Mobile Community Zimbabwe (MCZ) is a school of citizen journalism focusing on equipping young Zimbabweans with the necessary skills and technology to document and share innovative community stories.
MCZ hopes to contribute to plurality and diversity of news and informational content in and from Zimbabwe by;
- Promoting citizen journalism as a tool to empower young Zimbabweans to have a voice
- Enabling uncensored information on and from different localities in Zimbabwe
- Engaging with local communities in discussions and issues that directly affect them
MCZ’s school is a response to the need to create learning and sharing platforms that professionalise Zimbabweans’ use of new media tools and technologies, while also creating space for the reportage of pertinent community issues often ignored by the mainstream media.
MCZ’s Ethical Policy and Pledge To The Audience
- Privacy, confidentiality & consent: MCZ journalists will ensure all interviewees are aware of the likely global dissemination of the content. MCZ will never intrude on an individuals privacy without first obtaining consent.
- Truthfulness: All MCZ stories will be based on facts. MCZ will not deal in rumour or gossip. We will never manipulate information, images or video in order to change their meaning
- Conflict of Interest: All MCZ journalists commit to declare any possible conflict of interests that might prevent them from covering a story.
- Humane: MCZ journalists will conduct themselves in a considerate manner respecting the communities they are covering and the individuals whose stories they are telling.
- Sensationalism: MCZ will not sensationalise information in order to gain popularity. We will not inflate the importance of certain facts over others in ways that would create an false impression.
- Accuracy: MCZ will never exaggerate facts or figures. MCZ will always seek to include facts in order to add relevant context. MCZ will never mislead the audience by putting information, image, audio or video in the wrong context. We will never ask leading questions in order to change the outcome of the story.
- Accountability: MCZ welcomes feedback and correction and is always ready to be called to account for any lapses in our integrity or failures in our mission to inform the public debate.
- Objectivity: MCZ citizen journalists will never include their own views and opinion but, instead, will always seek to tell stories about the communities they serve through the voices of those living in those communities.
- Impartiality: MCZ’s journalism will always be fair and will never favour any side in a story. Our journalists will have an independent voice and not act formally or informally for special interests, whether politically or culturally.
- Integrity: MCZ journalists will be scrupulously honest in all we do. We will never accept bribes or payment for story promotion. We will never do deals with contributors. We will never owe anyone any favours.
- Attribution: MCZ will always offer appropriate recognition of the sources of all our information.
- Offence: MCZ will never use language that would offend anyone on the grounds of race, sexuality, or physical disability.
- Taste & Decency: MCZ will never use gratuitous or graphic imagery. We will always respect the dignity of our target audience in our coverage
- Copyright: MCZ will always acknowledge sources for images, sound, video, and will never use copyright material without permission. We will never engage in plagiarism.
- Diligence: MCZ journalists will never publish for publishing sake but will always aim to inform the public debate with responsible and robust journalism. MCZ will always gather information in honest and transparent ways.
- Public Trust & Public Interest: MCZ will never report in a way that would violate the trust of the audience; we will never exploit situations but will cover stories only if they are in the public interest.
- Right of Reply: MCZ journalists will always seek to offer all sides of a story. To do so, MCZ journalists are committed to always seek a right of reply. If an invitation offer a right to reply is refused, MCZ will make that clear in the coverage so that the audience understands that all reasonable attempts to seek responses to any allegations were refused.
Accordingly, the school embraces the following values:
- People-centred reportage of community issues
- Diversity of opinions and perspectives
- Creativity and innovation
- Commitment to excellence in teaching and mentoring
MCZ uses different freely available applications, among which Viva Video, Wavepad and Storymaker.
