ZNS (Zephyr Nassau Sunshine) was established as a state-run service in 1936 primarily to provide hurricane warnings to the Bahamas’ outlying islands. ZNS-TV launched in 1977. Today, the services are run by The Broadcasting Corporation of the Bahamas (BCB).
Media assets
Television: ZTV
Radio: The National Voice 1540 AM, The Light 810 AM, Inspiration 107.9 FM, Power 104.5 FM
State Media Matrix Typology: State-Controlled (SC)
Ownership and governance
The Broadcasting Corporation of the Bahamas (BCB) is owned by the state of the Bahamas. Parliament established it to operate radio and television services throughout the country. The BCB is governed by a five-member board of directors appointed by the governor-general upon the advice of the Prime Minister. Currently, the board is accountable to a cabinet minister who is responsible for broadcasting.
Source of funding and budget
The Broadcasting Corporation of The Bahamas (BCB) has historically relied on a state budget allocation to operate. Despite the government’s insistence that the broadcaster generate its own revenues to reduce financial dependency, the station still heavily relies on state funds. In 2023, the government allocated a total of US$ 5.7m to the Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation (BAIC) and the BCB to offset growing losses. It remains unclear how much funding each organization received.
In the fiscal year 2023-2024, the government’s liabilities to the BCB, as announced in December 2023, amounted to US$6.1m.
Editorial independence
Cases of journalists being dismissed from the broadcaster for voicing their criticism have continued in recent years, according to media reports.
Concerns about political influence at the BCB were raised in June 2023 when the Minister’s press secretary, Clint Watson, was appointed as the BCB’s General Manager. Before his role at the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), Watson had experience working at both ZNS and in commercial media, as reported by the Public Media Alliance.
No domestic statute establishing the editorial independence of BCB’s media has been identified. No independent assessment or oversight mechanism to validate the editorial independence of BCB’s channels has been identified in our research.
August 2024