Some thirty-five women journalists drawn from Ashanti, Bono and Bono-East Regions have received a one-day training on identifying and dealing with online abuses as well as digital literacy.
The training further exposed participants to how they could effectively collaborate and contribute to women’s rights online advocacy and ensure an enabling internet environment.
It was jointly organized by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) and the Alliance for Women in Media Africa (AWMA), with support from the embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Ms Jemila Abdulai, founder of Circumspecte.com, an online digital service and platform, who took participants through social media, online privacy, and mapping women’s rights, indicated that women journalists needed digital skills to thrive in the era of technological advancement.
She said the COVID-19 pandemic had prompted a lot of activities off line to find its way online and women journalists in Ghana should not be left out.
“They needed to be able to create contents online, get detailed knowledge on writing for the web and also take advantage of their digital rights.”
Ms Abdulai said most vocal women were victims of cyber bullying, harassment and insults online, urging that women had to know how to be tolerant and deal with such occurrences by protecting their online privacy.
She said dealing with the online space could be cumbersome without in-depth knowledge on its operations and it was important for women journalists to do thorough research and be abreast of the privacy issues, before they signed up to go online.
Ms Vivian Affoah, a Programmes Manager at MFWA, said the Foundation had targeted a total of 120 female journalists, bloggers and activists across Ghana, to benefit from the training programme.
The aim is to ensure that women journalists were empowered to work effectively using both online and off line approaches.
