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MFWA supports Benin-based Banouto Media to improve revenue generation

Kwaku Asante
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MFWA supports Benin-based Banouto Media to improve revenue generation

Banouto Media, an online platform in Benin, has adopted tools and resources towards improving its online presence and online revenue generation. This includes the design of a new business/ marketing strategy and the adoption of a new workflow that will help them continue to publish news, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

This follows a capacity building support extended to the media organisation by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA). Under the capacity support, the MFWA engaged the services of a digital media consultant who assessed Banouto’s online platforms – such as the website and social media platforms, as well as providing the tools for online revenue generation.

Subsequent to this was an in-situ training where the Consultant worked with Banouto Media for two weeks on improving brand identity; creating digital videos; setting up a digital savvy newsroom and using social media to effectively engage its audience.

“The capacity support from the MFWA allowed us to reflect on our work with an external eye. That was the greatest achievement. We now have tools and resources to develop our company. The workflow we have adopted will also be of great help to us. As a company, our greatest need has been finance and the session with the Consultant has shown us how to raise funds,” said Leonce Gamai, General Manager, Banouto Media.

The MFWA’s Capacity Building Support to media organisations in West Africa forms part of activities under its project “Promoting Free, Quality and Independent Media in West Africa Through Capacity Building and Knowledge Sharing” which is being implemented in Ghana, Benin, Senegal, Liberia and Cote d’Ivoire and with funding support from the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA).

A few more media organisations have been identified for the support. The MFWA has in the past extended the support to Ghana-based Omni Media Limited, operators of Citi FM and Citi TV; and Sierra-Leone-based AYV Media.

Fighting Corruption in West Africa: The Media’s Role  

Kwaku Asante
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Fighting Corruption in West Africa: The Media’s Role  

Transparency International’s recently released Corruption Perceptions Index report for 2019 reveals that an overwhelming number of countries have fallen short on battling corruption. In West Africa, the numbers are even more staggering. Of the 16 countries spanning across the region, Nigeria had the lowest score: a meagre 26 out of 100, and ranked higher than only 28 countries out of the 180 that were included in the analysis. Cape Verde, while scoring highest in West Africa with a 58 out of 100, still failed to rank in the top 40%.

As the World Bank Institute acknowledges in a report, “corruption distorts economic and social development, by engendering wrong choices and by encouraging competition in bribery rather than in the quality and price of goods and services and, all too often, it means that the world’s poorest must pay for the corruption of their own officials and of multinationals’ agents.”

The media, as watchdogs over public spending and enablers of public participation in governance, transparency and accountability, have a crucial role to play in the fight against corruption in the region. But how has the media fared on this crucial area of governance and what have been the obstacles to their crucial role in this endeavor? In this analysis, the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) dissects four key factors that challenge the media’s role in fighting corruption.

A new wave of media repression

In the democracies that comprise West Africa, a deep-rooted trend has manifested itself into a harrowing reality: politicians in power are finding new ways to repress journalists from reportage that goes against the governments they lead.

Numerous reports have shown that government resistance to freedom of expression has led to a limited number of reporting in several countries. For instance, in Côte d’Ivoire, investigative journalist, Assale Tiemoko, received death threats after publishing an article on economic malfeasance and corruption within a customs agency. The report further exposed a sector of the country’s government that fraudulently allowed the clearance of luxury vehicles to be imported into the country, which resulted in shortfalls in tax revenues. Though the report led to the arrest and detention of the customs agency’s Managing Director, the journalist began to receive threatening messages including one that read “We are going to shoot you. You cannot escape.”

More recently, in Nigeria, military soldiers stormed the Borno State Secretariat of the National Union of Journalists and arrested Daily Trust reporter, Tunji Omirin, who wrote a story about the insurgence of Boko Haram. The journalist was eventually released, but not before being detained and interrogated for almost three hours.

In 2019, the MFWA collected and analysed violations against journalists

and compiled the findings in a report. By the end of September alone, 37 violations in nine countries were reported, including the death of Ahmed Hussein Suale, a Ghanaian investigative journalist who shot and killed by unknown gunmen in Accra on January 16, 2019. On repeated occasions, the MFWA condemned the unwarranted and disproportionate use of force and assaults by government officials on journalists. Such incidences of attacks, intimidation and repression refrains some media institutions to report critically, which essentially distorts journalists from dealing with issues of corruption.

Economic woes plaguing the region

Media institutions across the region have had to systematically find new ways to fund operations, projects and salaries for the journalists they employ. Financial instability, poor means of communication and inadequate infrastructure continue to pose a threat to the sustainability of these media institutions and increasingly, local newspapers, radio stations and television networks have had to close their doors. The reasons are wide-ranging, including dwindling advertising dollars, which have gone mostly to digital platforms, specifically social media and online publications.

