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Zim
launches training fund
Gugulethu
Ziyaphapha, Journalism.co.za
July 11, 2005
http://www.journalism.co.za/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2635
A media trust
fund to enhance the quality of training student journalists has
been formed in Zimbabwe, as mandated by the controversial Access
to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), reports Gugulethu
Ziyaphapha.
Journalists
have described the establishment of the fund as a rare positive
initiative to come out of the draconian AIPPA, although there are
questions about how it will be administered.
The head of
the Media and Information Commission (MIC), Tafataona Mahoso, whose
office will be administering the trust, said it will aim to upgrade
journalism training programmes at all institutions.
He said the
fund will help trainee journalists and journalism schools acquire
educational materials, computers and studio equipment. It will also
sponsor educational trips, training workshops and help students
get industrial attachments. The MIC says it is still finalizing
details.
The fund will
award the best students in various categories prizes Z$1 million(R1000).
The categories are media law and ethics, development journalism,
media opportunities arising from the land redistribution, and those
arising from local national content.
Alvin Khumalo
a student from Bulawayo said the fund will help promote the quality
of training and journalism standards in Zimbabwe.
There are seven
recognized journalism training institutions in the country. AIPPA
and the MIC under Mahoso, a former trainer, are responsible for
closing down four newspapers and rendering hundreds of journalists
jobless.
"For an
act that has been dishing out negativities including harassments
and arrests of reporters since its formation four years ago, the
trust fund is not a bad idea but the question is will it benefit
reporters from the private media?" said Godwin Gandu, Zimbabwe's
correspondent for the Mail&Guardian.
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