Zimbabwe Association of Community Radio Station (ZACRAS) in partnership with Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe (VMCZ) and other media stakeholders on Thursday reviewed the “Code of Ethics of Zimbabwe Community Radio” meant to guide community radios against misconduct.
By Richard Zimunya
The review comes days after the official opening of Avuxeni FM in Chiredzi on Sunday during the World Radio day celebrations.
Avuxeni FM became the first community radio station to go on air.
Addressing the media after the review meeting, ZACRAS acting national coordinator Mlondolozi Ndlovu said the code of conduct review was very important as it came at such a time when government is opening airwaves to community radio stations.
“it was very important for community broadcasters to meet, if you look, the last code of ethic conduct was done in 2015 which was developed by VMCZ in partnership with ZACRAS and now that community radio stations have been licensed by the government, we would want to focus on issues of ethics so that when they go on air there are no cases of them being sued for misconduct.
“You also realize that with the advent of social media, there are people claiming to be journalists all over but at the end of the day, ethics and professional standards of the profession are not looked at, so we want ensure all community radio stations abide to VMCZ complaints mechanism so that when there are issues against them they have some where to report.
“It was a fruitful meeting because stakeholders from the community radio stations contributed to this review,” he said.
Code of Ethics of Zimbabwe Community Radio is reviewed after each and every five years.
VMCZ executive director Loughty Dube said the code of ethics will ensure community broadcasters are ethical and professional in their operations.
“The review is done after every five years, and the main reason for doing it is it comes at an opportune time when we are seeing government opening up the space for community radio stations, just last week there was official launch of Avuxeni community radio station.
“So the idea of this is to have community radio broadcasters trained on ethics so that they conduct their duties in a proper manner that allows them to be professional and ethical, “ he said.
Zimbabwe has 14 licensed radio stations that have been licensed in the past two years during the second republic.
