Live News - A Survival Guide - International Federation of Journalists

CHAPTER 7Fighting back: What the IFJ and journalists’organisations can doIFJ AFRICA ON LINEThe IFJ maintains a special website on African issues in English,French and Portuguese.http://www.ifjafrique.org/english/index.htmhttp://www.ifjafrique.org/francais/index.htmhttp://www.ifjafrique.org/portugues/index.htmassociated either with the ruling party or with an opposition politician,then journalists can too easily become enemies to besilenced, rather than part of a political or social debate.The campaigns that many associations and unions in Africa runagainst violence against journalists are linked to a broader campaignfor press and media freedom, and for professional standards.Both the West African Journalists Association and the SouthernAfrica Journalists Association link local associations and unionsand bring these campaigns into sharper focus.The IFJ has about 30 member organisations on the African continentand opened a regional office in Dakar, Senegal, in December2001. Since 1994, the IFJ has been running the Media forDemocracy in Africa Programme, in which hundreds of journalistsand editors have participated. The programme is built on the principlethat public scrutiny of the exercise of power is essential in ademocracy, and campaigns for laws related to media should be consistentwith international standards and only elaborated after thefullest consultation with journalists. It believes that independentorganisations of journalists are best able to defend media freedom,and that media professionals have a duty to work to the higheststandards and should set up structures for effective self-regulation.Journalists’ organisations see one of their main functions asrelieving pressure on individual journalists.When Liberian journalist Throble Suah of the daily Inquirer wasbeaten by by men believed to be officers of the Presidential eliteforce, the Anti-Terrorist Unit, the Press Union of Liberia called forurgent action “to bring the perpetrators of this uncivilised, bestialand barbaric act to justice" .As in other parts of the world, other media freedom groups alsomonitor threats of violence and attacks, and a co-ordinatedresponse is often possible. For example, in September 2002, theKinshasa based group Journaliste en Danger protested at the detentionof Radio Okapi journalist Franklin Moliba-Sese by theMovement for the Liberation of Congo. The MLC had objected toreports about the conditions of former child soldiers who had beendemobilised. Following the protests, the public prosecutor reassertedcontrol and Moliba-Sese was released after nine days.IndonesiaDuring the time when an authoritarian 'New Order' regime was inpower in Indonesia, violence towards journalists was mainly from114