One African journalist confirmed these issues. Simon Allison self-financed a trip where he succumbed to lodge in “flea-ridden hostels” at a refugee camp. On his last day of gathering facts for his report, foreign correspondents from international media outlets flew in and out, filing the story within just two hours. He further explained that a member of the media institution’s team informed him that they paid an exorbitant amount of money to hire a plane for the morning. “To me, this was an unimaginable sum: their morning cost more than four times my entire two weeks in South Sudan.”

Further research reveals that several other confrontations plague many countries on the continent. For example, a joint Reuters Institute Fellowship Paper in conjunction with the University of Oxford reports that in Ethiopia, newspapers must be able to “maintain a bank balance of Br 10,000 (US$1,250) as collateral against any offenses their journalists might commit.” And in Ghana, a once-thriving television station was recently hit with employees calling a strike over unpaid salaries. The station was left “dead” for almost 12 hours as its CEO scrambled to maintain order.

Control the money, control the media

Another challenge media institutions face is financial squeezes in government. In many countries across West Africa, governments control up to 80% of media advertising.  As outlets suffer to maintain economic stability, some senior executives, unfortunately, are swayed to mislead, fabricate or cover-up wrongdoing among corrupt administrations out of fear of losing advertising revenues.

There are four main categories of financial strategies and tactics that authorities use to dominate the media sector: public funding for state-administered media, state advertising, state subsidies and market-disruption measures, according to an analysis written by Marius Dragomir, the Director at the Centre for Media, Data and Society at the Marius Dragomir, the Director at the Centre for Media, Data and Society at Central European University. “The first three types of financial stratagems are in essence forms of direct funding,” Dragomir writes. “The last category encompasses strategies, financial in nature aimed at distorting the market logic, hurting the financial health of unaligned, critical media or bankrolling media that are chummy with governments.”

Do journalists have the capacity?

Reporting on adverse issues involving corruption and other malfeasances in government requires well-informed and meticulous media personnel who can report stories accurately, effectively and without error. As debts within media institutions skyrocket, the funding allocated to properly train journalists has become a practice of the past, leaving far too many journalists uninformed about procurement laws, how to analyze complex government data, how to back claims using reliable sources, and how to report with critical analysis.

However, several non-profit and civic society organizations, including the MFWA,  have been helping in diverse ways to help deals with these issues.  But more needs to be done. Media institutions must be empowered to become efficient on their platforms to enhance training efforts and engagement between citizens and authorities on governance issues.

To be clear, the incapacity for some African journalists to critically report on issues is of little to no fault of their own. What undermines journalists is their inability to receive the proper training from designated media houses that are scrounging for money to keep their businesses afloat.

When those fighting corruption become corrupt themselves

The financial challenges facing the media sector in West Africa trickles down to journalists, some of whom can sometimes be swayed into unethical practices in order to feed themselves and their families. “Brown envelope journalism,” a practice where journalists are paid to write favorably about issues or kill negative ones, has become so deeply entrenched within the media landscape that it has led to erroneous and misleading coverage on a wide array of governance issues.

In one survey, 200 journalists in Ghana’s Brong Ahafo region were questioned to track whether they had ever engaged in brown envelope journalism. The study showed that 74 percent of participants admitted to accepting money and 81 percent said they did not ask for it, but took it anyway. The reasons for accepting the money were widespread, but among them, the three most significant factors were because of poor pay, unpaid salaries and inadequate resources to perform their jobs.

It leads some to question whether some journalists often feel motivated to accurately report on stories. Lack of funding and the means to survive could stifle the integrity of reporting, allowing corruption to run rampant on both sides of media and governance.

How is the MFWA responding?

The MFWA understands that there is a substantial amount of issues that hinder the media’s role in fighting corruption and we have made efforts to curtail these issues.

In the fight against repression, we track daily incidences across the region through our monitoring and reporting on violations of freedom of expression rights in West Africa and have done so for over two decades. We regularly condemn attacks on journalists and have consistently demanded justice and redress for the abuses made towards journalists. In 2015, we partnered with some 155 journalists from over 40 media organisations across Ghana to petition former President John Dramani Mahama to demand sanctions against his staffer, Stan Dodge, who assaulted a journalist and destroyed his recording equipment.

To help with economic hardships that affect the media, we have created initiatives to support journalists in producing critical, independent and high-quality reports on issues of corruption, transparency, accountability, and service delivery in the target countries. The funding opportunity formed part of activities under the MFWA’s project titled “Enhancing Public Participation and Demand for Accountability in Governance through Effective Media and Governance Dialogue Platforms.” The project sought to strengthen the capacity of media organisations in Ghana, Senegal and Burkina Faso to report more effectively on governance, transparency and accountability issues. It also aimed at empowering the media to become efficient platforms for citizens’-authorities’ engagement on governance issues.

