SPECIAL FE ATU RE: Journalists for Human Rights
LEADING LIBERIA INTO A NEW AGE OF JOURNALISM Passing on sustainable skills to a new generation of journalists, JHR helped a newspaper gain political ground and facilitate change on human rights issues and abuses BY SCOTT WHITE It’s late at night in Monrovia and Rodney Sieh is still working. Earlier in the day, the Liberian Supreme Court had handed down a controversial ruling about the country’s upcoming general election. Deadlines were looming and Sieh’s newspaper, Front Page Africa, had a big story to tell. The fact that Sieh and his staff could report on this big story – or any story – is a tribute to their tenacious dedication to pursuing truth in a country with a history of civil war, government corruption and human rights violations. It’s also a tribute to the work done by the Canadian-based charity Journalists for Human Rights (JHR). The mission of JHR is to train journalists so they can use traditional reporting skills to cover human rights and other important issues in their communities. Sieh is quick to credit JHR for helping develop the editorial staff at Front Page Africa, which he first started in 2005 as a digital publication while working in the United States. He then began producing a printed newspaper in 2010 after he came back to Liberia. “When I returned from the United States to come back to Liberia, one of the biggest challenges we had was capacity building,” says Sieh. “We didn’t have a lot of trained reporters and trained editors. So it was a big gap that needed to be filled.” Aaron Leaf was one of the first JHR trainers
to go to Liberia to work with Front Page Africa reporters. “A lot of the journalists were on a very basic level,” says Leaf. “It’s a condition of not having had a functioning school system during the war. You had really ambitious young journalists, but they didn’t have proper writing or reporting
“Most journalism training organizations, they come and do workshops and then they go back to where they come from. But JHR’s projects, they stay a long time. They work with the reporters, they get to know them, they become friends, they become mentors. That’s something you can’t buy. It’s priceless.” - Rodney Sieh backgrounds. I came in with all these highminded ideas of human rights journalism, but I really started with the basics. It was almost journalism 101 in the Liberian context.”
Citizens protest for the release of journalist Rodney Sieh, who was imprisoned for five months in 2013 on a trumped-up libel charge. CREDIT: COURTESY OF JHR
But once Front Page Africa reporters learned the basics, the human rights journalism soon emerged. One of the first people Leaf worked with was Mae Azango, an internationally renowned journalist whose reporting on female genital mutilation – supported by JHR trainerturned-CBC-reporter Bonnie Allen – brought global attention to the cruel ritual and forced the government to outlaw the practice. Sieh said JHR trainers like Leaf “brought to the table a new dimension for reporters, making sure their stories were not just believable, but taking them on field trips to different parts of the country and getting them to tell stories that you wouldn’t ordinarily hear about Liberia.” Stories about prostitution, striking mineral workers, poverty – stories that had never been covered by other Liberian publications whose staff regularly accepted bribes from politicians. Front Page Africa did such an effective job of exposing human rights violations and corruption that Sieh was sent to prison in 2013 on a trumpedup libel charge. The newspaper was shut down and Sieh was ordered to pay the equivalent of $1.5 million. The court said if he couldn’t pay the fine – and he couldn’t – then the sentence would be converted to an appropriate amount of time. The ruling: 5,000 years. International outcry by human rights organizations, including JHR, Reporters Without Borders, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression and the Committee to Protect Journalists helped ensure Sieh was released from prison by Christmas of that same year. Front Page Africa never stopped publishing while Sieh was in prison and today it’s providing a wide range of coverage for the citizens of Liberia and people around the world who want reliable
