Sahel journalists discuss violent extremism and media
There are few more challenging environments for journalists than the Sahel region of northern Africa, and few subjects more difficult to cover—and more important—than the terrorist threats present in the region.

It’s against this backdrop that I’ve been meeting with about 20 journalists from the region via Zoom as part of a project titled, “Strengthening the Role of Media in Countering Violent Extremism.”

The first of  the project's eight zoom sessions was held last week, and included discussions about problems with traditional media coverage of conflicts, and media and terrorism, including social media.

Yesterday, the journalists and I had a robust discussion about how terrorism is covered in their countries. One participant from Chad said that journalists want to be seen as patriotic, and therefore shouldn’t give the microphone to terrorists for comment. Several reporters talked about the difficulty in covering terrorism stories that include traveling to hard-to-reach or dangerous attack sites and getting information from non-government sources.

One interesting and unanticipated discussion was about the role of international media in terrorism reporting in the Sahel region. One journalist noted that news sources will speak only to international media, while another from Mali stated that the local media are not listened to, and that only international media have credibility. Others discussed laws that restrict what and how journalists can cover (no live coverage at the scene of terrorist attack aftermaths in Burkina Faso, for example) and the lack of resources or training (“competence,” in the words of a participant) as impediments to better, more comprehensive locally-produced coverage about terrorism.

Our conversations will continue in the coming weeks and include discussions about storytelling and narratives, media literacy, and peace journalism. The project will culminate with a face-to-face seminar in Cote D'Ivoire in January.

“Strengthening the Role of Media in Countering Violent Extremism” is organized by Equal Access International, with financial support from the U.S. Embassy in Algeria. Journalists from Mauritania, Mali, Chad, Cote D’Ivoire, Morocco, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Algeria, and Niger are participating.