We also collaborated with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to fund Ghanaian journalists in supporting quality and thorough reporting that focus on the Sustainable Development Goals.  The project formed part of activities under MFWA’s “Mainstreaming the SDGs in Development Reporting,” which sought to advance public knowledge on the SDGs to ensure inclusive and participatory delivery of the goals in Ghana.

To help build the capacity of journalists in West Africa, we have supported several media institutions in increasing their awareness about institutional and external issues. In Benin, we hired a consultant for Banouto, an online media house based in the city of Cotonou. The consultant assessed the media organization and provided feedback on ways to improve their reporting. Through MFWA’s support, the media house was taught how to properly develop marketing and communication strategies, in addition to learning ways to increase engagement on their website.

In Ghana, we held a series of forums on the recently passed Right to Information (RTI) bill for journalists and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) in the Greater Accra, Ashanti, and Northern regions.  The forum sought to increase knowledge and understanding of the law among the MMDCEs as well as to educate them on their obligations. Close to 200 senior journalists across the three regions learned more about their rights and obligations under the law; how it would facilitate their work and how it would make them better citizens’ educators of the law.

For the past three years, we held the West Africa Media Excellence Conference and Awards (WAMECA), an initiative aimed to promote media excellence in the sub-region. The conference brought together close to 300 journalists to reflect on the challenges and changing trends in the areas of free expression, media development and access to information, and to develop strategies in tackling these challenges to promote good governance, regional integration and peace in West Africa. The awards ceremony rewarded and inspired journalism excellence in West Africa as well as honoured West African journalists who have produced compelling works that have had a significant impact on society.

Last but not least, we facilitated a year-long series of multi-stakeholder engagements, which led to the adoption of a framework by the Ghana Police Service to promote relations between the Service and the media, enhancing the safety of journalists and countering impunity for crimes against journalists in Ghana. UNESCO, OSIWA and IFEX provided funding support.

Togo Elections Pass Safety of Journalists’ Test, Fails That of Internet Rights

Kwaku Asante
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Togo Elections Pass Safety of Journalists’ Test, Fails That of Internet Rights

On February 22, 2020, the Togolese went to the polls in a much-anticipated presidential election that eventually extended the mandate of incumbent President Faure Gnassingbe for another five years. According to the results of the Independent Electoral Commission (CENI), the candidate for the Union for the Republic (UNIR) party, Faure Gnassingbé, who has been in power since 2005, won more than 72% of the valid votes.

Contrary to fears of violence, especially in the event of protests against the eventual results, the polls and their aftermath have been largely peaceful. The incident-free media coverage of the electioneering campaign was replicated during and after the polls without any press freedom violations being reported.

However, as the polling stations closed and the counting began, several social media users began experiencing disruptions in connection. Several monitoring reports by Netblocks, an organisation that monitors and maps internet access around the world, indicated that social media networks such as Facebook and Messenger were inaccessible in several parts of the country beginning at 17:00 GMT. Twitter and WhatsApp were, however, partially accessible at the time, according to reports from MFWA’s correspondents in Togo.

Togo thus confirmed fears expressed by many, including the MFWA, ahead of the elections that the internet could be disrupted during the elections. These fears were fuelled by the precedent set in August 2017 when telephone communications and access to the internet and social networks were disrupted to subdue a demonstration to demand changes to Togo’s electoral laws. The fears were also as a result of a recent trend of election-related shutdowns in West Africa; Mauritania and Benin shut the internet during their presidential and legislative elections respectively last year.

Internet shutdowns have become the choice of repressive tool of autocratic regimes whenever their stewardship is tested either through protests, mass criticism or demands for accountability on social media or during elections.

Cutting off access to social media services at a critical time in social and political life, particularly during the presidential election, constitutes a violation of citizens’ freedom of expression and their right to information. This is all the more serious because people needed to connect, share ideas and participate in the political process, which they largely do through social media platforms. Such disruptions at moments like this are liable to create suspicions of ulterior motives on the part of the government, thus creating avoidable tensions and possible escalation into violence.

While we welcome the fact that no attacks against the media were recorded throughout the entire electoral process, the MFWA condemns the disruption of social media networks in Togo during the presidential elections as a violation of the digital rights of citizens. The disruption also violated citizens’ right to access information and their right to freedom of expression. We urge President Faure Gnassingbe to prioritise digital rights and freedom of expression and human rights generally.

