Participants after the opening of the international workshop 28th – 29th of November (Souhir Chaabani, CAWTAR journalist)
Journalists and researchers from Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia and Norway met in Tunisia 28th – 29th of November to discuss “Social Networks and Freedom: Challenges of the Maghreb”.
Last week, writers from all over Norway gathered in Oslo. They share being persecuted in their own countries, and have found a safe place in one of Norway’s cities of refuge, through ICORN. Some of them are journalists, too, and JMIC had a small workshop with ten writers-journalists discussing experiences, job opportunities and journalism in Norway.
The Conference “Safety of journalists covering conflict & sensitive issues” opened 2. November with participants from 32 countries. Initially, the Secretary of state Tone Skogen from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that journalists were key agents of democracy and freedom and praised the partnership with HiOA. Furthermore, she emphasized the need to combat systemic impunity when it comes to assaults against journalists. She was joined by representatives from UNESCO (Rachel Pollack), Free Expression Foundation (Knut Olav Åmås), the Norwegian Union of Journalists (Eva Stabell) and Benedicte Giæver from NORCAP.
Henry Maina in Article 19 during the workshop on access to information as a journalistic tool in Nairobi
Norwegian investigative journalist Tarjei Leer-Salvesen at the workshop on access to information as a journalistic tool in NairobiTogether with Article 19 Eastern Africa, JMIC has organized a workshop on access to information as a journalistic tool in Nairobi for 30 investigative journalists from the region.
The workshop is a follow-up of a similar workshop last year, by the Norwegian investigative journalist Tarjei Leer-Salvesen. This time also his colleague Maren Sæbø has joined.
Similar workshops are planned in North Africa and South Asia later this year together with the local Article 19 offices – with funding from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Access to information is part of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (16.10). It is also one of the main pillars of the Norwegian strategy for freedom of expression and independent media in foreign and development policy.
JMIC received a two-year grant from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs this summer to “help strengthen the democratic public through collaboration with good institutions in the global South which educate journalists.” The grant provides opportunities to continue the longstanding cooperation with partners in the south worldwide.
Rune Ottosen to the right, Besnik Baka in the middle and Richard van der Brink to the left – with the new Albania book on the table.
As a former tourist in the country, Ottosen talked about his blindness for oppression. Together with Besnik Baka, an Albanian journalist and translator, he has documented oppression, political assassinations and imprisonment during the regime of Enver Hoxha.
The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has given JMIC a grant that will enable us to continue the activities with partners in the Global South planned for the next two years.
JMIC´s aim is to build institutions for democracy and freedom of expression: ”Support of good practices in journalist education, independent media in vulnerable countries, protection of journalists working in conflict zones and journalists’ access to information. ”
In the coming year, several activities are planned. A workshop on extremism and social media is planned this autumn in Tunisia – as well as a regional security course next year. A regional security course is also planned in Uganda.
In cooperation with the Article 19 offices in North Africa, Eastern Africa and South Asia regional workshops on access to information are planned in Tunisia, Kenya and Nepal. We will also strengthen the cooperation with UNESCO.
The Rig on press freedom will be introduced in Palestine, a conference on gender and media is scheduled in South Asia, and cooperation will continue in Iran and Afghanistan. Besides, a regional cooperation project on visual journalism in China will continue. Development of teaching material is an ongoing activity, and a web portal will be prioritized.
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The Rig is a multimedia workshop where the students produce online stories about the current state of press freedom in different countries around the world. This year they examined Ethiopia, Egypt, Tunisia, Afghanistan, Colombia, USA and Poland.
The aim of the Rig is to enable our students to grasp the meaning and significance of press freedom, while at the same time acquiring journalistic skills. Read more in Norwegian about the Rig and why we use this pedagogical tool at Department of Journalism and Media Studies at HiOA here.
The frontpage for this year’s Rig you will find here.
Some of earlier years’ Rig are available here.
Elsebeth Frey and Solveig Steien presented the Rig at an international conference in Oslo last year.
This year they will investigate the situation in Afghanistan, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Poland, Tunisia and USA.
70 students in seven groups will make articles, interviews, pictures, videos and audios about the media freedom in one of the countries.
Their stories will be published on the school´s webpage – Journalen – during the third week.
The multimedia Rig about press freedom around the world has been organized eight times. It was called one of the best European pedagogical teaching models for Transmedia Journalism by Integrated Journalism in Europe (IJIE) in 2015 http://learning.euromain.net/
Professor Elisabeth Eide
Read about the event covered by The Jakarta Post.
Under the headline Ten Years Debating Freedom of Expression – Looking Back, Looking Forward appr. 40 participants – both journalists and media academics – from twelve countries gathered in Jakarta 23 – 25 January.
The debates started after the controversies in the aftermath of the Muhammed caricatures published in Jyllands-Posten. One of the initiatives was to invite journalists from a wide range of countries for dialogue conferences in Indonesia and Norway respectively. Now, more than ten years after the first Global Intermedia Dialogue (GIMD) conference was held in Indonesia, the ambition was to highlight experiences and look ahead.
The discussions focused on themes such as Hate Speech – Social media, Media and Marginalization – Gender, Religious, Ethnic and Sexual Minorities, Dialogue vs Confrontation, 20 Years after Huntington’s “Clash of Civilizations”, Terrorism – Extremism, The Post-Truth Era?– and last, but not least: How free is fiction? Literature and limits.
The conference was a cooperation between the Department of Communication, Universitas Indonesia and JMIC.
A publication with journalistic and academic contributions from this and a conference in March last year is planned.
Henry O. Maina, Regional Director in Article 19 Eastern Africa, teaching about the African Union.
Around 25 journalists were gathered in hotel Panafric in Nairobi 14 – 15 September to learn about access to information as a journalistic tool. Just two weeks before the Kenyan president had signed a new law on access to information – the 21st in Africa.
The Norwegian journalists Tarjei Leer-Salvesen and Vegard Venli shared their professional experiences from working with searchable public records and transparency in general. The workshop was a collaborative effort between the local office of Article 19 Eastern Africa, the Norwegian Press Association and the Norwegian Institute of Journalism.
It´s the second workshop in a pilot project, which aims to follow up the new Norwegian strategy on freedom of expression and the new sustainability goals of the United Nations, financed by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The first workshop was held in Tunisia in May, and a third is planned in Nepal in November.
Vegard Venli is telling about his experiences from the Norwegian paper Varingen.
More information:
http://presse.no/np-nyhet/toveis-laering-om-innsyn/
