Media Guide for Oil and Gas Reporting Published

Good governance of the oil and gas sector requires effective oversight from the media and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs). A knowledgeable media plays a critical role in helping inform and engage citizens, CSOs and parliament to effectively hold government and companies in the sector accountable. Towards this direction, Penplusbytes has published a handbook that will serve as a guide for journalists reporting on the sector.

This handbook is one of the key building blocks of Penplusbytes’ “Empowering the Media to Play an Active Watchdog Role over Ghana’s Oil and Gas Revenues and Resources” project with funding and technical support from STAR-Ghana. The project aims to improve the coverage of oil and gas stories by the Ghanaian media leading to an increase in the quantity and quality in terms of in-depth and investigative reporting.

The guide will educate and inform journalists about the chronology of events and the geopolitics surrounding Ghana’s oil and gas exploration, contracts and licensing, the money trail & the economics of oil and gas. Additionally, the media guide will throw more light on environmental issues and the legal and regulatory framework of the oil and gas sector and provide leads and pointers for journalists in their pursuit of promoting and ensuring transparency and accountability of key stakeholders in the sector.

Gifty Sackey, Programmes Assistant at Penplusbytes said “the handbook’s main objective is to provide journalists and other stakeholders with an information and knowledge resource to enable them play and effective watchdog role in Ghana’s oil and gas revenues and resources.”

Apart from this media guide publication, Penplusbytes has organized a training workshop  and a field trip for 10 selected Ghanaian journalists to enable them acquire firsthand knowledge of the oil and gas sector, and also understand the pertinent issues regarding the sector to improve on the quality and quantity of oil and gas stories in the media. Penplusbytes also carried out a baseline research to establish the nature of reporting and writing by the Ghanaian media on the sector.  The organisation has also deployed a vibrant oil and gas website which currently serves as a platform for CSOs and journalists to engage each other and also exchange knowledge and information on the extractive sector for better advocacy on Ghana’s oil and gas resources and revenues.

Future activities planned include forums for CSOs, experts in the industry and journalist to discuss topical issues and set the agenda for transparency and accountability in the sector.

Click here to download online copies of the media guide.

CNN MultiChoice African Journalist 2013 Finalists Announced

Finalists in the prestigious CNN MultiChoice African Journalist 2013 Competition were announced today by Ferial Haffajee, Chair of the independent judging panel. The competition is now in its 18^th year.

 This year the competition received entries from 42 countries across the continent, including French and Portuguese speaking Africa.

There are 27 finalists from 11 countries:

Gifty Andoh Appiah, Joy News TV, Ghana

Rebekah Awuah, GBC 24, Ghana

Domingos Bento, Seminário Novo Jornal, Angola

Thomas Otieno Bwire, Pamoja FM, Kibera, Kenya

Axcel Micael Chenney, Le Défi Média Group, Mauritius

Florence Dallu, Freelance for Koch FM, Kenya

Nicola de Chaud, Freelance for Carte Blanche, South Africa

Adrian de Kock, The Star, South Africa

Ibrahima-Benjamin Diagne, Radio Futurs Médias (RFM), Senegal

Msindisi Fengu & Yandisa Monakali, Daily Dispatch, South Africa

Selma Inocência, Rede de Comunicação Miramar, Mozambique

Geoff Iyatse, The Guardian, Nigeria

Thanduxolo Jika & Media 24 Investigations Team, Media 24, South Africa

Judy Jeptum Kosgei & Mauritius Oduor, Citizen TV, Kenya

Lucas Ledwaba, City Press, South Africa

Lázaro Mabunda, O País, Mozambique

Carol Natukunda, New Vision, Uganda

Amon Ngabo, Uganda Broadcasting Corporation, Uganda

Tolu Ogunlesi, Freelance for Ventures Africa, Nigeria

Oluwatoyosi Ogunseye, Sunday Punch, Nigeria

Brenda Okoth, The Star, Kenya

Nassima Oulebsir, El Watan, Algeria

Passant Rabie, Egypt Today, Egypt

Roseline Wangui & Wambui Kurema, NTV, Kenya

The winners of the competition will be announced at an Award Ceremony and Gala Evening in Cape Town, South Africa, on Saturday 12 October.