Anxiety in The Gambia Heightens as Barrow Reneges on Press Freedom Promise

Kwaku Asante
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Anxiety in The Gambia Heightens as Barrow Reneges on Press Freedom Promise

When Adama Barrow was inaugurated as president of The Gambia on February 18, 2017, it signalled a new dawn for its people after the 22-year rule of Yahya Jammeh, the former president with alleged ties to corrupt practices, including press freedom violations.

Tired of the constant human rights abuses, persecution of journalists, endemic malfeasance and a wobbly economy under Jammeh, the people of The Gambia finally spoke in 2016. This time, their voices were loud enough to loosen the grip of one of Africa’s longest serving presidents over the small country, ending what many described as a reign of terror.

The future of The Gambia rested with Barrow, 54, a businessman who once worked as a security guard  and came to power on the  back of an opposition coalition.

With promises to reform the constitution, protect the fundamental human rights of citizens, allow media pluralism and freedom of expression, among others, the country was set to tread a new path.

The Gambia During Better Times

After taking control of the country, Barrow began reforms which promoted press freedom. Journalists felt safe to practise. Many of them who were in exile came back home. Families of two journalists who were murdered under Jammeh  received compensation with MFWA’s intervention. 

The enjoyment of digital rights also received a major boost with a ruling by the country’s Supreme Court declaring as unconstitutional the law on False Publication on the Internet, among other repressive pieces of legislation, like defamation and aspects of Sedition.

For the first time, The Gambia climbed to the 92nd position on the 2019 World Press Freedom Index – a grand slam for a country which occupied the 145th position in 2016.

A Reversal of Rights

Three years down the line, what is supposed to be a new Gambia seems to be zilch, if recent events are anything to go by.

In a campaign communication which sold like hot cake with the electorate, Barrow had promised to serve for only three years as a transitional president on an agreement with the opposition coalition which backed him, according to media reports.

He had pledged to lay the legal and constitutional foundations for a sustainable democracy in The Gambia, then organise fresh elections. But Barrow now reckons the pledge in 2016 should not override the 5-year term mandated constitutionally for presidents.

This U-turn has given rise to the 3 years Jotna movement that is insisting that the government honours its pledge to leave office after January 2020.

Members of the movement organised a protest on January 26, 2020 where hundreds of Gambians came out to demand Barrow’s departure in line with the coalition’s campaign promise.  The government’s response was brutal, reminiscent of the Jammeh era repression.

Immediately after the protests started, the government issued a statement banning the 3 years Jotna group, which it described as “subversive, violent and an Illegal Movement that has all the attributes of a subversive group determined to illegally unseat the constitutionally elected Government.”

Shortly after the statement, a group of police officers stormed two radio stations, King FM and Home Digital FM, shut them down for “peddling incendiary messages” aimed at threatening the peace and security of The Gambia. In all, four journalists, two from each of the affected stations, were arrested and detained.

In a quick rebuttal however, Gambian Press Union, (GPU) strongly condemned the crackdown.

“The modus operandi of this government bears the hallmark of the tactics used by the former government in its disregard for press freedom and the rule of law,” the GPU said in a statement.

Later in an interview with DW, Sherrif Bojang, President of the GPU likened Barrow to “old wine in a new bottle.”

“The reforms that most Gambians were promised we haven’t seen much” Said Modou Lamin Joof, a Gambain journalist. “With his recent actions closing down radio stations, to some extent one might tend to agree with the common saying that people are returning to the days of Jammeh.”

Despite these setbacks, the media in The Gambia is determined to do their work as diligently and fearlessly as ever, and the press freedom fraternity including the MFWA, will accompany them every step of the way. For President Barrow, he needs to do better. He still has a lot to prove to his people and the rest of the world. He should not forget in his own words “Gambia has changed forever. The people are fully conscious that they can put government in office as well as remove it. No government will ever be able to entrench itself against the will of the Gambian people.”

Ghana’s Speaker of Parliament’s Threat to Bar Media from Covering Parliament Worrying

Kwaku Asante
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Ghana’s Speaker of Parliament’s Threat to Bar Media from Covering Parliament Worrying

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) denounces the threat by Ghana’s Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Mike Oquaye, to ban journalists from covering  proceedings in the Parliament House, and calls on him to withdraw.

Prof. Oquaye issued the warning on February 26, 2020, after the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, complained that journalists had abandoned proceedings in the house the previous day to interact with the opposition Member of Parliament for Ellembele, and former Minister for Energy, Honourable Emmanuel Armah Buah.

The Member of Parliament stepped out when  the House was discussing the State of the Nation address delivered by the President, Nana Addo-Danka Akufo-Addo on 20th of February, 2020, which Opposition National Democratic Congress had boycotted, together with the subsequent debate on the President’s address.

