| jhr (Journalists for Human Rights) | |
|---|---|
| Formation | 2002 |
| Type | non-profit organization |
| Headquarters | Toronto, Canada |
| Co-Founder and Executive Director | Ben Peterson |
| Website | jhr.ca |
jhr (Journalists for Human Rights) is an international media development non-governmental organization whose goal is "to make everyone in the world fully aware of their rights".[1] The organization believes that "creating awareness is the first and most necessary step to ending rights abuses. By mobilizing the media to spread human rights awareness, jhr informs people about their rights, empowering marginalized communities to stand up, speak out and protect themselves"[1].
As Canada's largest media development organization, jhr has offices in Toronto, Canada (Head Office); Freetown, Sierra Leone; Kinshasa, Democatic Republic of the Congo; and Monrovia, Liberia. It also has representatives and non-profit status in the United States and the United Kingdom.
jhr focuses its programming and efforts on strengthening the local media in countries with some level of freedom in the press, training local journalists on human rights reporting skills. The organization coined the concept of Rights Media, defined as the “process of writing, collecting, editing, producing and distributing media that creates societal dialogue on human rights issues”.[2]
jhr was founded by Benjamin Peterson and Alexandra Sicotte-Levesque in 2002.[3] Though Sicotte-Levesque left the organization in 2005, she remains on the Advisory Board and Board of Trustees.[4] Ben Peterson remains jhr’s Executive Director.[4]
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Rights Media is the process of writing, collecting, editing, producing and distributing media that creates societal dialogue on human rights issues.[2] It is a new category of media development pioneered by jhr.
Grounded in the rights-based approach to development, Rights Media combines professional capacity building efforts with a specific objective. More specifically, it means building the capacity of local journalists to report more effectively on human rights, social justice, and good governance issues. Rights Media provides local journalism practitioners with the skills to affect change on specific issues.
Rights Media mainstreams human rights content into everyday news stories.[2] For instance, a newspaper could create a section specifically on children's rights, or it could encourage its sports, business or even entertainment reporters to cover the human rights angles hidden within their stories.
Rights Media bridges a sometimes contentious divide between two camps in the sector: traditional 'media development' proponents and 'communication for development' practitioners. The former of the two focuses on developing infrastructure and professional capacity of media professionals and outlets. The latter focuses on getting particular messages into the public domain through the media. Rights Media does both — it focuses on building capacity of local media outlets to effectively get messages to the general public.[5]
jhr has operated international programs within 17 African countries, training over 5000 local journalists, and helping to produce over 4000 stories on a number of human rights issues.[6] In partnership with local media houses in print, radio and television, the organization's programming is estimated to reach 20 million Africans a week with human rights information they may not have received otherwise.[7]
All of jhr's programming is based on its "reciprocal change" approach, a process that involves local media partnerships and development outcomes determined through participatory consultation with the editors and owners, journalists, students, and civil society within a region.[8]
The organization currently has operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana and Malawi with programs that include:
The organization maintains a blog that chronicles the experiences of its media trainers and journalists working on the ground, which can be viewed at www.jhr.ca/blog
Along with its work overseas, jhr has a school chapter program in North America aimed at raising awareness about human rights issues both at home and abroad. This initiative is designed to educate students on basic human rights reporting skills as well as to empower them to raise awareness in their communities through the creation of their own media, the hosting of awareness raising events, and by participating in jhr’s international internships.
The jhr University Chapter Program provides programming to students across Canada with a number of opportunities to get involved in the journalism sector.[9]
jhr offers publishing opportunities to jhr chapter members, including Speak Magazine, Write the Wrong and formerly Rights in Review.
Speak is a nationally distributed student magazine covering Rights Mediaissues. Each year, a jhr university Chapter takes on the responsibility of planning, promoting, designing, editing and producing Speak. The magazine is distributed on campuses across Canada in late January.
jhr’s first Speak magazine was issued in the 2006 / 07 year. The Queen’s university chapter put together Speak Aids, an issue dedicated to talking about and breaking the stigma of HIV/AIDS. 14 contributors including students, professors and activists provided 68 bilingual pages of articles and information about the disease.
