"Sunrise Matobo Zimbabwe" (Credit: Macvivo via English Wikipedia.)

The Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe will start honoring media ethics with two upcoming ethics awards, Zimbabwe’s News Day reported.

“We want to recognize and celebrate excellence in media houses and individuals across the country, we will be monitoring media houses who have the courage to offer apologies when they realize they got the facts wrong without being forced to do so and those that always strive to get it right all the time,” the director of the council, Loughty Dube, is quoted as saying.

Two ethics awards will be given in November — one for “most ethical media house” and one for “best news reporter.”

The organization also helps handle complaints against media outlets in Zimbabwe. “The VMCZ receives, mediates, and adjudicates complaints by individuals and organisations against the media,” its website states. “VMCZ seeks to form a buffer between the public and the media and to serve as a medium of understanding between the two.”

Complaints must be filed within 30 days of publication, according to its complaints guidelines.

The council also helps train journalists and the public.

According to the council’s website, the council is “a professional media self-regulatory body set up in 2007 by Zimbabwean journalists and other stakeholders in civil society who subscribe to the principles of media freedom, accountability, independence, and ethical journalism.”

iMediaEthics has written to the council for more information about its work.