When in Dec. 2018, the people of Sudan thronged the streets to protest a failing economy, they met a resistance that reminded them they were also victims of an autocracy that had succeeded for far too long. So, they cranked up their demands, concerning themselves not only with the unattainable prices of bread and fuel, …
Read more “Civil Society Groups Rise To Safeguard Sudan’s Shaky Transition To Democracy”
Insecurity has, for many years, occupied a central position among an array of dire problems Nigerians face. For people in the northeast, it manifests mainly as the Boko Haram insurgency. For those in other regions of the north and middle-belt, we have banditry, inter-communal conflicts, and clashes between herders and farming communities. In the south, …
Read more “Why Local Conflict-Reporting Lacks Depth And What Journalists Can Do Differently”
The Nigerian Army has occasionally made statements condemning the spread of misinformation which, it says, has the potential to undermine national security. It has more frequently debunked particular claims about its operations that are in circulation. But recent trends show that it might have extended its definition of “fake news” to include any information from …
Read more “How Nigerian Army Is Weaponising ‘Fake News’ To Discredit Journalists”
Data journalism has been around since the 1960s, but despite tremendous improvements in computer and internet technology, many reporters in Nigeria still struggle to work at this crucial intersection of journalism and numbers. However, one media enterprise, Dataphyte, is gearing up to make a difference. Dataphyte’s managing director, Joshua Olufemi, sees the organization as a “child of …
Read more “Nigerian Startup Dataphyte Focuses on Data-driven Storytelling”
Asides healthcare workers who are known to be on the frontline in the war against COVID-19, the media constitute a set of warriors in the struggle, albeit unsung. Globally, the media have followed every event on the COVID-19 pandemic, sometimes creating fear but generally raising hope that the pandemic does not mean the end for …