During election period, the common practice in Africa is to restrict social media, shut down the internet, cyber-surveillance and cyber-espionage. Africa Media CyberSecurity (AMC) is a series of theoretical and practical trainings conducted in several countries. The programme is mainly aimed at professional journalists and civil society information actors (bloggers, activists, netizens …). Between 2017 and 2019, AfricTivistes has rolled out the AMC programme in West Africa (Mauritania, Senegal, Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali, The Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Côte d’Ivoire) and Haiti. During this first phase of the programme, more than 550 young people were provided with digital technologies and security (focused on user perspective and digital tools). A digital security toolkit was provided and a huge network of stakeholders committed to digital security and digital sovereignty issues was set up. In 2020, AfricTivistes trained about fifty people.

Objective: Train professional journalists and civil society media actors on cybersecurity and internet access.

Beneficiaries: bloggers, activists, netizens, journalists

Duration: as needed

Covered countries: Pan-African