By Jonathan Mbiriyamveka
Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe Director General Dr Gift Machengete has urged journalists to disseminate local content that benefits communities which contribute to national development.
In his remarks at a two-day workshop in Kadoma on Thursday hosted by POTRAZ in collaboration with Zimbabwe Online Content Creators, Dr Machengete said the historic workshop ushered in a new era in terms of local content.
“We are all gathered here to see how best we can leverage on the artistic prowess of content creators to create and disseminate local content which benefits our communities – content which contributes meaningfully to national development starting with the grassroots – content which promotes government’s devolution agenda – content which creates employment and contributes to the digital economy,” Dr Machengete said.
“We are all gathered here to strategise on how best we can convert Community Information Centres into hubs for such progressive local content.”
Dr Machengete noted that the majority of online content was known for its Comic Relief but there was need to balance this with serious presentation of issues.
“For this workshop, we have a cocktail of Topics lined up for presentation by various experts.
“This workshop will touch on the advantages of local content in local languages and Government’s expectations in terms of local content for Community Information Centres, Community Networks, Schools and other facilities where Internet can be accessed. “Obvious advantages of local content are inclusivity in the use of the Internet and employment creation for local content creators,” he said.
The workshop seeks to decipher the Cyber and Data Protection Act in the context of local content creation.
As discussed was the symbiotic relationship between broadband development and local content creation. “We shall hear a presentation on how local content creators can fully leverage upon the vast postal network and on community networks for local content development,” he said.
He said local content creation brings about new opportunities for local content hosting and creating local internet traffic.
“We ought to replace google servers with local servers as we move towards the hosting of local content locally.
“We have so much good content created by Zimbabweans with millions of hits, but all this content is hosted internationally, yet there is provision to do so locally,” he said.
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