The host for the evening is Isha Sesay, host of CNN International's 'NewsCenter'.

Announcing the finalists, chairperson of the independent judging panel Ferial Haffajee said: "A tough table of judges was often visibly impressed by the range of stories presented to us.  African journalists, as represented by our entries, have risen to the challenge of 2012.  The big stories were well-covered.  The small stories were not forgotten.  We commend the dedication of journalists who are very much part of a rising Africa with rising professionalism, increased appetite for tough and investigative journalism, an eye on those left behind and a deep commitment to telling good stories across many mediums."

The independent judging panel, chaired by Ferial Haffajee, Editor-in-Chief, City Press, South Africa includes: Debo Adesina, Editor-in-Chief, The Guardian Newspaper, Nigeria; Betty Dindi, Managing Editor, Nation Media Group, Kenya; Jean-Paul Gérouard, Editor-in-Chief, France Télévisions ; Anton Harber, Professor of journalism & media studies, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa; Joel Kibazo, Journalist and Media Consultant; Arlindo Lopes, General Manager, Regulatory and Corporate, Angola and Mozambique, MultiChoice Africa Ltd; Arlindo Macedo, Journalist Rádio Nacional de Angola, (RNA); Amadou Mahtar Ba, CEO, African Media Initiative and Kim Norgaard, CNN Bureau Chief, South Africa

The competition is once again supported by the following sponsors, who continue to lend their valuable support to the awards: The Coca-Cola Company; Ecobank; Ericsson; IPP Media, Tanzania; Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD), UNICEF and A24 Media.

An all-expenses paid four day programme of workshops, media forums, networking has been set up for the finalists during the run up to the award ceremony on 12 October 2013.

 

Tony Maddox, Executive Vice-President and Managing Director of CNN International said: "Now in its 18^th year, the quality and excellence of the work submitted to the African Journalist Awards continues to rise year on year, ensuring that the 2013 competition maintains its place as the most prestigious Pan African Awards for journalists. CNN is proud to continue its commitment to fostering inspired journalistic excellence in African reporting."

Collins Khumalo, CEO of MultiChoice South Africa, said: "MultiChoice South Africa is proud to play a role in amplifying the voice of journalists across the African continent. We congratulate the finalists for telling the stories of Africa and its people to the world. We look forward to welcoming you to Cape Town for the awards."

 

Nico Meyer, CEO of MultiChoice Africa said: "MultiChoice Africa is especially proud to once again partner with CNN in hosting these prestigious Awards. We believe that these awards play a key role in encouraging excellence in media while sharing the great stories of the continent. Congratulations to the finalists of 2013, we look forward to hosting you in Cape Town in October to celebrate the best journalism Africa has to offer."

 

Note to Editors: Competition Criteria

To enter the CNN MultiChoice African Journalist 2013 competition the journalist must have been an African national and have worked on the continent for African owned, or headquartered, media organisations that produced a printed publication or broadcast through an electronic medium (television broadcaster, radio station or website) primarily targeted at and received by an African audience.
 Entries were published or broadcast in 2012 for the following awards:

Culture Award; The Coca-Cola Company Economics and Business Award; Digital Platform Award; Environment Award; Free Press Africa Award; Mohamed Amin Photographic Award; MSD Health & Medical Award; Print General News Award; Radio General News Award; Sport Award; Television Features Award; Television News Bulletin Award; Francophone General News Awards; Portuguese Language General News Award

Website: www.cnn.com/africanawards

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CNNMultichoiceAfricanJournalistOfTheYearAwards

Twitter: @africanjourno

 

 

--
International Institute for ICT Journalism
www.penplusbytes.org

CALL-OUT OPEN: Telkom-Highway Africa New Media Awards 2013

The 17^th Highway Africa Conference, taking place at Rhodes University, South Africa, is set to host the 13th^th edition of the Highway Africa New Media Awards. Sponsored by Telkom, these are unique and prestigious awards on the continent that reward innovative use of Information Communication technologies (ICTs) in journalism that serves Africa and its citizens. The awards were pioneered to highlight the role that ICTs play to enhance journalism and the media, in the process uplifting communities.

