Television of Mozambique (Televisão de Moçambique, TVM), is the national public broadcaster of Mozambique, operating out of Maputo, the country’s capital. The channel was launched in 1981 as Experimental Television of Mozambique (Televisão Experimental de Moçambique) that consisted of programming aired only on Sundays. After years of expansion, it was renamed Television of Mozambique in 1991. The station runs a nationwide program and a channel, TVM International, which targets audiences abroad.
Media assets
Television: TVM
State Media Matrix Typology: State-Controlled (SC)
Ownership and governance
TVM was established as a public media company by Decree 19/1994. TVM is governed by a Council of Administration that consists of six members. The council’s chair, who has significant power in the station’s governing structure, is appointed by the government (Council of Ministers). The head of the Government Information Office (GABINFO), which belongs to the Prime Minister office and is in charge of licensing media outlets in Mozambique, is also the oversight body of TVM and appoints the members of the TVM Council of Administration.
Source of funding and budget
TVM depends on state subsidies. The amount of subsidies from the government has grown from 60% of the total budget more than 10 years ago to over 75% today. The rest is generated through advertising sales. In the past two years, TVM was reliant on the government subsidy. The state subsidy for TVM was MZN 338m (US$ 9m) in 2015. The state subsidy is used to cover the salaries of the station’s staff. In 2018, the station received MZN 471.2m (US$ 7.8m) from the government. The station in recent years has been faced with growing deficits (which are covered from the state budget), but no financial data about its performance has been published in the past five years.
Editorial independence
TVM’s programming has historically been seen as biased in favor of the government. The situation has not changed much in recent years, TVM operating mainly as a mouthpiece of the government, its editors carefully editing the work of reporters and reporters often self-censoring to avoid pressure from TVM’s management, according to local journalists and experts.
Although Mozambican law (the decree 19/94) states that public media are obliged to exercise their duties free from interference from any party or external influence that may compromise its independence, this is not the situation on the ground as the station closely follows instructions from the government. The station has a so-called “editorial statute” that lists in general terms some of the editorial goals of the station. However, there is no statute that establishes the editorial independence of TVM.
No independent assessment mechanism to validate the editorial independence of TVM has been identified.
September 2023