Leveraging data on abuse of female journalists to promote equal development within the digital ecosystem in Africa. - Event Report
- Date
- Saturday 6 March 2021
- Time
- 13:30 (GMT)
- Location
- Online, Ghana (Europe, Middle East & Africa)
- Organisers
- iWatch Africa
On Saturday 6th March 2021, the eleventh Open Data Day took place with people around the world organising hundreds of events to celebrate, promote and spread the use of open data. Thanks to generous support from key funders, the Open Knowledge Foundation was able to support the running of more than 60 of these events via our mini-grants scheme.
This event received an Open Knowledge Foundation mini-grant thanks to support from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
How did your event celebrate open data?
iWatch Africa, marked the 2021 Open Data Day last Saturday with virtual event with focused on leveraging data to promote women safety within the digital ecosystem in Africa.
The theme for the event was, ‘Leveraging data on abuse of female journalists in Ghana to promote equal development within the digital ecosystem in Africa,’ and was joined by over 40 participants across the continent.
Co-founder of iWatch Africa, Moro Seidu delivered a presentation with focus on the current data on abuse of women journalists in Ghana. Moro stressed that “although the introduction of social media has enhanced communication and participation on social media platforms, it has not been friendly on the female gender.”
Moro cited iWatch Africa 2020 data which showed that while the number of male journalists monitored were three times more than their female counterparts, 46 per cent of the total number of online abuses recorded by iWatch Africa were directed at women journalists in Ghana.
Second speaker, Nashilongo Gervaslus blamed the patriarchal upbringing in many homes across the continent for the sort of accountability which treats women with a different sort of lens and opens them up to abuse. She recommended that governments across the continent introduce cyber-crime legislation to protect women online.
Our final speaker Sheilah Birgen, also stressed the need for newsrooms to provide support for female journalists and protect them against online misogyinistic mobs. Sheilah also argued that, “the stigma relating to these abuses deters some women from speaking about it.”
The event ended with a resolution led by Gideon Sarpong, to work on mainstreaming digital rights units in 50 newsrooms in West Africa to mitigate the risks that online harassment of women journalists poses to the press freedom and equal development within the digital ecosystem in Africa.
Join us on this Saturday, March 6th for iWatch's Open Data Day event. We will have guest speakers & @OpenNetGlobal leaders @Nashilongo & @SheilahBirgen & @gideonsarpong (Moderator), as we discuss how to leverage data to promote equal development in Africa. #digitalrights @OKFN pic.twitter.com/9IQK9wgZBt
— iWatch Africa (@iwatchafrica) March 1, 2021
Lessons learned from your event
More work need to be done to gather data on abuse of women journalists online across Africa.
Why do you love Open Data Day?
It helps deepen transparency and accountability in Africa.
