MAZ consults with media trainers on voluntary media council

Trainers from different Journalism schools in the country said they agree in principle to the idea of establishing a self-regulatory body to regulate the media in Zimbabwe at a meeting organized by the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ) in Redcliff recently.

A coalition of media professional associations and civil society organizations formed the Media Alliance of Zimbabwe some time towards the end of last year which they tasked to drive the process of establishing the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe. MAZ immediately embarked on a broad-based consultative and lobbying process with all key stakeholders in the media sector of Zimbabwe in order to secure their buy-in. It was then that MAZ realized the need to engage media trainers on this subject and organized a workshop to bring them together. Editor of the Sunday Standard Mr. Bill Saidi, ZUJ president Mr.Mathew Takaona and fellow journalists took the trainers to task on deficiencies in what they considered basic writing skills, which they noted among journalism graduates from some training institutions. Mr. Bornwell Chakaodza, former editor of the Sunday Standard who was chairing the workshop however, urged a spirit of cooperation and partnership among both trainers and practicing journalists in initiating the new entrants into the profession.

The trainers agreed that they would need to reconvene soon as an association to consider the constitution and the code of ethics as well as their role in the envisaged VMCZ. Participants at the workshop agreed on the desirability of self-regulation for the media in Zimbabwe as an alternative to statutory regulation, which they blamed for the closure of five different newspaper titles since its establishment in 2002. It is expected that the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe will be launched any time soon after media trainers have ratified its constitution and code of ethics at a meeting scheduled to take place before May end. It remains to be seen however, how the two regulatory bodies the MIC and the MCZ would work and whether this would not result in the media being over-regulated.

Speaking at the same meeting Mr Henry Muradzikwa CEO of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) said he had not met any Government Minister opposed to the idea that Media should self-regulate. He urged all journalists to be guided by the highest ethical standards in conducting their business cognizant of the fact that through their pen scribes wield immense power over people’s lives.

By The Oracle