Journalism: Rights and Peace

This issue of The Soul Beat focuses on journalism as a tool for peace and human rights. If you would like to contribute your own experiences, please contact Anja Venth aventh@comminit.com

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HUMAN RIGHTS

1. Human Rights Handbook For Ghanaian Journalists

by Sarah Kelsey and Ben Peterson

This handbook discusses the concept of human rights. What are human rights? What is the moral grounding of human rights? Why believe in human rights? What are the limits of human rights? Topics include: civil and political rights; economic, social and cultural rights; group and communal rights; history of human rights in the developing world; quick tools for reporting human rights abuses; and how human rights are protected.

2. End Violence Against Women Project - Ethiopia

This project's strategy includes informing the general public and those who have the mandate to protect the rights of women in the community about gender-based violence (GBV) . Victims of violence give testimonies in public hearings designed to raise awareness within the public, the legislature and other public institutions of legal and support aspects of violence against women. Workshops for law enforcement agencies aim to sensitise law enforcers on issues of violence. Workshops for journalists also aim to help develop more informed publications and news on violence against women and other issues related to women's rights.

Contact Panos Ethiopia panos@telecom.net.et

3. Tanzania Association of Disabled Issues Journalists (TADIJO) - Tanzania

This association seeks to combine efforts by journalists, individuals and non-governmental organisations (NGO) to deepen knowledge and expertise on different forms of disabilities to identify challenges facing
people with disabilities. The organisation aims to uplift the people's status from a life of permanent dependence to self-reliance,through the media. The organisation seeks to capitalise on the media's influence among the community, to sustain and promote the welfare of people with disabilities, to defeat the stigma and discrimination related to disabilities, as well as the social economical and political factors that support discrimination.

Contact Deogratius Kiduduye kiduduye@yahoo.com OR tadijotz@yahoo.com

4. All Sides of the Story, Reporting on Children: A Journalist's Handbook

This handbook for journalists presents complex questions around reporting on children. It was written by a media professional to bring together the contributions and support of media bodies, as well as children's rights experts, the legal fraternity, a UN agency, and various non-governmental organisations. According to
the writer, this handbook aims to promote a human rights-based approach to reporting on children. It provides an ethical framework for balancing some of the most complex ethical problems any media worker is likely to face. The many guidelines drafted world-wide on the subject of reporting on children and children's issues are outlined, and an analysis of the issues that inform these codes has been tailored to the South African context.

5. Men in the Media: Monitoring Men: An Analysis of The Representation of Men in The Media by Gemma Harries and William Bird

Men in the Media was a joint monitoring project undertaken by the Soul City Institute for Health and Development Communication and the Media Monitoring Project (MMP). The MMP monitored 14 different print and broadcast media in South Africa over a two-week period between May 29 and the June 11 2005. The data produced consists of just less than 1,300 items, and 1,900 sources. One of the aims of this study was a comparison in media coverage of gender-based violence and woman and child abuse over the previous seven years.

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Journalists for Human Rights (JHR)/ Journalistes pour les Droits Humains (JDH) is a non-profit organisation dedicated to raising general awareness of human rights issues in Africa by providing African journalists with the tools to report accurately and concretely about human rights issues. JHR's mailing list allows members to discuss issues related to human rights and the media in Africa.

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MEDIA RIGHTS

6. Media Foundation for West Africa - West Africa

Established in 1997, the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) is a regional independent, non-profit NGO based in Accra, Ghana that is concerned with media rights and freedom of expression. MFWA's purpose is to support the development of independent mass media in West Africa, as well as to use networking to foster collaboration with other sectors of society around the issues of human rights, democracy, peace, security, and development.

Contact mfwa@africaonline.com.gh

7. Campaigning for Freedom of Expression: A Handbook for Advocates International Freedom of Expression Exchange

This handbook has been produced to give members a 'toolbox' of ideas, best practices and resources for campaigning. The book discusses that the need for more concerted campaigning on free expression issues is increasingly urgent today. The book proposes that threats to freedom of expression go far beyond the arrest and imprisonment of those whose writings and opinions challenge the powerful - although that still occurs with alarming frequency in some countries. The publication provides a case study of an IFEX member - the Media Institute of Southern Africa - that has "realised the need to build on, and go beyond, the issuing of alerts by developing a strategic vision for defending freedom of expression."

