By Paidashe Mandivengerei
The Zimbabwe Association of Community Radio Stations (ZACRAS) through it’s community radio initiatives is helping expose false myths and fake news about Covid-19.
As the corona virus continues to spread in all parts of the country,a lot of myths and misinformation on the novel virus has circulated.
False statistics, claims on cures and prevention are some of the misconceptions about Covid-19 that ZACRAS has had to disprove in peripheral communities while using their local languages.
In an interview with Bustop Tv, ZACRAS national coordinator, Vivian Marara said the role of community radios in light of the Covid-19 global pandemic has been to educate the marginalised.
“Role of community radio is access to information promotion especially to marginalised and under represented communities using local languages.
“Community radios have also played a critical role in debunking myths and fake news on statistics, disinformation on how to cure Covid-19, that Covid-19 is a disease for the rich who fly with aeroplanes, addressing stigma and discrimination,” she said.
Marara added that through the regional community radio discussion established by ZACRAS and UNESCO, Zimbabwean community radios were learning more about how best they can thrive.
The biggest challenge ZACRAS is facing is the delay in licensing by the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ).
“Community radio sustainability has come to dominate discussions as it has a serious impact on a community radio’s ability to serve its community.With Zimbabwe looking at getting community radios off the ground, the webinar discussion that we had last week enabled Eastern and Southern Africa community radios, Zimbabwe included, have an appreciation of alternative sustainability models that they can explore.
“It also enabled participants appreciate that sustainability is multi-faceted and is not only limited to financial resources but also includes the social and institutional well-being of an organisation which all need to be balanced out to ensure the functioning of an organisation.
“Our challenges are in relation to licenses and we are looking foward to the completion of the licensing process by BAZ.”
