Mozambique: INCM suspends over 300 broadcasting licenses

Mozambique’s National Communications Institute (INCM), the regulatory body for telecommunications, has suspended the radio and television licenses of more than 300 national entities because of their non-compliance with the law. According to an INCM statement, the decision results from the fact that these entities have not used their licenses for a period exceeding six consecutive months and, in several cases, due to non-payment of the regulatory fees. The body also reaffirms its commitment to the modernization of the communications sector and to the consolidation of a transparent, efficient market oriented towards the digital transformation of the country.

But the note is singularly uninformative. The INCM does not name one of the 300 bodies that are losing their licences. AIM asked the INCM for more information, but without success.

Currently, we do not know whether any news media are being switched off, or whether the 300 are just companies that are no longer using their telecommunications licences. Last year, the country’s civil society organizations criticized the INCM when it decided to switch off the transmitters of three community radio stations in the northern province of Nampula, claiming that the decision was based on political issues. However, the INCM claimed that the decision to shut down the three community radio stations (Encontro, Haq and Vida) was related to an allegation of “interference of radio signals with communications from the control tower at Nampula Airport, as well as with aircraft approaching the airport.”