China/Lesotho: Chinese Grant to Boost Lesotho Broadcast Media
Posted on: Tuesday, 2 August 2005, 06:00 CDT
Text of report in English by Radio Netherlands website on 24 July
China will help finance a 100m rand (15m dollars) project to boost television and radio in the tiny kingdom of Lesotho, which has one of the patchiest communication systems in Africa, a minister said today. Under the project, due to start in January, China will give 30m rand (4.5m dollars) worth of equipment and technical assistance in installing transmitters, towers, antennas and generators to keep the system running, the kingdom's Minister of Broadcasting Tom Thabane told state-owned Radio Lesotho.
Lesotho, a mountainous country entirely surrounded by South Africa, will also contribute to the project, officials said. Access to electricity and electricity consumption in Lesotho are the lowest of any country in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, a big impediment to communications and broadcasting coverage in rural areas. The state-run Lesotho Television channel broadcasts local content for only two hours in the evenings between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Apart from government-owned Radio Lesotho, there are six privately owned radio stations which broadcast mainly in the capital city Maseru.
The project will enable Lesotho to rent bandwidth on existing satellite networks for both television and FM radio broadcasts, as well as improving power infrastructure. A long-term partnership with the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) allows the broadcast of the big neighbour's radio and television to Lesotho homes. Multichoice, the pay-TV subsidiary of South African media firm Naspers also has a significant subscriber base with Direct Service pay-TV (DSTV) in the country.
Source: BBC Monitoring Media
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