By Promise Eze
In one of the conference rooms of the Abuja Continental Hotel, one of the city’s premier venues, over 250 journalists, media professionals, and experts from various fields gathered from November 25th to 27th, 2024, to celebrate a decade of resilience in African journalism, championed by the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID).
Since its inception, CJID has etched an indelible mark on African journalism, shaping media innovation in West African nations like Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and The Gambia while also actively operating in Cameroon, Senegal, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
This year’s Media and Development Conference, themed “Navigating Global Shifts: Media and Technology for Inclusive and Sustainable Development in Africa,” emphasised the importance of addressing global shifts and their implications for the continent. The gathering set the stage for stakeholders to showcase and deliberate on how media and technology can be effectively leveraged to promote equitable development across Africa.
Kicking off with a grand opening ceremony, the conference spurred participants to confront the increasing threats to journalists and press freedom, both globally and in Africa. A short documentary featuring the voices of attacked journalists highlighted these serious issues.
According to data from CJID, since 1983, there have been 1,033 attacks on more than 1,000 journalists in Nigeria. Despite the country’s commitment to democratic values, the past five years have seen over 759 attacks on journalists. This troubling trend includes 140 incidents of press freedom violations that have taken place since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu took office in 2023.
“To see how the political and economic systems have made journalists live in constant and perpetual fear is infuriating, and I think we should all be angry. When we carry a reasonable quantity of anger, it will make us hold our elites more responsible. The civic space is shrinking due to existing laws,” argued Tsema Ede-Okoye, Project Lead, Joint Civic Defence Fund, during a panel discussion titled ‘Addressing the State of Attack on Media and Civic Space in Nigeria’.
Benedict Agu, the Director of Monitoring at the National Human Rights Commission, admitted that it is meaningless for the Nigerian Constitution to require the mass media to hold politicians to account while politicians avoid facing the law. Agu, however, encouraged the media to “keep on pushing,” noting that “the work journalists do intersect with the protection of human rights.”
While the police have been indicted for launching attacks against journalists, CP Uche Ifeanyi Henry, Director of the Nigerian Police Force National Cybercrime Centre, told participants that the police ensure they “do the right thing” and do not have the right to decline petitions against journalists. He also claimed that the police maintain a cordial relationship with journalists.
On his part, Musikilu Mojeed, Editor-in-Chief of Premium Times, urged journalists to avoid writing and publishing fake news to avoid trouble. He maintained that journalists must be ethical in their reporting and that the government does not need to regulate the media; the media should regulate and caution itself.
He noted that an Ombudsman mechanism set up by various Nigerian press associations is helping to resolve misunderstandings between the government and the press and checkmate erring journalists.
“There is hope,” he said of the Nigerian press despite the hurdles. “We are now travelling in the right direction.”
To further address attacks on the press, CJID has developed groundbreaking media products. One of these is the CJID Press Attack Tracker (PAT), a technological tool launched in 2019 to address escalating threats by documenting and verifying instances of press freedom violations. The tool records real-time incidents and gathers data on violations against journalists and freedom of speech, equipping civil society organisations with the information needed to hold the government accountable for injustices.
CJID also launched the DUBAWA Audio Platform and Chatbot to combat the menace of fake news, a significant threat to democracy, peace, and security in the highly sensitive region of West Africa.
The audio platform transcribes radio shows, extracts claims, and supports fact-checkers, while the chatbot helps verify and report claims, offering real-time fact-checks.
On Day 2, there were interesting panel sessions that focused on improving primary healthcare in Africa’s underserved areas, improving women’s health outcomes, addressing maternal and reproductive health challenges, and countering insurgency in the Lake Chad Basin: policy solutions for regional stability.
On the final day, CJID launched several innovative apps designed to enhance journalistic practices and improve access to information. Participants were equipped with techniques to manage information overload, improve content quality, prevent plagiarism, and increase audience interaction.
The event also featured the inaugural Excellence in Journalism Awards, which celebrated outstanding work in various categories. These categories included Best Reporting on Social Accountability, Best Reporting on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV), Best Community Reporting, Best Solutions Journalism Reporting, Best Climate Change Reporting, and Best Health Reporting.
Fifteen journalists from across West Africa emerged as finalists. Among them, Prosper Ishaya, a journalist at Social Voices, won the Best Solutions Journalism Award for West Africa. His story was chosen from a pool of 388 entries.
