constitution for the Swaziland Complaint Commission and a
Charter. The media
in the country has endorsed the process and the media complaint
commission
will be launched soon.
D4. In Zambia, the process brought about a merger of the two
separate media
accountability systems – one that was established by the public
media and
the other by the independent media.
A National Convention on the establishment of the Media Council
of Zambia (MECOZ) was held on November 29, 2003. The meeting was
attended by about 120 journalists from all over the country and
was jointly convened by ZIMA and the Press Association of Zambia
(PAZA). Instead of the gathering adopting the draft constitution
of MECOZ, several amendments were made to the document and the
steering committee comprising PAZA, ZIMA and other
representatives was mandated to finalise the document and proceed
with the registration of MECOZ.
A follow-up workshop was held in February 2003 where 25 editors
from both the private and state-owned media were called to
discuss the draft MECOZ constitution. The editors made final
amendments to the document which is now in the process of being
finalised in readiness for the appointment of the MECOZ board by
the stakeholders, namely PAZA and ZIMA.
D5.MISA-Zimbabwe working with the Zimbabwe National Editors
Forum, ZUJ, IJAZ, MMPZ and FAMWZ resuscitated the Media Council
Project initiative. The project is specifically aimed at coming
up with a Code of Conduct for media practitioners in Zimbabwe. As
such, a number of seminars will be held throughout the country.
It is hoped that a draft code of conduct already in place will be
circulated, discussed and adopted by all journalists
participating at these seminars. A public awareness campaign on
the code of conduct will also be embarked upon once all
journalists, editors, publishers, media houses are agreed on the
code of conduct.

Media Awards
The MISA Malawi Media Award Committee continued to publicise its
activities and received an overwhelming response from media
workers.
The Award attracted 30 entries from both the print and electronic
media and this was a remarkable response considering that it is
the first time for such a competition to happen in Malawi.
The participation from female journalists was dismal as out of
the 30 entries only three were from female journalists.

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