Efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak in West Africa have been associated with various forms of press freedom restrictions and attacks on journalists, which continue to hamper the provision of timely and accurate information to the public.

In a special report highlighting the impact of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) notes that the Ebola outbreak has had a significant effect on freedom of expression in West Africa, particularly in the worst-affected countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The report highlights incidents of Ebola-related freedom of expression violations; the challenges with respect to media freedom and professional reportage; and the positive and negative contributions of the media—including social media and bloggers—towards efforts to prevent and contain the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

According to the MFWA report, in light of the Ebola outbreak, journalists in Liberia have been attacked, harassed, censored and restricted under a state of emergency, which has included curfews and restrictions on general human rights.

The special Ebola-focused report also highlights challenges in Guinea, where three journalists were brutally killed by a mob during a mission to provide information on Ebola, and the situation in Sierra Leone, where officials have adopted measures that have the potential of instilling fear in journalists and deterring independent and impartial reporting.

“The limitations on the freedom of expression as it pertains to community sensitisation about health issues constitute violations not only of the right to freedom of expression, but also of the right to health,” said Anjali Manivannan, the MFWA’s Programme Officer for Free Expression Rights Monitoring and Campaigns. “Unfortunately, many restrictions violate the state obligation to respect these rights,” she added.

The situation is further exacerbated by journalists and individuals who have used traditional and social media irresponsibly, thus increasing the spread of misinformation and even causing bodily harm or death.

“The nature of the disease requires intensive and focused public education to contain it,” said Sulemana Braimah, Executive Director of the MFWA. “Thus, it is essential to train the media on how to provide timely and accurate information to the public, particularly in the most vulnerable and underserved rural communities in all countries in the region.”

The MFWA has been involved in meetings with the regional inter-governmental body Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS), the West African Health Organisation (WAHO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Federation of the Red Cross to develop media and communication strategies for public education on the disease.

“Currently, the MFWA is rolling out a project to partner with rural and community radio stations across the West Africa region to intensify public education and awareness of the disease,” Sulemana Braimah said.

For the full report with executive summary, please click here

This Wednesday, the MFWA will release the first-ever report on a different casualty of Ebola: freedom of expression. This special report will highlight the restrictive environment for freedom of expression brought about by the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa. It will also illustrate the ways in which state and non-state actors have exacerbated the increasingly difficult situation for free expression.

Regional and international communication experts have developed clear and harmonized messages to address the information gap in national and regional responses to the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) which has claimed more than 3,000 lives from the more than 6,000 cases reported in the ECOWAS region.

In addition to the strategic and key behaviour change messages designed to sensitize and elicit appropriate actions from targeted audiences in the Ebola affected and non-affected countries in West Africa, the experts at their 29-30 September, 2014 workshop in Accra, also identified appropriate channels for the transmission of the messages.

The messages are crafted in simple, direct and action-oriented language to elicit maximum impact and responses from the target audiences for the effective prevention, containment, management and control of the deadly Ebola disease.

The target audiences for the messages include the public, community, opinion, traditional and religious leaders, infected persons, their families, survivors, health workers, and border communities. Others are educational institutions, armed and security forces, the private sector, hunters and bush meat sellers, traditional healers and birth attendants, nursing mothers, mortuary attendants and the media.

The experts also developed an Action Plan with timelines for capacity building for the media and mass mobilization actors, anchored on a coordinated emergency communication response strategy using effective multi-media messaging tools.

Participants at the workshop, which was a follow-up to the ECOWAS Coordinating Ministerial Group Meeting for the implementation of the Regional Operational Plan on the fight against Ebola included health officials from the Ebola affected countries, representatives of WHO, UNICEF, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor and the John Hopkins University Centre for Communications.

Others were the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), West Africa Democracy Radio, West African Civil Society Forum, officials of the ECOWAS Commission and the West African Health Organization (WAHO), the specialized health institution of ECOWAS.

The workshop was organized by WAHO and the ECOWAS Commission on the heels of the Ministerial Coordinating and Technical Monitoring and Surveillance Groups’ meetings on Ebola regional response for mass mobilization and community participation, both held in the Ghanaian capital last week.

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) joins the rest of the World to commemorate International Right to Information Day, a day of activism to raise awareness about the importance of the right of Access to Information (ATI).

As a fundamental human right, the right to information – to seek, access and receive information, allows access by the general public to data held by national governments. It establishes a legal process by which requests may be made for government-held information, to be received freely or at minimal cost, barring standard exceptions. It is a human right guaranteed by Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and Article 4 of the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa.

The world has seen progressive improvements in the adoption of Access to Information laws with only 12 countries worldwide in 1990 to about 100 countries having such laws today. In Africa, the 2014 report by the African Freedom of Information Centre (AFIC) indicates that only 13 of the 54 countries have adopted national Access to Information laws with six of these in the West Africa region: Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire and Niger.

Despite the slow but steady progress in the adoption of FOI/ATI laws in the West Africa region, it is worth mentioning that this handful is challenged with implementation while other countries such as Ghana have also lagged in the adoption of the law for over a decade; largely due to an absence of political will, human and financial resources and technical expertise.

It is widely acknowledged that the centrality of access to information lies in its importance in the promotion and protection of fundamental human rights and in advancing democratic values and accountability and sustainable development. As the world celebrates Right to Information 2014 thus, the MFWA adds its voice to calls for the passage of FOI/ATI in countries that currently do not have in order to advance the course of right of access to government information, open, transparent and accountable governance.

Headquartered in Ghana, and a member of the country’s Right to Information Coalition, the MFWA is particularly worried about the delay in amending and passing the bill into law as it constitutes a betrayal of public trust in the institution of parliament. We therefore urge Ghana’s parliament to expedite action on the bill as it facilitates the public’s constitutional right to information and also conforms to international standards and best practices most of which Ghana is a signatory to.