8. Media Institute of Southern Africa

This is a coalition of chapters from eleven countries in Southern Africa's Development Community (SADC) that seek to encourage independent, pluralistic and diverse media coverage. The website provides links to African news providers and broadcasting networks, as well as email accounts and chat forums for registered users.

9. Unfinished Democracy: Media & Political Freedoms in Angola

by Nadejda Marques and Justin Pearce

This 35-page report examines the relationships between political change and freedom of the media, focusing on recent changes in Angola. It argues that the end of the conflict in Angola has "encouraged Angolans to start exercising again their right to debate the future of their country. In 2003 alone, four new weekly newspapers were established and the detention of journalists became less common. In the capital, Luanda, opposition parties have in the past year been able to hold demonstrations without government reprisals".

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New Tactics in Human Rights: A Resource for Practitioners


The New Tactics in Human Rights Project, led by a diverse group of international organisations and practitioners, promotes tactical innovation and strategic thinking within the international human rights community. The New Tactics in Human Rights project promotes the use and sharing of as wide a range of tactics as possible. The website includes a database of strategies and tools.
Visit: Newtactics website

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PEACE

10. Radio Okapi Network - Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

Radio Okapi Network is a radio project that provides information to the Congolese listening audience in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The project promotes the process of dialogue and peace building in the DRC. The network is served by satellite, short-wave and FM transmitters, and in order to reach the sizeable Congolese diaspora, it also broadcasts live on the Internet with streaming audio versions of the network's programming. Among its staff are about twenty journalists based in Kinshasa and another thirty scattered around the country. The programmes produced by Radio Okapi are distributed free of charge to local radio stations for rebroadcast.

11. Attitudinal Baseline Survey of Radio Professionals in Sub-Saharan Africa

This is a baseline survey of radio professionals in sub-Saharan Africa in order to determine their knowledge
of, attitude towards and use of different peace building techniques in radio commissioned by Search for Common Ground. The key objectives of the study were to determine attitudes towards peace building
techniques in radio programming and to establish the use of peace building techniques and formats in the radio programmes produced. There was high awareness of some peace building techniques and of some basic journalistic principles, with most respondents claiming to be aware of importance of the following: giving ordinary people the opportunity to voice their opinions as well as politicians and officials; reporting on shared interests and goals which may reveal common ground between opposing sides; treating all sides' suffering as equally newsworthy; and differentiating between opinion and facts.

12. Small Arms Reduction Programme (SARP) - African Great Lakes Region

This is a magazine project that aims to generate articles about small arms for the Great Lakes Region. SARP coordinates regional sensitisation and capacity development about small arms and armed violence reduction in the region, aimed at both governments and the communities. SARP's programme objective is to raise national and international awareness of the humanitarian impact and wider socio economic and development costs of small arms problems in the Great Lakes. It allows journalists to publish articles on the Amani Afrika magazine and also to share them with their local media houses with the aim of increasing the media coverage of small arms issues beyond the partner's network. This coverage is intended to extend to national press in order to mobilise the society to support national peace building and small arms reduction initiatives.

Contact UNDP Small Arms Programme mawanda@undp.org

13. Radio for Peacebuilding - Africa

This is a project that aims to help develop knowledge about the use of peace building techniques among radio professionals across sub-Saharan Africa. It uses radio as a peace building medium in Africa. The project's target audience is sub-Saharan African broadcasters. Radio for Peacebuilding, Africa carries radio
programmes, manuals and other documents and other useful information. The project invites African radio professionals to take part in the production of a number of exemplary radio programmes (in English, French, Swahili and Hausa), which demonstrate different peace building techniques, and which will be available on the website, and on CD for broadcast.

Yannick De Mol yannick.de-mol@sfcg.be OR radiopeaceafrica@sfcg.be

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The Soul Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.

Please send material for The Soul Beat to the Editor - Anja Venth aventh@comminit.com