistic to restore normalcy as and when the fundamental basics are addressed.”
Simango then went into a tirade, accusing newspapers that criticised the State broadcaster — the Daily News and ironically, Sunday Mail — of being agents of regime change.
“I fail to understand this type of journalism unless it is, of course instigated, by some unknown forces with a regime change agenda,” he continued.
Simango accused the two newspapers of lazy journalism, claiming they were pouring vitriol on the broadcaster’s management. ZBC has been accused of poor programming in the past, but never too keen to take criticism on the chin. The media house has responded harshly in the past, to the extent of suing media houses critical of it.
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The broadcaster has been accused of delaying paying workers and this could be a reason for poor staff morale that has seen standards deteriorate.
Simango, strangely, said claims the parastatal had been dumped by traditional advertisers was “mere perception than reality”.
He went on to wax lyrical about what he termed ZBC’s major achievements, including broadcasting the closing ceremony of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation in high definition, coverage of the elections and the March referendum.
“Instead of lauding such an achievement, writers chose to dwell on trivia, unsubstantiated and uninformed facts about the national broadcaster,” he charged.
