Paradigm Initiative (PIN) and the Gender Media Connect (GMC) have conducted digital rights training for women journalists in Zimbabwe as the country gears up for August 23 elections.
Development Diaries reports that the session was carried out to alert journalists to digital rights issues and make them aware of the importance of documenting digital rights stories.
It is understood that the workshop addressed the critical intersection of digital rights and the roles of women journalists and politicians in Zimbabwe’s upcoming elections.
Through the session, PIN and GMC sought to increase knowledge and empower women’s voices in order to promote a more informed and inclusive democratic dialogue.
‘Digital rights are an extension of human rights. The coming of digital technologies transformed the way basic rights are exercised, protected and violated’, PIN Partnerships and Engagements Officer, Bridgette Ndlovu, said.
‘In Africa, we are seeing digital rights violation trends leaning towards internet shutdowns, disinformation, misinformation, online gender-based violence and hate speech now occurring during the electoral cycle as political parties and candidates seek to increase their political mileage’.
In 2019, Zimbabwe ordered a three-day, country-wide internet shutdown amid a crackdown on protests which was triggered by a sharp increase in the price of fuel.
Freedom House ranked Zimbabwe ‘partly free’ in its 2023 Freedom of the Net report, with the country scoring 42 out of a possible 100.
Photo source: Techeconomy
