Founder’s welcome address

Journalists, and investigative journalism for that matter, has been under constant and calculated attack by criminal minds, crooked entities and their assigns, whose criminal ventures and existence are rightfully threatened by the light of muckrakers.
So attack on journalism unfortunately, is not a new phenomenon.

However, the uptick in open violent threats, physical attacks, and in some cases cold-blooded killing of journalists poses an existential threat to the news world, with the potential of breeding a dangerous culture self censorship, and safe or convenient reportage over hard facts in order to stay out of the crosshairs of assailants and killers of independent investigative Journalists.

According to a 2022 Global Expression report, only 15% of the world’s population – or around 1 in every 7 people, live in countries where they can seek, receive, or share information freely and safely.

What this worrying statistic shows is that largely, a lot more people would rather “keep quiet and suffer”, than speak out, coonsequently affecting information sharing vis-a-vis a vibrant press.

Civil society organizations have been speaking up in a bid to ameliorate the situation with some successes along the way including the creation of sanctuary states for critical journalism to thrive in some parts of the world.

However, the fact that advocacy has not stopped ‘media silencers’ from sending their armies to unload their arsenals in the heads and chests of critical journalists, points to the fact that a lot more needs to be done to guarantee the safety of journalists even in states and kingdoms ruled by dictators.

At Journalists Sanctuary International, we believe that in addition to the occasional public support, there is the need to provide tangible layer of cushioning that guarantees the safety of frontline journalists.

That is why we don’t only do advocacy and offer security tips/training for journalists, we do one better by donating safety boxes to media organizations and Frontline reporters.

The idea is to cushion journalists from physical harm, being maimed, or even getting killed in the event that the ‘media silencers’ unleash their evil arsenals.

JSI: ” The Reporters’ Shield “