COVID-19 Response in Africa: Together for Reliable Information

Project activities can be divided into three main pillars:

1. Grants to journalists and media houses allowing them to continue production of quality public interest content to their audiences - Two types of grants are being offered:

• Grants to public interest media organisations: Grants are being provided to 35 media outlets across 17 sub-Saharan countries (Burkina Faso, Ghana, Benin, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Nigeria, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, South Africa). These are small grants that seek to allow the recipients to continue their work in the short term and to help them weather the immediate crisis.
• Emergency grants for media professionals: The COVID-19 emergency fund is specifically geared to assist media professionals from African countries severely affected by the COVID-19 crisis and for emergency situations related to COVID-19. The goal is to ensure that media professionals can resume work as quickly as possible. It includes funding for protection measures, security measures, digital security, psychological support, and legal assistance.

2. Sharing of best practices among media practitioners and journalists - This will be done through the creation of a secure co-working space (developed by FPU), relevant mentoring opportunities, and fact-checking resources. These resources will be accessible to both grantees of the project and trusted journalists and media workers from other parts of Africa. The co-working space will host trainings on a number of topics. These will include workshops on fact-checking (by ARTICLE 19) that will be supported by the establishment of a coalition consisting of epidemiologists, public health communications experts, technology companies, and civil society organisations (CSOs) who will create a database of COVID-19 facts and a repository of annotated misinformation. Workshops on community engagement (conducted by IMS) will seek to provide media outlets with a deeper understanding of methods and formats that connect and give voice to marginalised people in society. Furthermore, DW Akademie will provide one-on-one assessment sessions and tailor-made consultancies for media organisations on viability and business models.

3. Advocacy and lobbying support - Consortium partners will monitor press freedom violations in target countries and support local groups in their lobbying and advocacy efforts for a safer media environment. This will result in multi-tiered advocacy efforts (national, regional, and international) to protect freedom of expression and information during the crisis, based on accurate, timely information on the infringement of these rights. The monitoring will also seek to lead to concrete policy recommendations pitched at different levels. ARTICLE 19, Reporters Without Borders, and UNESCO (as associate partner) are responsible for the advocacy component. To assist with monitoring, an African-focused media observatory will be set up, relying on information collected regionally by local partners. The observatory will feed information into a mapping tool called Tracker 19, developed by Reporters Without Borders. The aim of this project component is to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on journalism and to document instances of state censorship and misinformation.

In addition, ARTICLE 19 is producing legal and policy analyses on the COVID-19 response legislation in a select number of target countries. Produced by monitoring developments in the legal frameworks of these countries, these analyses will be used for advocacy work in the defence of press freedom. Reports can be accessed here.

See the COVID-19 Response in Africa: Together for Reliable Information website for more information and to keep up to date with information on the project.

The project falls with a wider global Together for Reliable Information campaign, which seeks to highlight the importance of reliable information.

COVID-19, Media Development

The rationale for the project (from the FPU website): "A risk mapping done by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies outlines the vulnerabilities and immense impact COVID-19 has in Sub-Saharan Africa. Solutions to restrict the outbreak of COVID-19 in parts of Asia and Europe - such as lockdowns, frequent hand washing, 1.5 meter distancing economy, and general social distancing - are inconceivable in many parts of Africa. Lockdowns will bring the entire informal economy to a standstill. In overcrowded urban areas and IDP [internally displaced person]/refugee camps millions of people live in close quarters without electricity or tap water, posing an extra challenge in containing COVID-19. Furthermore, medical infrastructure, especially intensive care facilities, are limited and concentrated in capital cities depriving the masses. Similarly, there is a lack of testing facilities and protective gear.

Furthermore, a pervasive lack of government transparency, combined with long-standing weaknesses in the media environment also makes the population more vulnerable to dis- and mis-information. In turn, the lack of available information, resources, and of freedom of movement for journalists, coupled with increased internet interference and censorship, further hamper the provision of adequate, fact based, relevant information for populations at risk. Media houses are finding it difficult to adapt their work culture to ensure safety and security of journalists in gathering information, while remaining connected with their audiences and hosting programmes. Social distancing and working online remain big challenges as well. In short, COVID-19 has great implications for the media sectors and societies at large in Sub-Saharan Africa."