Female Reporters in Congo Set Up News Site

A group of female journalists working in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, have set up their own website to get stories on justice and rights issues out to a wider audience.

Uhaki ya Wanawake News (“Justice for Women News” in Swahili), or UhakiNews for short, carries articles, radio programmes and videos produced by a reporters’ collective set up by around 25 women based in North and South Kivu provinces.

Recent stories covered by the IWPR-trained journalists include justice for children, the electoral process, sexual harassment in the workplace and the inheritance rights of women.

The idea behind the site is to give female reporters ownership over a media outlet that will create a wider audience for independent reporting on justice and rights issues.

Melanie Gouby, an IWPR multimedia producer who coordinated the project, explained why it was needed.

“In a male-dominated society like Congo, women reporters have to work twice as hard to get some credit,” she said. “Through the new platform, their contributions are shared with the rest of the world. At the same time, their output is shared through radio in the Kivus, thus reaching people who do not have internet access.”.

Lucie Bindu, one of the journalists taking part in this collective effort, added, "UhakiNews is in French and Swahili, so it will be more accessible to our communities and to people in Congo. It looks professional too, so I think people from other countries will like it as well. We’ll have to work even harder now!"