The Center for Media Studies and Peacebuilding (CEMESP) on Tuesday, September 7, 2021, conducted intensive training for female bloggers and journalists on “Women’s Rights Online Issues” in Liberia.
Forty-five (45) participants drawn from various social media blogs, civil society activists and university journalism students formed part of the training, which was held at iCampus, Carey Street, Central Monrovia.
The training sought to address what is seen as a wide gender gap in terms of access, affordability, and utilization of digital platforms in Liberia, as many people continue to move online in Liberia.
CEMESP’s Executive Director, Malcolm Joseph, remarked that his organization held the training in collaboration with the Ghana-based Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), with support from the embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Accra, Ghana.
He said the training, which is implemented in Ghana, Liberia, and Sierra Leone seeks to increase public awareness and respect for online rights, particularly women’s rights online, as well as to improve the digital literacy of at least 200 women (female journalists, women’s rights activists, among others) to advocate for women’s rights online in the three West African countries.
“As a first step for the intervention in Liberia, a database of female journalists, bloggers and activists in Liberia has been built,” Joseph said. He added that a one-day training workshop on women’s online rights issues was earlier held in Liberia to train 40 female journalists, bloggers and activists.
The CEMESP Executive Director thanked MFWA and the embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Ghana for financing the project, which he described as key in advancing democracy and rights of women in an era of internet and social media advancement.
An official of the Media Foundation for West Africa who attended the training said he was glad to see young women learn how to basically guard against online abuses, and help other women remain engaged with online activities.
According to Kawku Krobea Asante, the implementation of this project spans from the fact that available data has shown that there are more women than men in most African countries, but that conversely more African men are seen online than women.
Asante hoped that the project will address such online gender disparity and bring to the fold more women who can use the internet to engage in content creation, fully aware of their rights and responsibilities.
Lauren Kolleh, a cyber-security practitioner, Alpha Senkpeni, the Executive Director of Local Voices Media Group, Journalists Bettie Johnson Mbayo and women rights activist Facia Harris were the presenters for each of the sessions.
Participants at Tuesday’s training were introduced to Digital Rights, Social Media and Online Privacy, Identifying and Dealing with Online Abuses against Women, Digital Storytelling, and Digital Content Creation.
The workshop also trained the participants on the effective ways of promoting women’s rights online in Liberia and fashion ways by which the participants can collaborate and contribute to women’s rights online advocacy in order to increase public awareness and respect for online rights, with the objective of helping to ensure an enabling internet environment is created for women to access and use the internet and benefit from its potential.
The Vice President of the Press Union of Liberia, Daniel Nyankona, speaking at the training, acknowledged the minimum participation of women in online activities as well as the absence of women in leadership roles in newsrooms across the country.
He emphasized that women must take up the challenge to lead in the Liberian media by effectively using the knowledge acquired from the training in the discharge of their duties.
“Women will be able to influence the online ecosystem when they are effectively knowledgeable about the events and the terrain in which they operate. Training like this provides that knowledge,” Nyakona disclosed.
At the end of the training, CEMESP set up a WhatsApp group which will serve as a platform to enable the participants to continuously engage and support each other in terms of promoting women’s rights online and countering violation of women’s rights online.