JHR Sierra Leone Country Director Yeama Thompson (right) with Liberian journalist Mae Azango

More journalists are dying in the line of work: 121 in 2012, to be precise. It’s a number that has doubled in the past two years. In solidarity, UNESCO made the theme of this year’s World Press Freedom Day conference “Safe to Speak” – a three-day conference brainstorming ways to implement the UN’s newly minted Media Plan of Action and safeguard the right to freedom of expression.

An editor at Freetown’s Daily Mail newspaper during Sierra Leone’s civil war, Yeama Thompson is now the country director for Journalists for Human Rights in Sierra Leone. As a 2012 UNESCO IREX fellow at the conference, she spoke about  the particular dangers women journalists face in Sierra Leone – one of the toughest countries on earth in which to work as a female journalist. “Even though Sierra Leone can now boast of a near peaceful situation, women and in particular female journalists remain under threat,” Yaema explained.  “More needs to be done in order to secure the future of women and girls – and media, and media training, is a great place to start.”

The perils are real. Also on Yeama’s panel was Prof. Anthony Feinstein of the University of Toronto. He explained that women journalists experience rates of depression and post-traumatic stress considerably higher than their male counterparts. (When factoring out sexual harassment, the rates even out.)

In Sierra Leone, the issues are acute. Yeama told the story of one of her colleagues, Manja Baliyma Samba, who works for the public broadcaster in Kenema, Eastern Sierra Leone, where secret societies hold immense power. “For speaking out against Female Genital Mutilation,” Yeama explained, “Manja was stripped naked by the secret society and publicly humiliated.”

This threat of violence extends from women in the media to women across the country. Yeama cited the 2012 Report from Action Against Armed Violence, an international NGO. It clearly shows that while levels of physical violence for the general public are decreasing in Sierra Leone, for women, issues of gender-based violence, threats and insecurity remains a top concern.

JHR’s programming in Sierra Leone is designed to build strong women leaders in media, and in so doing, tackle these issues head on. Last year, JHR trainer Andrew Ewoku worked with Aissata Kamara, the Oprah Winfrey of Sierra Leone’s north, on a story about wife beating that outraged the district. Result? The tribal council is now enforcing the country’s Domestic Violence Act – through traditional courts.

With the support of Canada’s Donner Foundation, the Canadian International Development Agency, BBC Media Action and the European Union’s Instrument of Democracy and Human Rights, Journalists for Human Rights is creating positive change to ensure that women in the media and gender issues are prioritized in Sierra Leone, and that the culture of silence is broken. However, financing for JHR’s program in Sierra Leone ends in June. To support Yeama and JHR’s work in Sierra Leone, visit our donate page. 

Nathan Charles on assignment in Liberia

JHR Journalist leads national TV news team

At 7 pm on April 1st, Liberia National TV broadcast the evening news live for the first time in 22 years. Overseeing that broadcast was Nathan P. Charles, a JHR-trained award-winning journalist. As Acting TV News Coordinator, Nathan works with producers, reporters and camera people, to cover national news and put the nightly half-hour program on air.

A radio reporter by training, in 2009 Nathan started working with a JHR mentor at the ELBC radio station in Liberia’s capital, Monrovia. As a member of JHR’s local trainer team, he developed skills to mentor newsroom colleagues to improve their reports. Though he loves radio, Nathan admits television news “has been my dream” and he credits JHR training with giving him the skills for his new job.

“JHR has helped me to give a voice to the voiceless,” Nathan explains. “It has helped me in this position to be more aware of how to operate and work as a team. Through JHR, I am aware of how accountable I am to my society. It has shaped me [as a journalist].”

Television news is still relatively new in Liberia, and the team is learning as they go. Supported by JHR, Nathan ensures the nightly news includes human rights and governance issues.

Jamila Akweley Okertchiri, Daily Guide reporter and JHR-mentored journalist, won Best Feature Writer at the Ghana Journalism Association’s prestigious annual awards ceremony

Jamila Akweley Okertchiri, Daily Guide reporter and JHR-mentored journalist, won Best Feature Writer at the Ghana Journalism Association’s prestigious annual awards ceremony.

The winning story, Six Years of False Hopes: Disabled Still Struggle After 2006 Law, contributed strongly to the Ghanaian government’s decision to issue benefits, promised but never distributed, to disabled Ghanaians.

“My motivation has always been to be the voice of the voiceless,” said Okertchiri, acknowledging JHR’s PANEL journalism structure as a key tool in her work.

Okertchiri’s produced her winning story while being mentored by JHR trainer Paul Carlucci. The pair spent two weeks interviewing disabled Ghanaians and their advocates and gathering secondary sources. After navigating multiple government jurisdictions, Okertchiri secured official records that showed the Persons with Disabilities Act benefit payment system was disorganized and many payments were stalled or never paid.

Following the story’s publication, “The Accra Metropolitan Assembly gave out GH¢25,700 to 30 persons with disability as their share of the (Act-sanctioned) Common Fund to support their activities,” said Okertchiri.

At the time of researching and writing her story, Okertchiri was beginning her career under the auspices of Ghana’s national service. She has since graduated into a fully professional role.

Maxwell Suuk of Diamond FM, Edem Srem of TV Africa and Isaac Kaledzi of CITI FM – all JHR-mentored journalists – were also awarded for their work at the award ceremony. All of their winning stories were focused on human rights issues.

Maxwell Suuk, who recently was honoured as Ghana's best radio features reporter, reported on a story that led to a trafficked child being united with his family.

Because of a story by JHR-trained journalist Maxwell Suuk, a nine year old Nigerian boy trafficked into Ghana has returned to his family.

Suuk learned that a young boy working at a shop selling motorcycle parts in Tamale, Ghana was not attending school, so he decided to investigate. After much patience and persistence, Suuk interviewed the boy. During the conversation the boy revealed that the shop owner was not his father, as popularly believed, and his biological parents were in Nigeria. Suuk discovered that the child’s biological parents had sent him to live with a family friend – the shop owner’s wife – elsewhere in Nigeria. But soon after, and unbeknownst to his parents, the boy was sent to Ghana to work in the motorcycle shop.

Suuk produced a documentary about the boy’s situation for Dimaond FM in Tamale and a listener heard the story and contacted local police.

Within days of the story airing, the police took action. They followed up with Suuk, took the shop owner into custody and put the boy under the care of Ghana’s Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit. The child is now being returned to his family in Nigeria.

Suuk has worked with four JHR trainers since 2009: Scott Gill, James Munson, Megan Ainscow, and Gwyneth Dunsford. He recently received the 2012 Ghana Journalists Association Award for best radio feature journalist in Ghana, for a story on rape that he covered with Megan Ainscow.

You can listen to Suuk’s child labor story here: http://soundcloud.com/maxwellsuuk/child-labour

AND

You can read about the story Max won his award for here: http://www.jhr.ca/blog/2011/12/alleged-rape-by-ghanas-joint-military-police-remains-unsolved/