“If that which is reported to have happened should happen again, I have reminded you of the fact that you are here as guests by my permission. Because of the importance this House attaches to the inking profession, any such humiliation will make you an unwelcome guest and your welcome will be duly withdrawn,” the Speaker warned.

The warning came after the Speaker had summoned and reprimanded the dean of the Parliamentary press corps over the conduct of the journalists.

The MFWA finds the Honourable Speaker’s assertion that it is by Parliament’s permission that the media covers the House as unfortunate. Parliament is a public institution that cannot bar the media from covering its ordinary plenary activities.

The suggestion that the journalists’ decision to leave the plenary in order to grant audience to the opposition MP or any other person constitutes a misconduct is equally disturbing and misplaced. It is important to emphasize that, the Speaker has not mentioned precisely what Standing Orders or conditions for the issuance of accreditation any journalist or media organisation has breached.

The media have a right to decide what and who to cover within the confines of the law. Parliamentary reporting is not exclusively about the proceedings in the Chamber. On the contrary, it includes interviews with individual Members of the House and any other activities and incidents on the premises of Parliament that the journalist considers to be of public interest. Ultimately, it is up to the editors to judge the relevance of the news material their journalists have collected during their assignment.

Chapter 12, Article 162 (1) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana is unequivocal about the independent status of the Media when it states that “Freedom and independence of the media are hereby guaranteed.”

This law is inspired by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) which states that “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without any interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

Both the journalists and the former Minister of Energy were exercising this right when they decided to interact on the sidelines of the House’s debate on the State of the Nation address and any objection to that is an act of intolerance.

We wish to emphasise that the media is not covering Parliamentary activities at the pleasure of the leadership of the House, but as a Constitutional right and duty. We therefore call on the Speaker to withdraw the threat to bar the media and urge him to rather adopt a cordial approach to resolving any differences with the media.

Journalists Detained, Prevented from Reporting on Plight of Transporters

Kwaku Asante
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Journalists Detained, Prevented from Reporting on Plight of Transporters

On February 22, 2020, Alpha Ousmane Bah and Kossa Sow, who work with the news website Africaguinee.com and Espace FM radio, respectively, had gone to the Guinea-Senegal border near Bhoundou Fourdou, in the prefecture of Koundara to report on the plight of road transporters stranded on Senegalese side as a result of a ban on overland importation of goods by the Guinean authorities.

Despite presenting valid mission orders, which entitles them to cross the border, the journalists were stopped by security agents at the Guinea side. The police later escorted them to the office of the Prefect of the territory for clearance. The Prefect however said it was not within his authority to sign the mission order, and kept the journalists waiting unduly. Frustrated at the long wait they were made to endure, the journalists decided to leave and proceed with their assignment, so they took commercial motor cycles back to the border , leaving their vehicle at the Prefect’s premises.

“When we got to Bhoundou Fourdou on the Guinea side of the border with Senegal, I introduced myself as a journalist. The officers said ‘you, you are not passing, we have been ordered to return you. They collected our documents and put us in a vehicle to drop us off at the central police station in Koundara’,” Alpha Sow narrated.

The two journalists were thus arrested for about three hours before being released with caution not to continue their mission.

This harassment of the journalists amounts to censorship and an attack on press freedom. We therefore urge the Guinean authorities to investigate the incident and bring the culprits to book. The authorities must also take steps to ensure that the rights of journalists covering the blockade are not abused.

Ghana Elections: MFWA Commends Minister for Committing to No-Insults Campaign

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Ghana Elections: MFWA Commends Minister for Committing to No-Insults Campaign

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) commends Ghana’s Upper East regional minister, Ms. Tangoba Abayage, for openly making a strong commitment to issues-focused campaigning in her bid to become the parliamentary candidate of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Navrongo Central Constituency in the upcoming general elections.

Several verified media reports have quoted the minister as having admonished her supporters and party members to focus in issues and not insults.

“Today, I stand here to make a solemn pledge that not I or any of my team members will use any foul language against anybody. I’ve told them, if a single person in my team should do that then that very day that person is out. We have a message and we are sticking to that message. It is that message that will send us to parliament on the 7th of December, 2020” she warned her supporters and followers after filing her nomination on February 20, for the parliamentary candidature contest.

Earlier in January, Ms. Abayage’s main competitor and colleague Minister who is also the incumbent Member of Parliament for the constituency, Joseph Adda, accused her on local radio of not being politically active in the constituency but only goes there to drink beer.

According to journalists at the Bolgatanga-based A1 radio, where the incumbent made the disparaging comments against Ms. Abayage, the station had to issue a rejoinder after the incumbent had refused the station’s demand for him to retract the statement.

While many expected Ms. Abayage to do what appears to have become a norm by responding with similar disparaging comments against her contender, she rather responded by saying: “I don’t know what is special about Navrongo beer but I know what is special about Navrongo is the togetherness, the socialization, the camaraderie.”

