BY STAFF REPORTER
Media practitioners from across Zimbabwe have reaffirmed the importance of co-regulation, as journalists continue to push for legislation that guarantees this principle.
Journalists, ideally, say they want self-regulation of the media profession, but are willing to compromise with the government and settle for co-regulation.
Under co-regulation, the media fraternity and the government will come up with a framework where they work together to regulate journalists instead of the prevailing situation where journalists are regulated by the authorities only.
To that end, media practitioners have been holding meetings across the country in an effort to come up with a position that they will share with the government.
Meetings have been held in Gwanda, Victoria Falls, Bulawayo, Gweru, Kwekwe, Marondera and Mutare, while others are planned in Masvingo, Zvishavane and Harare among other centres.
So far, media practitioners have said they are “committed to the agreed compromise position of co-regulation, wherein the industry is the primary regulatory body while the constitutional Zimbabwe Media Commission serves as an appellant body.”
“Government should take into consideration the draft Zimbabwe Media Practitioners Bill that was developed by the media industry after wide consultations with journalists in all the country’s 10 provinces,” one of the resolutions from the meetings reads.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
The journalists further said any attempts towards entrenchment of statutory regulation will not be accepted by the industry.
“Self regulation is important in that we hold each other accountable as professionals,” Norman Dururu, a journalist based in Gweru, said.
“We have ethics that we want to always adhere to and I think self-regulation will challenge us as a profession to abide by that. Some professions regulate themselves, why shouldn’t we?”
Dururu said while self regulation was the holy grail, journalists were willing to meet the government halfway by adopting the principle of co-regulation.
Nokuthaba Dlamini, a journalist based in Victoria Falls, said she was confident that if journalists were allowed to regulate themselves, reckless and intrusive journalism which can damage public confidence would be done away with.
“Co-regulation will allow for the existence of critical, investigative journalism and curb unethical journalism,” she said.
Media stakeholders under the auspices of the Media Alliance of Zimbabwe (MAZ), the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) Zimbabwe Chapter and the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe (VMCZ) have come up with a draft Zimbabwe Media Practitioners Bill and are advocating for the government to adopt the proposed legislation.
In principle, the government has agreed to the principle of co-regulation of the media industry, but it seems the authorities are backtracking, with the Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) fearing that the journalism industry wanted to usurp the body’s power.
However, MAZ, Misa Zimbabwe and VMCZ insist that this is not the case as statutory regulation and self-regulation can co-exist under the ambit of co-regulation.
