The Center for Media Studies and Peacebuilding (CEMESP) and partners have held a one-day specialized training workshop on women’s digital rights and online abuses in Monrovia.
With support from the embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, through The Media Foundation for West Africa, and in partnership with the Female Journalists Association of Liberia, the CEMESP training brought together 40 women journalists and bloggers who operate various platforms in Liberia.
The training is part of a project aimed at increasing public awareness and respect for online rights, particularly women’s rights online.
Malcolm Joseph, the Executive Director for the Center for Media studies and Peacebuilding, in his opening remarks said Liberia’s online ecosystem continues to expand, offering the potential for the democratic and overall development of the country.
He said, despite this, there is, however, a wide gender gap in terms of access, affordability and utilization of digital platform in the country.
The training, which was held on Wednesday, March 17, 2021, at iCampus, upper Carey Street, Monrovia, addressed various topics, including “Introduction to Digital Rights”, “Mapping Women’s Rights Online”, “Digital Storytelling & Women’s Rights Online Advocacy in Liberia” and “Introduction to Social Media & Online Privacy”.
It also sought to address the problem of identifying and dealing with online abuses against women in Liberia.
According to CEMESP, the workshop was also designed “to train the participants on the effective ways of promoting women’s rights online in Liberia and further fashion ways of how journalists and bloggers can collaborate and contribute to women’s rights online advocacy to increase public awareness and respect for online rights, in order to help ensure that an enabling internet environment is created for women to access and use the internet and benefit from its potential”.
Press Union of Liberia President, Charles Cuffey, attended the formal opening of the event and remarked that many women and girls in Liberia lack a basic understanding of what it means to be online.
“Many of our women, girls, and even journalists have experienced online abuses without knowing that they have been abused,” Cuffey remarked.
The President of the Press Union of Liberia emphasized the need to teach Liberian journalists content creation online.
Cyber Security practitioner, Lauren Kolleh, lectured the participants on social media use. Earlier, Media Development & Women Rights Specialist, Maureen Sieh, made two separate, interactive presentations on digital rights and identifying and dealing with online abuses.
Also making a presentation at the training was Local Voices Liberia Executive Director, Alpha Senkpeni, who delivered on digital story-telling.
In his presentation, Senkpeni admonished the journalists and bloggers to be creative and use online storytelling as a key way of effective journalism in the 21st century.
Many of the female journalists at the event shared experiences of various forms of online abuse and inquired about the best possible ways of raising alarm, reporting, and documenting abuse of women and girls on-and-off cyberspace.
They thanked CEMESP and its international partners for organizing the training, and committed to forming a small working group that could begin the process of documenting online rights abuses.
The coordinator of the Female Journalists Association of Liberia (FeJAL), who also attended Wednesday’s training, remarked that she was happy to see women get firsthand knowledge about “their online rights”.
Siatta Scott Johnson said she will be working with women journalists and bloggers in Liberia to begin to document and follow up on women’s online rights violations.
Despite signing onto several international rights protocols, Liberia is among several countries in Africa that is yet to enact a digital rights law.