'Zim digitisation requires $173 million,' says Prof Moyo

Government says $173 million is required for the completion of the whole digitisation programme to meet the 17 June 2015 deadline.

The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation needs $70 million for digitisation while the whole process from content, transmission and reception will need $173 million.

This emerged when the Minister of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Professor Jonathan Moyo was giving oral evidence on the alignment of media laws with the new constitution and digitisation before the parliamentary portfolio committee.

The committee was chaired by Honourable William Dehwa to give oral evidence on the alignment of media laws with the new constitution and digitisation.

Professor Moyo said $6.5 million is required for the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe and $5 million for content production.

"24 sites have already been identified for digitisation and 10 sites have been completed and we require 48 sites to ensure full digitisation is achieved. We need $173 million in total between now and 17 June 2015," said Professor Moyo.

Professor Moyo said polarisation of the media has created a negative image for the country, hence failure by government to access offshore funding which is the reason why the Information Media Panel of Inquiry (IMPI) has been put in place.

"For the past 15 years, we have seen polarisation of the media which created divisions among ourselves which also affected the conduct. Media have become the drama....the government has failed to access offshore money because of our divisions reflected in the media," he added.

In terms of the alignment of media laws to the national constitution, government has indicated statutes that are inconsistent with the new constitution are null and void.

It was also revealed that the final report by KPMG on ZBC will be received in the next two days.