Back to Index

VMCZ successfully completes ethics training course
Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe (VMCZ)
June 09, 2009

The Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe (VMCZ), in partnership with the Institute for Further Education of Journalists (FOJO) of Sweden, successfully completed a round of training workshops to improve media responsibility and accountability in Zimbabwe's four major towns as set out for the 1st half of 2009.

The workshops, held on the background of polarization, misconduct and accountability in the media, were held under the theme 'Doing Ethics'. About 80 journalists attended the training course facilitated by two international trainers; Ranga Kalansooriya from Sri Lanka and John Romare from Sweden with assistance from two local co-facilitators, Matthew Takaona and Cris Chinaka.

The aim of the course was for participants to understand the issues of ethics in journalism to enable them to apply these in their daily work.

According to Abigail Gamanya, VMCZ Programmes Coordinator, "The course was intended to get journalists to revisit and internalise the Zimbabwean Code of Conduct and appreciate what codes can and cannot do while drawing lessons from other countries."

The workshop also allowed participants to list and discuss practical ways that they can use to prevent mistakes in reporting.

"I had a tough fight with one of the family members of a crime victim, on whom I had done a story. He urged me to get into his shoes as a family member of the victim, but I defended my stance and until now I believed my position was correct. But now, through this workshop, I know what I did was unethical," said Tambudzai Zindi of Manica Post in Mutare.

The course was primarily designed for working journalists in print and broadcast media and provided an opportunity to build communication networks which would assist in peer oversight.

Participants to the workshops recommended that VMCZ should bring media owners and editors on board, mainly to promote high ethical practices within newsrooms.

Visit the VMCZ fact sheet

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP