|
 Voice of the People Communications, the Zimbabwean-based private radio operator whose Radio VOP was the 2006 winner of the One World Media awards for community media, has launched a brand 24-hour news site, http://www.radiovop.com/
The website, which is based in Southern Africa and mirrored in the United States, is probably the first 24-hour news site in Zimbabwe, with stories and pictures uploaded as they happen. This is a very exciting development for us and comes just after we re-launched and revamped our international radio broadcasts into the southern African region. The commercially-driven subsidiary of VOP, Vox Media Productions, was one of the few applicants for a private radio licence to broadcast in Zimbabwe after the Zimbabwean government indicated that it wanted to open up the airwaves in 2005. Its application was however turned down on a “technicality” with the government-appointed Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe advising Vox Media to “widen its shareholding structure” before it could be awarded a licence. Vox Media directors, who are all trustees of VOP, were subsequently arrested before the application could be re-submitted when heavily-armed Zimbabwean police raided the company’s offices in central Harare in December 2005 and took in for questioning three female members of staff. I surrendered to police, along with other directors and trustees, in exchange for the freedom of the three journalists and were acquitted 10 months later when a Harare magistrate ruled that the Zimbabwean government had failed to prove without doubt that VOP was “broadcasting into the country without a licence”. VOP was forced to close most of its Harare operations and relocated to a friendly country in the region where it is now packaging material for broadcast to the rest of southern Africa; but particularly targeting Zimbabwean listeners. The website employs more than 20 journalists, some under contract, in Zimbabwe alone, and these have given it an edge over the many websites and newsites targeting the embattled southern-African country but based in South Africa, Europe and the Americas. Having some of the best journalists and editors in the country writing for our website means we offer the best and most factual, instantaneous and unbiased news on Zimbabwe. Our strength is that while our reporters and editors are living in Zimbabwe, they have remained apolitical and non-judgmental. Radio VOP broadcasts on short-wave between 6-7 am and 7-8 pm daily on 7 120khz.
David Masunda is the chairman of Voice of the People Communications Trust as well as the commercially-driven subsidiary, Vox Media Productions. He is a former broadcaster and newspaper editor.
Trackback(0)
 |
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
