NGO trains young female journalists on digital rights, reporting gender based violence

Education as a Vaccine (EVA), a non-governmental organisation has organised a workshop to train about 23 female campus journalists on the concept of digital rights and Gender Based Violence.

The female campus journalists, drawn from different institutions accross Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones were trained at a two-day workshop held in Abuja, the nation’s capital from Monday 17th to Tuesday 18th January 2022.

Journalists were taken through the different forms of gender based violence including those perpetuated online as well as the concepts of digital right, and the role of journalists in championing and upholding the rights of young people especially women to utilize digital technology for accessing information.

Speaking at the workshop, the executive director of EVA, Toyin Chukwudozie said, “If you can’t randomly slap someone at the bus stop for saying something that does not sit well with you, why should you slap them online?”

EVA program coordinator, Grace Gara while speaking, defined Gender Based Violence as one directed at a person on the basis of gender or sex, adding that it infringes on human rights and reinforces the inequalities between men and women.

She cited forms of Gender Based Violence to include physical violence which involves causing bodily pain or injury, economic violence which involves withholding one’s access to money simply because of their gender, verbal violence which involves using language that dimnishes a person’s worth as an individual, psychological violence which comes in the form of emotional abuse of controlling behavior and sexual violence which comes in the forms of rape, sexual abuse, trafficking and forced exposure to pornography.

Read also: Ahead of 2023, Nigerian journalists warn politicians against destructive politics

A journalist with Humangle, Kunle Adebajo while also speaking at the event, said that access to the internet is a fundamental human right without which we cannot exercise all the other rights that we have.

He added that the Nigerian Government knows this and also knew that Twitter ban was illegal and that was why they couldn’t arrest those who defied the ban using VPN even when they threatened to.

Kunle defined digital rights as a set of universal human rights that ensures everybody- regardless of their gender, age, race, sexuality and more – has equal access to an open internet that is governed in an inclusive, accountable and transparent manner to ensure people’s fundamental freedoms and rights.

He quoted examples of human rights as digital natives to include access to the internet for all, freedom of expression, anonymity and encryption, intellectual property, right to be forgotten, right to Assembly and association, privacy and data protection, right to information and freedom to learn, confidentiality and child protection.

He however warned that with these rights comes great responsibility which failure to maintain translates to crime.

By Blessing Udeobasi…

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