This two-year project, running from January 2025 to January 2027, aims to help strengthen the operational environment for media practitioners in 7 Southern African countries. 
In the region, democracies are already fragile, and the press is a lifeline to social empowerment, sustained mobilisation, and accountability. Currently, cyber control, surveillance, and manipulation of the truth is rapidly becoming the next frontline of an invisible war on democracy and those protecting the civic space, including journalists and media practitioners. In addition, gender based harassment of female journalists is rife in the region.

 

This project aims to bolster the media sector in the region by:

 

1. Providing in-depth safety trainings for a cohort of 60 at-risk media practitioners on topics such as digital security protocols, preventative physical safety protocols, measures for legal recourse and gender harassment mitigation, in person in South Africa over the span of 8 days (3 overlapping 4 day trainings), 
2. Producing and implementing tailored country-specific security protocols in 14 newsrooms  across the region. Of note, we will provide gender-specific support for female journalists and editors, 
3. Providing forensic diagnosis services to 20 of the most at-risk media practitioners in our cohort,
4. Creating a supportive networks among journalists across countries, and using a Forbidden Stories model to help journalists publish their stories even when they are personally unable to due to safety concerns, 
5. Staging national, regional and international campaigns promoting awareness of threats to press freedom in Africa and the need for accountability and redress.

This Intelwatch project is made possible by the generous support of the European Union.