Africa Media CyberSecurity : Training 500 media professionals and civil society players on cybersecurity.

What is Africa Media CyberSecurity ?

Africa Media CyberSécurity, an activity by the League of Pan-African bloggers and cyber-activities for democracy-AFRICTIVISTES, is a theory and practice training programme in internet security dedicated to our late friend Anna Gueye meant for professional journalists and players of citizen or civil society media (bloggers, citizen journalists, cyber-activists ….) of 10 countries in the West African sub-region.

Objective

This project aims at initiating and equipping media actors with the practices and methods of digital security and protection. The main objective of the "Africa Media CyberSecurity" programme is for media professionals in West Africa to have an unhindered access to Internet.

Project

The digital revolution has revolutionized the working methods of information professionals. This is the end or almost the end of voice recorder or other audio recorders. Today's journalist is working more and more with his/her smartphone or laptop.  H/She processes, stores and shares digital data on a daily basis. Without a security policy and some understanding of the rules of digital data protection, all their production risk being stolen or simply destroyed.

In Africa, being a media actor (professional or not) often presents risks in some countries (even democratic ones). It is very easy to notice a violation of journalists' duty to inform and the right of access to public information. With digitalization, some governments do not hesitate to use fascist methods to put a whole country in "blackout".

Civil society actors considered as whistleblowers, citizen journalists or simply web activists are threatened, persecuted, monitored and arrested in some countries. Their only crime is doing their job while others merely publish or share simple information.

At the end of this programme, 500 journalists and web activists with high ethical values will have the necessary tools and knowledge that will allow them to work safely, communicate serenely, mitigate the risks of infiltration and hacking, circumvent internet censorship, as well as surveillance technologies.

AFRICTIVISTES will identify and support the media actors in 9 French-speaking countries of West Africa as well as in The Gambia. Participants in the different countries will receive free training in CyberSecurity and receive a toolbox of apps and softwares to practice.

This programme is an opportunity for training, technical support but also networking. Participants we are looking for must know how to use the internet, have an e-mail address, be on social media, know how to use a computer and a smartphone (under android or iOs).

Roll-out

The Africa Media CyberSecurity programme is broken down into ten major sessions. The sessions are held in the following countries:

• Benin
• Togo
• Cote d'Ivoire
• Guinea
• Burkina Faso
• Mali
• Mauritania
• Niger
• Senegal
• The Gambia

Each session will be broken down into three phases:

• Threat Identification
• Methods to adresss threats
• Provision of Tools

What type of participants?

Each session will receive 50 participants namely:

• 25 professional journalists (web journalists, investigative journalists, radio journalists, TV journalists and print journalists)
• 25 civil society media actors (bloggers, web activists, citizen journalists, data journalists, journalists 2.0 ...)

APPLICATION FOR BANJUL SESSION

Application deadline?

The Gambia session will be held in Banjul from 11th  to 16th December 2017.

The deadline for submitting applications is 30th November 2017 at 23:59 (GMT).

How to apply

To apply for the Banjul session, you must click on this link, fill out the online application form and provide the requested information. No participation fee or application fee is required from applicants. The programme is completely free.

Selection criteria

All applications will go through a selection process. The profiles and activities of the applicants online will also be considered during the selection process.

Participants must meet the following criteria:

• to be a stakeholder in the media;
• have access to internet;
• reside in the country hosting the current session;
• be aware of the risks and challenges of cybersecurity;
• be motivated.

Selection

After the selection process, only successful applicants will be notified by email. They must confirm their participation once again to be able to receive the agenda and additional information for their participation in the training programme.

For any additional questions, you can send an email to  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

In partnership with :

 
Netherlands Embassy 

With the support of :