Alinafe, a broadcast news editor in Malawi, has begun using safety protocols and practices in her everyday work. Her safety literacy used to be non-existent. Now she wants to champion protocols within her organization.
In Nigeria, Eden is using her training to mitigate the risks of a story her media outlet is currently pursuing, and is embedding safety practices into everyday operations.
Ayele, an award-winning investigative journalist, producer and editor in Ethiopia, is passing on the safety skills he has gained to his fellow editors.
Alinafe, Eden and Ayela are alumni of the ACOS Alliance first-ever Editors Safety Cohort which, in August, led fifteen news leaders from nine African countries through a series of online safety training modules, accompanied by weekly webinars and one to one coaching.
The Cohort was structured around the online course, The Fundamentals of Safe Commissioning, launched in April by the ACOS Alliance and the World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA). This free, self-paced web-course - the first of its kind - was created so that news editors and managers to could undertake in-depth safety training alongside their demanding work schedules. It also provided ACOS with an opportunity to bring together groups of editors for a deeper and more collegiate training experience linked to their own geographical contexts.
Many editors have an awareness of their safety responsibilities, but struggle to know where to start when it comes to practising
News editors and managers are often overlooked when it comes to safety training. Many have an awareness of their safety responsibilities, but struggle to know where to start when it comes to putting things like duty of care, risk assessments and safety protocols into practice. This can have an impact on the safety of the freelancers they work with as well as themselves, their colleagues and their organizations.
The Editor Safety Cohort provides an opportunity for editors to access in-depth structured training, discuss and share their concerns and experiences with their peers, get and provide feedback and access the expertise and guidance from a leading journalism security expert - something that is rarely available to small and resource-poor newsrooms.
Security expert and safety trainer Ephraim Muhemi, who is also deputy head of IREX’s SAFE initiative in East Africa, led the weekly seminars for the Africa Cohort. He also delivered individual one to one coaching sessions to each of the editors at the end of the program. These sessions helped participants apply what they had learned to their own working practices and gain the confidence to become safety champions within their organizations. They also provided an opportunity for feedback and additional support. Ephraim told us he had been inspired by the group’s commitment to shaping safer, more resilient newsrooms, and how working with the cohort had been a powerful reminder of the importance of safety literacy.
The second ACOS Editor Safety Cohort has just begun in Latin America with a new group of editors from nine countries. They will have different experiences and needs, but we also expect common challenges and hurdles. We look forward to working with them.
“Honestly the [cohort] gave me a fresh perspective on safety in the newsroom. Once you see it you can't un-see it”
We also have much to learn from these first cohorts - participants’ feedback will inform the program’s development and help to shape ACOS's knowledge and wider work going forward.
When we hear that Felista - who oversees editorial content and operations across seven African countries - is already rolling out safety protocols for her organization’s staff journalists and freelancers, we know that something’s clicking. “Honestly the [cohort] gave me a fresh perspective on safety in the newsroom”, she told us. “Once you see it, you can’t un-see it and it becomes top of your mind. More editors and journalists need to practice safety and we’ll keep spreading the word until it becomes a default.”
This Editor Safety Cohort is part of Safety in Numbers, a collaborative programme driven by four feminist-led organisations: ACOS Alliance, IFEX, International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) and Media Defence. The initiative aims to improve the safety and protection of journalists and media workers worldwide, addressing physical, legal, psychosocial and digital threats. Leveraging the expertise and networks of these organisations, the programme seeks to develop a comprehensive safety net through a rights-based feminist approach, ensuring the inclusion of women and vulnerable groups. With connections to over 375 partners in more than 115 countries, the programme integrates diverse perspectives and resources to build a robust, sustainable ecosystem for the protection of journalists.