The open commitment by the parliamentary aspirant to focus on issues and not insults in her campaigning, comes at a time when political discourse in the media and public sphere is characterised by the preponderance of abusive language, insults, provocative comments, ethnic bigotry and defamatory expressions, particularly against female politicians.

“The commitment by Ms. Abayage to run an issues-focused campaigning is a great example worthy of emulation by all aspirants and candidates in the upcoming December elections. We truly commend her for being an example of a decent politician. We hope that her example will inspire others, including Presidential candidates to also make a commitment to adhere to issues and not insults in the 2020 elections,” said Abigail Larbi, Programme Manager for Media and Good Governance at the MFWA.

The MFWA appeals to all aspirants, candidates and political communicators to endeavour to focus on issues-based campaigning ahead of the December elections in order to ensure voters are able to make their choices based on issues, and to contribute to making the upcoming elections peaceful.

Kindly contact Abigail Larbi on 0244867047 (email: abigail[@]mfwa.org) or the MFWA on 0302-553278 for more information.

Liberian Journalist Dead 3 Weeks after Assault by Presidential Guards

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Liberian Journalist Dead 3 Weeks after Assault by Presidential Guards

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) is shocked to hear the news of the demise of Liberian journalist, Zenu Miller, and calls on the authorities to probe the circumstances of his death.

The broadcast journalist, who works with OK FM in Monrovia, was pronounced dead a few hours after he was rushed to the Elwa Hospital on February 15, 2020, following a sudden deterioration in his condition. He left behind a wife and a son.

Miller’s death comes exactly 21 days after he reported that officers of the Executive Protection Service (EPS), President Weah’s elite body guards, had attacked him at the Samuel Kanyon Doe (SKD) Stadium.

“I was attacked tonight at the SKD by EPS officers in the full view of the EPS Director,” Miller posted on Facebook on January 26, 2020.

The attack compelled the talk show host to seek medical treatment for chest and body pains the following morning. He subsequently missed several days of work as he pursued treatment before finally resuming fully a week ago.

An official of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL) has confirmed that Miller made a verbal report of the assault to the Union. The official said the PUL wrote to the EPS to demand an investigation, adding that “We have been waiting on the EPS to respond to our communication.”

Malcolm Joseph, Executive Director of the Centre for Media Studies and Peacebuilding, MFWA’s partner organisation in Liberia, described Miller’s death as “a great loss to the Liberian media landscape.” He also called on the Government of Liberia to commission an autopsy to establish whether the journalist’s death is linked to the brutality allegedly meted out to him by the presidential guards.

The MFWA is also deeply saddened by Miller’s death and urges the Liberian authorities to establish the cause of the journalist’s death in order to end speculations and bring closure to the matter.

Month of Repression: Four Killed, Dozens Arrested and Radio Stations Shut

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Month of Repression: Four Killed, Dozens Arrested and Radio Stations Shut

Four fatalities have already been recorded in an alarming start to 2020, as Guinea and Nigeria began the year on the same repressive note as they ended 2019, while Gambia recorded violations that revive chilling memories of the Yahya Jammeh era crackdown on dissent.

Guinea

Two people were killed on January 13, one in Guinea’ capital, Conakry, and the other in the northern town of Labé, as the security forces and anti-government protesters continued their bloody confrontations.

Mamadou Sow, a 21-year-old high school student, was shot dead by security forces in Coza, in the Ratoma district of Conakry during the nation-wide demonstrations. The second victim, Amadou Diallo, also died from gunshot wounds after the security forces opened fire to disperse demonstrators who were attacking a Court building in Labé.

Before the fatal crackdown, the police, on January 8, arrested Alpha Oumar Diallo, administrator of the online newspaper “Verite224.” Plain-clothed officers lured the journalists to a meeting and ended up forcing him into their car and driving him to their office in Conakry. Diallo was interrogated about an article he wrote about an influential politician, before being detained for two days.

Nigeria

The year also began on a gruesome note in Nigeria where two journalists were killed, one by security forces and the other by unknown abductors. Maxwell Nashan, a journalist with the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), Adamawa State was, on January 15, found tied and muzzled in a bush with his body hacked at several places. Nashan had been abducted from his house the previous day.

In the second incident, security forces who were battling Shiite Muslim protesters in Abuja on January 28, shot and killed Alex Ogbu, a journalist with the Regent Africa Times newspaper. Ogbu was passing by when he was hit by a bullet. Two other persons sustained gunshot wounds during the chaotic protests.

In what is turning out to be a disturbing trend at the polls, two journalists who were covering the rerun Senate elections in Akwa Ibom State in Nigeria, were assaulted and prevented from carrying out their work on January 25.

