To mark Press Freedom Day in Africa on May 11 to 13, IPI and UNESCO co-hosted a roundtable at the second Africa Media Convention in Lusaka, Zambia to discuss the pressures on journalists and challenges of press freedom during elections, as several countries across the continent face key selections in 2023 and 2024. The wave of attacks against journalists covering the 2023 elections in Nigeria highlighted the need to prioritize this issue. 

Nompilo Simanje, IPI’s Africa Advocacy and Partnerships Lead, joined with other press freedom groups, journalists, and stakeholders to discuss how to improve journalists’ safety as they cover elections and the media freedom frameworks and policies in Africa that can help support the ability for journalists to cover political elections freely and safely. 

Among the key learnings and takeaways:

  • Regional instruments like the Guidelines on access to information and elections in Africa should be popularized, adopted, and implemented. 
  • Media codes or guidelines outlining the responsibilities that public authorities have to respect press freedom and journalists’ rights are important, but usually not enough. 
  • Multi-stakeholder engagement ahead of elections is also critical. This means engaging with political parties, electoral management bodies, media regulatory bodies and the police about their roles and responsibilities for ensuring journalists have access to political events and rallies and must be able to report the news safely.
  • Advocacy organizations must continue to hold duty bearers – including the government and security agencies – responsible for upholding their obligations to ensure a conducive environment for the media.
  • Actions by public authorities aimed at promoting the safety of journalists during elections should be informed by the various needs of different media groups including freelance journalists, female journalists, student journalists and journalists providing coverage in rural and marginalized areas. 
  • Media stakeholders should influence the role of social media platforms in promoting media freedom and freedom of expression. 
  • The regulation of online harms should not be left to the responsibility of electoral bodies as they lack expertise and such aspects are not within their mandate.
  • There is a need for digital safety training of journalists prior to elections
  • There is a need to establish fact-checking institutions in countries where there are none, as well as to promote collaboration between the media and fact-checkers. 
  • It is critical to identify the gaps and issues noted from the previous elections in the different countries so as to inform the next steps and preparations for upcoming elections, which includes mapping cases of online violence towards journalists to inform reporting and evidence-based advocacy.