The conference takes place from 1- 2 September 2013, and hereby calls for nominations for the Telkom- Highway Africa New Media Awards in 3 new categories:

• Innovative newsroom – newsrooms across Africa can submit nominations based on their innovative use of digital media including online, social and mobile media.
• Best African ICT Blog – Followers or bloggers may nominate an African-based or diasporic African blog based on its coverage, debate and use of ICTs within the African context.
• Innovative use of technology for community engagement – members of communities, organisations, or supporters may nominate an organisation (either corporate or non-profit) based on their innovative use of technology within a community in Africa. The organisation does not have to be African based, but the community in which they operate must be.

Broad Criteria for Entries
The judges will consider the use of new media technologies to:

• Advance newsroom operations, increase reach and diversifying content;
• Encourage social empowerment amongst marginalised communities through relevant topical community and/or African issues and innovative use of online media interactions platforms;
• Highlight innovative and creative applications of technology for the benefit of the continent’s overall media development.

Technical Requirements for All Entries

1. Digital/Online platform must be functional and updated.
2. Diverse content- online platform must integrate multimedia functionality (video, podcasts, photos) and written stories.
3. Aesthetic appeal- creative use of limited resources.
4. Stories should have been published in the period September 2012 and June 2013.
5. Please supply details of the media in which print article was published.

The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entertained after the closing date and when the final announcements are made. Organisation can be nominated in more than one category. Highway Africa reserves the right not to award prizes in any category.
SUBMISSION
Entrants are to submit:

• Links to the website of nominee.
• Link to social media, multimedia platforms and/or content generated through mobile applications of nominee.
• Copies or links to relevant written stories to boost nominee in selected category.

Submissions are to be sent electronically to: awards@highwayafrica.com  
Closing date is 31 July 2013, 16:30, Pretoria Time. Winners will be announced at the Telkom- Highway African New Media Awards ceremony at the Highway Africa Conference. Finalists will be contacted.
For more information please contact Vimbai Chikukwa (Ms) at awards@highwayafrica.com 

Penplusbytes launches "Reporting Oil and Gas" Website

An exclusive online platform dedicated to reporting oil, gas and the extractive sector has been launched by Penplusbytes as part of its “Empowering the Media to Play an Active Watchdog Role over Ghana’s Oil and Gas Revenues and Resources” project funded and technically supported by STAR Ghana.

The collaborative online platform www.reportingoilandgas.org  which will serve as a knowledge hub for both journalists and Civil Society Organisations  is also intended to virtually bring together the media, industry experts, CSOs and other stakeholders working in Ghana’s oil and gas industry to actively share knowledge and information towards enhancing transparency and accountability in the sector.

Akua-Piesie Asare Bediako, a journalist from Kesben FM in Kumasi said “I have already participated in the online discussions and its modern interface makes it easy to navigate the website and hope all journalists will join the discussion for an effective national dialogue on key oil and gas revenue management issues”.

www.reportingoilandgas.org  makes room for news from various categories as it provides a section for news from oil drilling companies, local news, news from project partners and news from around Africa. The platform also has a unique feature that allows publications, especially those on oil and gas regulations, reports from the finance ministry, Public Interest Accountability Committee and other relevant State bodies.  It is also mashed up with social media platforms such as youtube, twitter and facebook , for a wider reach and impact.