Members from the Universite du Quebec a Montreal (UQAM) produced Speak! In 2007 – 08. Looking at censorship and freedom of expression the UQAM Editorial Team collaborated with 16 contributors to put together the 52 page Speak! jhr’s second bi-lingual publication.
jhr UBC dedicated the 08 – 09 issue of Speak to Children’s Rights. Subjects such as child prostitution, glue sniffing as well as empowering stories about ngo’s working for education were covered throughout the 48 page English only, 'Children’s Right to Speak'.
No magazine was produced in 2009 – 10. jhr’s Chapter program was in flux during this period and the selected chapter did not have sufficient support from head office to create a high quality magazine.
Speak 2010 – 11 took a look at the world’s progress on the Millennium Development Goals 10 years after they were stated. This was the first issue that was partially funded by the Canadian International Development Agency CIDA and was used as a promoting vehicle for the CIDA's Public Engagement Fund to encourage. Leah Wong and her team along with 10 contributors produced the 48 page Speak. Its 5000 copies were distributed to university chapters in Canada and the United States of America.
Write the Wrong is jhr’s national essay writing competition. Established initially in 2009 as part of the High School Engagement Program, Write the Wrong is now open to submissions from university students. The winning article in 2011 was featured in Macleans Magazine’s website.[10]
Rights in Review was jhr’s peer-reviewed academic journal from 2009 - 2011. Essays and articles focus on addressing human rights awareness and improving peace and security through an academic lens. Four Rights in Review journals were compiled before jhr decided to stop running the journal.
Funded by Canadian Heritage and CC UNESCO, jhr’s Train the Trainer program builds students’ capacity to produce Rights Media and organize media campaigns around pressing human rights and social justice issues.
Since 2008, jhr has hosted three regional conferences per year, attended by executives from each school chapter. At the conclusion of the conference, chapter executives return to their chapters and perform the same workshop. Each chapter member in turn gives a similar presentation within the community.
2010-2011 marked the formal end of the Train the Trainer program.
In September 2008, jhr launched its Overseas Internship Program for jhr university chapter members as supported by CIDA. The initiative, open exclusively to senior chapter members, sends students to Ghana for a three-month placement at a local community radio station. The purpose of the program is to develop participants’ cross-cultural knowledge and understanding of the journalism sector.[11]
In September 2008, jhr launched its High School Engagement Program designed to empower students to use the media as a means of making the world more aware of their rights. The program started as a pilot project of five schools across Canada and has since expanded into a fifteen school project.
jhr has connected with high school students across Canada by delivering Rights Media workshops in classrooms, at conferences, and alongside CC UNESCO and their Associated Schools Network in Manitoba.
In operation for three years, jhr decided to end its High School Engagement Program in 2011 and instead focus its energy on post-secondary efforts.
jhr’s largest fundraiser occurs annually at an event called Night for Rights. Originally hosted at the Steam Whistle Brewery, it has in recent years moved to the Berkeley Church and 99 Sudury. It has garnered the attention of many local media outlets and thousands of attendees, including many notable figures in the Canadian journalism sector.[12]
In 2008 jhr had annual revenues of $1,305,045 CDN. jhr is funded by government grants (76.4%), foundation grnts (15.2%), donations and contributions (7.4%), as well as donated goods and services (3.2%).
jhr's current and past government and foundation partners include: National Endowment of Democracy, AusAID, European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR)- BBC World Service Trust, Donner Foundation, United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF), Department for International Development (DFID, UK), Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), US State Department; Sigrid Rausing Trust, Foreign Affairs Canada, J.W. McConnell Family Foundation, R. Howard Webster Foundation, the Department of Canadian Heritage, and the Canadian Commission for UNESCO.
jhr has received media attention in Canada, including from The Globe and Mail[13][14], The Toronto Star, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and CTV.ca[15] This coverage has been largely focused on its work in Ghana and on Executive Director Ben Peterson.