In the first instance, a mob claiming to be supporters of Godswill Akpabio, a Minister and candidate in the elections held on January 25, 2020, assaulted Godwin Sunday, a television cameraman with the Global Pilot and destroyed his camera.

In a separate incident, a journalist, Edidiong Udobia, was attacked by hooligans at another polling station.  The thugs held Udobia by his shirt and dragged him to their superior, Emmanuel Inyangettor, who ordered that the journalist’s phone be seized. The journalist had his phone returned to him after it had been scanned and found to contain no adverse content.

On January 30, a group of soldiers stormed the Borno State Secretariat of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Maiduguri and arrested Tunji Omirin, a journalist with the Daily Trust newspaper.  The military officers had twice gone to the Daily Trust office earlier that day in search of the journalist before tracing him to the NUJ secretariat. The soldiers handcuffed Omirin and took him away around 4:30 pm. (17:30 GMT)

The journalist was detained and interrogated for about three hours over a story he had written on the Boko Haram insurgency before being released with caution.

The Gambia

The Gambia revived chilling memories of the Yahya Jammeh dictatorship with the most brutal crackdown on dissent since the new government took office. The police on January 26 brutalised and arrested 137 anti-government demonstrators, arrested four journalists, assaulted another before closing down two media houses.

About a dozen police officers stormed the premises of Home Digital FM and ordered the managers to stop broadcasting. Accusing the radio station of inciting the demonstrators to violence, the security forces also arrested the proprietor and owner of the station, Pa Modou Bojang and another staff.

Another group of police officers invaded King FM and ordered all staff to evacuate the premises, before shutting down the station. The security officers also arrested two of the station’s manager’s Gibbi Jallow and Ebrima Jallow.

The authorities also revoked the accreditation of Al Jazeera reporter, Nicolas Hague, after accusing him of being biased towards the demonstrators who were demanding the resignation of President Adama Barrow in line with his campaign promise to limit his mandate to three years, as against the constitutionally guaranteed five years.

Liberia

In Liberia, the police used excessive force to disperse a crowd of over 3,000 people who gathered outside Monrovia’s Capitol Building on January 6, to protest what they term as deteriorating living conditions under President George Weah.

Dozens of people were taken to the hospital, after inhaling tear gas, or being injured in the melee as the protesters ran in different directions to escape the police violence. At least three people were also arrested by the police.

Still in Liberia, a presenter with the privately-owned Okay FM based in the Capital Monrovia reported having been assaulted by the Executive Protective Service (EPS), President George Weah’s elite security forces. The incident occurred during a a football match on January 26, 2020.

The attack on Miller came just two days after another journalist, Christopher Walker of the FrontPageAfrica online newspaper, was assaulted, also by security personnel, while he was also covering a football match on January 24, 2019. The journalist sustained injuries while his camera and laptop were damaged.

Mauritania

In Mauritania, the authorities arrested a blogger, Mohamed Ali Ould Abdel Aziz and journalists Abdou Ould Tajeddine and Cheikh Ould Mami on accusation of defaming the President.  Abdel Aziz was arrested on January 22, Tajeddine and Ould Mami on 26 in connection with their production and publication on social media of a video criticising President Mohamed Cheikh El Ghazouani and his government. The three were released on January 27. A government statement did not indicate the conditions of their release or the status of their cases.

In other developments, January 16 marked the first anniversary of the killing of investigative journalist, Ahmed Hussein Suale, and the MFWA, as part of activities to observe the day, wrote a letter to the Inspector General of the Ghana Police Service, John Oppong-Boanu, asking for updates on investigations into the incident.

The MFWA urged the Inspector General of Police to ensure that the investigations into Suale’s murder are carried out swiftly, expeditiously and to its logical conclusion, in line with the State’s obligation under the 1992 constitution to protect press freedom.

Ghana: Group of 250 Private Broadcasters Sues Government Over New Policy

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Ghana: Group of 250 Private Broadcasters Sues Government Over New Policy

The Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA), an association of about 250 private broadcasting service providers, has sued the government of Ghana and the National Communications Authority (NCA), the statutory electronic communications licensing body over introduction of Conditional Access System (CAS), which will make it impossible for consumers to access Free-to-Air television  content in Ghana.

In a writ filed at the Supreme Court of Ghana, GIBA  is seeking a number of reliefs including a declaration that the Conditional Access System (CAS) introduced as a mandatory requirement by the NCA by which media content of Free-to-Air broadcasters are blocked unless certain criteria have been met before the viewing public can access content, constitutes an unnecessary restraint on the establishment and operation of private media as enshrined in Article 162(3) of the Ghanaian Constitution.