This oil and gas project by Penplusbytes seeks to empower the media to play an active watchdog role of Ghana’s oil and gas revenues and resources leading to an improved coverage of oil and gas stories by the Ghanaian media leading to an increase in the quantity and quality (in terms of in-depth and investigative reporting) of oil and gas stories thus leading to the media playing an effective watchdog role over Ghana’s Oil and Gas revenues and resources. It involves professional mentoring of journalists, training workshops, field trips, and forums.

STAR-Ghana is a multi- donor pooled funding mechanism (Funded by DFID, DANIDA, EU and USAID) to increase the influence of civil society and Parliament in the governance of public goods and service delivery, with the ultimate goal of improving the accountability and responsiveness of Ghana's government, traditional authorities and the private sector. 

CALL-OUT OPEN: Telkom-Highway Africa New Media Awards 2013

The 17^th Highway Africa Conference, taking place at Rhodes University, South Africa, is set to host the 13th^th edition of the Highway Africa New Media Awards. Sponsored by Telkom, these are unique and prestigious awards on the continent that reward innovative use of Information Communication technologies (ICTs) in journalism that serves Africa and its citizens. The awards were pioneered to highlight the role that ICTs play to enhance journalism and the media, in the process uplifting communities.

The conference takes place from 1- 2 September 2013, and hereby calls for nominations for the Telkom- Highway Africa New Media Awards in 3 new categories:

• Innovative newsroom – newsrooms across Africa can submit nominations based on their innovative use of digital media including online, social and mobile media.
• Best African ICT Blog – Followers or bloggers may nominate an African-based or diasporic African blog based on its coverage, debate and use of ICTs within the African context.
• Innovative use of technology for community engagement – members of communities, organisations, or supporters may nominate an organisation (either corporate or non-profit) based on their innovative use of technology within a community in Africa. The organisation does not have to be African based, but the community in which they operate must be.

Broad Criteria for Entries

The judges will consider the use of new media technologies to:

• Advance newsroom operations, increase reach and diversifying content;
• Encourage social empowerment amongst marginalised communities through relevant topical community and/or African issues and innovative use of online media interactions platforms;
• Highlight innovative and creative applications of technology for the benefit of the continent's overall media development.

 

Technical Requirements for All Entries

1. Digital/Online platform must be functional and updated.
2. Diverse content- online platform must integrate multimedia functionality (video, podcasts, photos) and written stories.
3. Aesthetic appeal- creative use of limited resources.
4. Stories should have been published in the period September 2012 and June 2013.
5. Please supply details of the media in which print article was published.

The judges' decision is final and no correspondence will be entertained after the closing date and when the final announcements are made. Organisation can be nominated in more than one category. Highway Africa reserves the right not to award prizes in any category.

SUBMISSION

Entrants are to submit:

• Links to the website of nominee.
• Link to social media, multimedia platforms and/or content generated through mobile applications of nominee.
• Copies or links to relevant written stories to boost nominee in selected category.

Submissions are to be sent electronically to: awards@highwayafrica.com  

Closing date is 31 July 2013, 16:30, Pretoria Time. Winners will be announced at the Telkom- Highway African New Media Awards ceremony at the Highway Africa Conference. Finalists will be contacted.

For more information please contact Vimbai Chikukwa (Ms) at awards@highwayafrica.com  

http://www.highwayafrica.com/?page_id=8

--
International Institute for ICT Journalism
www.penplusbytes.org

Social Media Contractor Sought for Here I Am Campaign

International Civil Society Support (ICSS) wants to hire a  social media campaigner, on contract, for about 25 weeks, to support the Here I Am (HAI) campaign. HAI brings the voices of people living with or affected by the three diseases to the dialogue about funding the Global Fund.

The ICSS estimates that the position is about four-fifths full time. The duties of the position include developing a social media strategy and workplan, and creating social media toolkits.

The deadline for applications is Friday, 12 July. More information can be obtained by contacting Katy Wright of ICSS.

