The Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ) on November 2, 2017 presented a book and unveiled two online resources on media freedom and whistleblower protection to commemorate the International Day to End Impunity (IDEI) for Crimes against Journalists.
These activities took place in Abuja during an interactive roundtable dialogue organized by PTCIJ which brought together journalists, Journalists’ Unions, media freedom organisations, lawyers and government agencies to brainstorm on subject Stakeholder Dialogue on Press Freedom and Whistleblower Protection in Nigeria.
Dapo Olorunyomi, Executive Director of PTCIJ unveiled the book: The Media, The Bumps and Democracy in Nigeria which takes a look at the Nigerian media environment and the continuing issue of impunity.
The book explores the legal environment as well as documents various forms of attacks against journalists and media houses, the majority of which have gone unpunished.
In addition, PTCIJ also unveiled two websites: one to monitor, track and analyse attacks on journalists and the media in Nigeria and the other, an independent whistleblowing platform for revealing information in the public interest in Nigeria.
The PTCIJ site that is meant to monitor, track and anlyse attacks on journalists is called Press Attack Tracker and it is part of its strategic vision of ensuring freedom of expression and its fight against press gagging. It is a crowdsourcing site where victims or witnesses to attacks on journalists and the media can post such information. The site is www.pressattackng.crowdmap.com. She gave a detailed explanation of how the tracker works and how to post attacks. Ms Aisha Hashim, PTCIJ programme officer, gave a brief of how the site works and the compilation of attacks so far posted on the site.
The whistleblowing platform is portal meant for individuals to anonymously post documents that reveal wrongdoings that was also unveiled is www.leaks.ng. It is an independent platform where citizens can upload documents anonymously which are then sent to various media houses partnering in the project. It is modeled after the modelled after the wikileaks and Panama papers websites. Mrs. Tosin Alagbe, another PTCIJ Programme Officer explained the various aspects of the site and how members of the public can post documents on the site as well as what the PTCIJ does before the documents are sent to the media houses collaborating on the project. It is a project of the Coalition for Whistleblower Protection and Press Freedom and is not affiliated with the Government of Nigeria. The site does not provide monetary reward for whistleblowing.
