The Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe (VMCZ) yesterday hailed Alpha Media Holdings for appointing retired Supreme Court judge Justice Ahmed Ebrahim as its Public Ombudsman.
In a statement, VMCZ said the publishers of NewsDay, Zimbabwe Independent and The Standard had followed an international trend worth emulating.
The move by Alpha Media Holdings to appoint an internal Public Ombudsman is a best professional and democratic media self-regulation practice the world over.
In this particular instance, the VMCZ is confident that readers and consumers of all Alpha Media Holdings products will have an internal redress mechanism whenever they feel aggrieved by any media story from the same media house, VMCZ said.
The media monitoring organisation said they looked forward to a cordial working relationship with Justice Ebrahim.
The VMCZ will remain committed to working with the internal Public Ombudsman in enhancing high professional standards in the media and place emphasis on the need to establish ethical standards in the media in order to build models of accountability as well as effective self-regulation for journalists, VMCZ said.
Justice Ebrahim, a former Supreme Court judge, is one of the best legal brains in Zimbabwe. Born in 1937, he has over 50 years experience in the legal fraternity.