The Braodcasters’ group wants the Supreme Court to further declare that the blockage of media content of Free-To-Air broadcasters through the use of the CAS introduced by the NCA, is unconstitutional as same constitutes an unreasonable and unnecessary abridgement of the freedom of the media guarantees contained in Article 21(a) and 162 (1) of the 1992 Constitution.

The Association is further seeking a declaration by the Supreme Court to the effect that the blockage of media content of Free-to-Air broadcasters through the use of CAS introduced by the NCA, contravenes the spirit and letter of Article 21(f) of the 1992 Constitution since same constitutes an unnecessary abridgement of the right to information guaranteed under the Constitution.

GIBA is thus, asking an order by the Supreme Court directed at the NCA to remove from the minimum requirement for receiving digital terrestrial and satellite television services, any system that encrypts or blocks the content of Free-to-Air television channels in Ghana.

For some time now, GIBA and the Ministry of Communications have engaged on Ghana’s digital migration process, which requires broadcast service providers to switch from analogue to digital broadcast, in line with the Geneva 2006 Agreement of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

According to GIBA, the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) eventually set the relevant standards taking into account the outcomes of various stakeholder engagements. The group of broadcasters aver that the NCA, without recourse to the GSA, subsequently introduced and published new a “Conditional Access” arrangement by which the programmes or content of Free-to-Air television stations shall be subject to the payment of Digital Access Fees.

Under the new arrangement, the NCA assumes the right to block or encrypt broadcast signals of users who fail to pay their subscriptions

GIBA argued that as owners of broadcast contents, they reserve the right to decide whether or not to convert their service programmes into a Pay TV service and asks the Supreme Court to prevent the NCA and the oversight Ministry from interfering with this right.

MFWA Condemns Military Arrest of Journalist over Boko Haram Reports

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MFWA Condemns Military Arrest of Journalist over Boko Haram Reports

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) condemns the arrest and interrogation of Daily Trust reporter Tunji Omirin by the military over a story on the Boko Haram insurgency.

A group of soldiers stormed the Borno State Secretariat of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Maiduguri on January 30, 2020 and arrested the journalist.  The military officers had twice gone to the regional office of Daily Trust in Maiduguri earlier that day in search of the journalist before tracing him to the NUJ secretariat. The soldiers handcuffed Omirin and took him away around 4:30 pm.

The journalist was detained and interrogated for about three hours before being released with caution.

“Yes, Omirin is back at home with his family and he is hale and hearty,” Malam Naziru Mikailu, Editor-in-Chief of Daily Trust confirmed in a story published by the online version of the paper. “He was questioned by the military over a story he authored concerning activities of the Boko Haram insurgents.”

This is the second time in a year that journalists of Daily Trust have been harassed by the army for reporting on their anti-terror operations.

The Daily Trust’s regional editor, Uthman Abubakar and a reporter, Ibrahim Sawab, were whisked away after a combined team of soldiers and Department of State Services (DSS) operatives stormed the newspaper’s office in Maiduguri on January 6, 2019. Soldiers also raided the news organisation’s headquarters in Abuja and its office in Lagos on that day.

While the MFWA welcomes the release of Omirin, we strongly condemn his arrest in the first place as it was a gross violation of his human rights and his right as a journalist. To invade the premises of the journalists’ union and arrest a journalist as if he was a criminal is unacceptable and the military leadership must call the officers involved to order.

Vacancies: MFWA Is Recruiting Media Monitors

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Vacancies: MFWA Is Recruiting Media Monitors

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) is recruiting Media Monitors for its project related to the 2020 general elections in Ghana. This includes the monitoring and reporting of indecent expressions in election campaigns, in addition to monitoring and reporting of ethical violations in the media. The projects are aimed at contributing to enhancing professional reporting in the media, issues-based campaigning and factual information to citizens.

The monitoring exercise will focus on selected newspapers, websites and radio stations across the country. The ideal media monitor must have a good knowledge of the media environment, research and data gathering/analysis, and the governance system of Ghana.

Responsibilities 

Recruited monitors will be assigned to media houses and required to:

  • Monitor content in assigned media houses
  • Submit daily reports to the MFWA.

Qualifications

Qualified applicants must:

  • Have at least a degree in media studies, communication, political science, social science or a related field.
  • Be able to fluently speak and write English and at least one local language.
  • Have a relevant experience in data gathering, media monitoring or research-related projects.

How to Apply

Interested applicants should submit a cover letter and CV to recruitments[@]mfwa.org using the subject: “Application  – Media Monitor” as the subject of your email.  

Deadline

Applications must be received by close of day on Friday, February 14, 2020. Only shortlisted applicants will be contacted. The monitoring exercise is expected to be carried out between February through December 2020.

 

 

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