 

 

source : http://www.aidspan.org/gfo_article/social-media-contractor-sought-here-i-am-campaign

 

--
International Institute for ICT Journalism
www.penplusbytes.org

Open Journalism Workshop

ODAC is very proud to announce the launch of its latest free public resource: the Open Journalism Workshop. This has been completed with the generous funding of the Open Society Foundation. View the sister website at https://openjournalismworkshop.org.

The media environment in South Africa is not always conducive to investigative journalism. South Africa may have a free media, but the political environment presents many challenges in terms of accessing information – particularly information from the state. Within media houses, limited capacity and restrictive deadlines make it difficult to write stories that might require extensive, in-depth investigations.
In response, ODAC has launched this site as a resource for investigative journalists to help build their own capacity for reporting. It is an online workshop with three core modules:

1. Open Data Journalism
2. The Promotion of Access to Information Act
3. The Protected Disclosures Act

Each module provides you with a different tool to assist your investigative journalism and accessing information. The site is very much an introduction to core concepts – and thus fairly simple in its content. Further, the structure is simple. Each module has a video lecture, an accompanying PowerPoint presentation, and several supplementary reading materials and videos. Each module ends with a short voluntary quiz which tests you on the core material.

http://www.opendemocracy.org.za/news/open-journalism-workshop/

-- 

International Institute for ICT Journalism
www.penplusbytes.org

Snowden’s leaks force media self-examination

Besides forcing government and national-security institutions to face the public about their spying efforts, Edward Snowden's decision to release information on America's massive public surveillance efforts has thrown another system into a flurry of self-examination:

The American news media.

As New York Times columnist David Carr explored on Monday, Snowden's leaks raise the question of who actually qualifies as a journalist. It's not just a philosophical question: the government tends to shy from prosecuting reporters for the kind of information gathering that gets a spy or public citizen jailed. Carr and the Times public editor Margaret Sullivan both tackled discussions about who gets to be a journalist and the implications of how that question is answered.

I tend to side with thinkers such as New York University's Jay Rosen and City University of New York's Jeff Jarvis, who note that tools available through smartphones and the Internet allow anyone to become a reporter. Given that, the question changes from "Who is a journalist?" to "What is journalism?"

I talked about this nearly two years ago, as the first speaker at the Poynter Institute's debut TEDx event, in a presentation titled "Journalism as an act." The title came from an observation I made after watching a local "hot talk" radio personality and a woman who usually makes adult videos turn briefly into news reporters, relaying information publicly about a police standoff with a man who had shot three officers in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Journalism, I noted then, was turning from a craft into an act.

That may be tough to swallow for those of us who do this work all day, every day. There is, no doubt, a craft to the unearthing of information, the assembling of words and the placing of events in context with as much fairness as possible. People using their smartphone to record video of a fire or riot likely don't have any of those skills at hand.

But media figures who are also advocates for a point of view utilize those skills, too. Take Glenn Greenwald, the blogger/writer who reported on Snowden's leaks for The Guardian at the same time as the traditional journalists at The Washington Post. Greenwald's perspective and history of advocacy don't invalidate his journalism work, but they do require readers to come to his reporting with a knowledge of that history, letting them judge for themselves if his work is fair and accurate enough to be trusted.

That's why I think any talk of a shield law for journalists needs to center on the work done, not the job title. If the point of a shield law is to keep the public as informed as possible by protecting journalists from prosecution for keeping their sources secret, it makes sense to extend that privilege to people practicing journalism, who otherwise might not be considered members of the club.

Debate over these issues has gotten heated, with critics assailing NBC's David Gregory and The New York Times' Andrew Ross Sorkin for suggesting in various ways that Greenwald should or could be arrested for his work (Sorkin has since apologized for saying on CNBC that he would "almost arrest" Greenwald; he also called him a journalist).

In a piece titled "Meet the 'Journalists Against Journalism' club," Salon columnist David Sirota criticized Gregory, Sorkin and others as "a group of reporters and pundits who are outraged that whistle-blowers and news organizations are colluding to expose illegal government surveillance."