information about the country. Sieh says JHR’s mentoring has had a lasting impression in his newsroom and, therefore, on Liberia. “Most journalism training organizations, they come and do workshops and then they go back to where they come from. But JHR’s projects, they stay a long time. They work with the reporters, they get to know them, they become friends, they become mentors. That’s something you can’t buy. It’s priceless.” Leaf has since gone on to be managing editor at Okayafrica, a New York-based digital publication that focuses on African culture, politics and music. He is critical of many aid programs in Africa, but says the work of JHR is different because it teaches sustainable skills. “I’ve seen a lot of terrible, terrible charity and NGO work first-hand – some of the worst stuff imaginable,” he says. “One of the ways people describe bad aid is well-meaning charities or organizations go into African countries, build big infrastructure things, and then leave without any of the framework around to keep those projects running, or they were never built right in the first place.” Journalists for Human Rights “has drilled down very specifically on where they can make an impact. And they do make an impact. They have very targeted, specific interventions where they’re needed.” Leaf talks about the “multiplier effects” of JHR’s work. “Once you have someone in Liberia who is really well-versed in reporting on corruption, then you have a lot more awareness and action on corruption in that country. There’s a very clear cause and effect – train someone and then they go and do something for the greater good.” Scott White is Editor of The Conversation Canada
GETTING A HEAD START IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
Where JHR’s media development efforts found their footing
Liberian journalist Nathan Charles(left). CREDIT: Courtesy of JHR
BY IRENE FLATLEY & LATIFA ABDIN Over the last 15 years, JHR has implemented media development interventions across sectors in several African countries. Currently, JHR’s team in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are based out of the capital Kinshasa and eastern city, Bukavu. They train journalists across the country, helping them put their skills into practice making human rights radio and TV documentaries, with an emphasis on countrywide non-partisan election and governance reporting. • JHR started its media development work in Ghana in 2004. JHR-trained journalist Richard Skyy, a reporter for Citi FM, reported on Ghana’s
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largest military hospital illegally dumping toxic waste. Through his investigation, Richard discovered this dumping was the leading cause of an ongoing city-wide cholera outbreak. This story motivated the hospital to repair its sewage treatment facility and clean up the dump site. • In 2011, JHR-trained reporter Tamba Tengbeh of Cotton Tree News in Sierra Leone investigated a story about the government withholding promised funds from the disabled community. This story prompted officials to take action tracing the evidence and delivering on these promises, in addition to funding a disability walk in the country. • Charles Yates, a Liberian JHR-trained journalist, wrote a story in 2009 exposing toxic
runoff pollution from a rubber plantation in the Margibi District. This write-up prompted the Liberian president to order facility-wide audits. • In Liberia, JHR-trained reporter Nathan Charles produced a series of reports for Liberia Media System in 2011. These reports exposed the dire conditions of Bong Mines Hospital, including its lack of doctors. When his story aired, it caused national outrage and resulted in government intervention to ensure an onsite doctor and steady flow of medication. As emphasized in his JHR mentorship program, Charles followed up with authorities consistently to ensure their follow through. • Also in Liberia, Kolubah Akoi of Lofa County used Facebook to help protect his community from Ebola. During the height of the Ebola crisis in 2014 and 2015, Akoi posted messages daily on where to get medical help, how to care for the sick and the deceased safely, and helped separate medical facts from myth. Akoi received an African Union Humanitarian Award for his reporting via the social media network. • Alphonse Nekwa, a JHR-trained reporter in Matadi, a port city in the DRCongo’s Bas-Congo province, produced radio stories highlighting the obstacles faced by the speech and hearing impaired. His work was spurred by the lack of information accessibility options available to the community of about 90,000 during the 2011 elections. The issue went viral, prompting the state news broadcaster to include sign language interpretation on all major newscasts. The government subsequently committed funds
towards building a school in Matadi, Bas-Congo province for the speech- and hearing-impaired, which was completed in 2014. • Each year, JHR celebrates human rights reporting in the DRC. In 2016, Zaïna Kere Kere, journalist for Numérica TV in the capital Kinshasa, covered the effects of early pregnancy on the lives and futures of young mothers. Kere Kere lived alongside these mothers for two months while filming to capture their experience first-hand. • In March 2016, Congolese journalists participated in the JHR-funded National Forum in Kinshasa, founding the National Club JDH (CNJDH). CNJDH provides journalists with a support structure when reporting on the election process and other local issues. The president of CNJDH’s provisional committee Miphie Buata stated, “we have put in place a stronger structure and engaged on issues of human rights and the security of Congolese journalists.” Sponsors: