A newly launched project seeks to strengthen the capacity of media actors in Guinea-Bissau to monitor and document violations of media and freedom of expression rights.
This statement was originally published on mfwa.org on 12 July 2022.
The Media Foundation for West Africa and its partner in Guinea-Bissau, Sindicato De Jornalistas e Tecnicos De Comunicacao Social Guinea Bissau (SINJOTECS), will on Friday, July 15, 2022, officially launch a three-year project titled Promoting media freedom and access to quality information in Guinea Bissau. The project is funded by EU (Guinea-Bissau).
The project seeks to strengthen the capacity of media actors to monitor and document violations of media and freedom of expression rights and enhance the capacity of key state actors on human and media rights issues. The project will also increase the capacity of media organisations and practitioners to produce quality, fact-based and ethical content, to help counter messages of radicalization and violent extremism.
Key activities under the project include training workshops on media ethics, human rights and freedom of expression (including digital rights); development of institutional documents such as editorial, communication and fundraising policies for media actors; monitoring and reporting of the state of media freedom and freedom of expression in the country. Media actors in Bissau will also benefit from the creation and operationalisation of a common website for the publication of issues of freedom of expression violations and significant developments affecting the media sector in the country.
To improve media-security relations in Guinea-Bissau, the project will work with key state actors such as the Police, Military and the Human Rights Commission to jointly develop a National Comprehensive framework on safety of journalists.
Already, baseline studies and inception meetings have been held with key media actors – Sindicato dos Jornalistas e Técnicos de Comunicação Social (SINJOTECS), Rede Nacional das Rádios Comunitárias (RENARC), Associação de Mulheres Profissionais dos Órgãos de Comunicação Social (AMPROCS), and Ordem de Jornalistas da Guiné-Bissau (OJGB); state actors – the Police, Military and the Human Rights Commission; and some influential media organisations in the country.
The official project launch will be performed by the Minister of Communication who will also be the keynote speaker and the EU Ambassador to Guinea Bissau will make a statement. The project launch will bring together representatives from government, civil society, media, political parties, religious bodies and international agencies.