Sirota also slammed The Washington Post's editorial board for suggesting the Obama administration cut a deal with Snowden which forgoes prosecution to get him back to America and stop the leaks that the newspaper's own journalists have helped reveal to the world. Fred Hiatt, the Washington Post's editorial-page editor, said in an email to Adweek that he saw no conflict between noting the journalistic usefulness of Snowden's early leaks and urging the government to stop leaks that could harm legal anti-terrorism efforts.

At issue is the question of whether some of the country's top journalists have become part of a chummy club that supports government power rather than challenging it. Focusing on journalism as an act helps defuse that argument, too: if anyone can benefit from the protections of reporting on whistle-blowers, there is less power in being among the chosen.

Still, Snowden's efforts to avoid prosecution remind me of a conversation I once had with a civil-rights activist at the Martin Luther King Center who said followers of Dr. King's non-violent protest strategy saw accepting arrest and prosecution as an important part of their movement.

Accepting such punishment not only showed the public that protesters were largely law-abiding, but also offered a chance to show how unfair such laws could be through court challenges and publicity.

It's a good reminder that, as much as journalists want access to those with important information and valuable as whistle-blowing can be, sometimes those who practice civil disobedience by leaking to us must also face the consequences of breaking the law.

http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/top-stories/217368/snowden-leaks-force-news-media-to-rethink-role/

--
International Institute for ICT Journalism
www.penplusbytes.org

Ghanaian Journalists Equipped with First-Hand Knowledge on Ghana's Oil and Gas Sector

The International Institute of ICT Journalism (Penplusbytes) has successfully completed the first phase of training for 10 selected journalists from various media houses across Ghana.

The training workshop forms part of Penplusbytes’ “Empowering the Media to Play an Active Watchdog Role over Ghana’s Oil and Gas Revenues and Resources” project with funding and technical support from STAR-Ghana. It begun on the 24th June  with a face-to-face intensive training workshop with resource persons drawn from the oil and gas industry, Civil Society Organisations in the oil and gas sector, Public Interest Accountability Committee and also seasoned journalists who took the trainee journalists through interactive sessions of practical learning modules with reporting and writing skills, as well as information about  pertinent issues in the extractive industry to enable them undertake better and in-depth stories on the sector.

As part of the training, the selected journalists were taken to the Western Region of Ghana, the home of Ghana’s oil and undertook field trips to the Ghana Gas Processing Plant in Atuabo where they were taken through the technicalities of gas production.

They also visited the Takoradi International Company (TICO) where they gained a firsthand experience of how fuel energy is converted into electricity and other socio economic activities generated from the plant. Other interesting places the group visited were the newly established Enterprise Development Center and the Jubilee Technical Training Center at Takoradi Polytechnic, all aimed at building the capacity of citizens to provide local content to the sector. They also met with the General Transport, Petroleum and Chemical Workers Union and interacted with community members in the region to understand their needs and the effects of the extractive sector on their daily life.

Mr. Frederick Avornyo, a resource person and facilitator for the program said that “the program has indeed been a high impact training where the journalists were taken through investigative reporting on the complex oil, gas and extractive sector, how to track revenues from the sector and the environmental impact of mining, oil and gas exploration, the intricacies of awarding of contracts and licenses; regulations and monitoring of companies.”

He adds that “I hope all that has been learnt will translate to an increase in the number of stories on the sector for a well informed public so they will be able to hold government to account

Maame Esi Nyamekye Thompson, a trainee from the Multimedia Group also expressed her pleasure in joining the program, saying “I entered into this session ignorant about many issues in the oil and gas sector, but I can now say that I am more knowledgeable and my drive to know more has been activated.”

The six months training program aims to improve coverage of oil and gas stories by the Ghanaian media leading to an increase in the quantity and quality (in terms of in-depth and investigative reporting) of oil and gas stories thus leading to the media playing an effective watchdog role over Ghana’s Oil and Gas revenues and resources.