No News is Bad News - Bolivia EJC has been collaborating with partners, Fundacion para el Periodismo (FPP) and the Asociacion de Periodistas de La Paz (APLP) since 2011 through MFSII. Key accomplishments include: increasing the quality and quantity of accountability journalism; successfully lobbying in support of the Freedom of Information Act as it was being developed and debated in the legislature; embedding media literacy in the national secondary school curriculum through lobbying and partnership with the Ministry of Education, creation of the first-ever accredited master's level journalism degree; increasing the positive perception of the journalism profession among youth and citizens by embedding practical journalist elements and activities into the national university communications curricula; and, establishing a network citizen journalism newspapers and engagement platform. STRATEGY FOR L&A: EJC will partner with FPP and APLP -key local media and press freedom organisations- as well as practitioners and educators to: Support increased government accountability and transparency; Empower youth to become engaged citizens and empower citizens to increase engagement in the democratic process; Improve quality and perception of journalists and decrease journalistic self-censorship. This will be accomplished through: lobbying key ministries (Education, Communication) to expand media literacy curricula; lobbying the national government to implement the Freedom of Information Law, strengthen open data, cyber-security and journalism safety policies; developing digital platforms encouraging inclusion of previously excluded voices in the media landscape (citizen journalists, indigenous people, women, youth); supporting on-going efforts to improve journalist training and capacity; and advocating on behalf of journalists by raising awareness within the international community about press freedom infractions and shrinking space in Bolivia. STRATEGY FOR CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT FOR L&A: Strategy for capacity development for L&A of its partners will focus on the following key themes: Support and improve journalists' role as civil society watchdogs by increasing their capacity to produce high quality investigative and accountability reporting and reporting of other neglected social issues, such as gender-based violence; Strengthen the capacity of media to interact and strategically network with CSOs; Improve ability of media and citizen journalists to use data and innovative digital tools platforms in accountability journalism; Build capacity of partners to monitor and push back against self-censorship, advocate for full implementation of the Freedom of Information Law and journalism safety policies; Increase the scope and breadth of media literacy programs for teachers and youth through lobbying and advocacy with key ministries and the national university system. GENDER EQUALITY will be approached through two kinds of interventions: Increasing awareness among BP organisations of the necessity of instituting gender policies and exploration of a developing a formal gender policy in order to ensure that current hiring practices, communications and all in-house materials/resources reflect gender sensitivity; Gender mainstreaming will be reflected in content production during capacity building on all levels: speakers, experts, sources of information and topics on gender will be highlighted and utilised in all interventions including small grants TORs programs. Specific safety/security situation of female journalist will also be focused on. SAFETY ASPECTS be addressed through three kinds of interventions: Safety and security measures (physical and cyber) will be mainstreamed into internal policies as well as external capacity building training materials; Safety/security matters will be monitored regularly and reported to domestic and international audiences; Safety/Security resources will be produced and made available to Bolivian journalists. media professionals, journalism students, press freedom CSO stakeholders, youth CONTEXT ANALYSIS: Bolivia is classified as a low-middle income country; ranked 113 out of 187 countries in the Human Development Index and 97 out of 149 in the Gender Inequality lndex. Sale of natural gas accounts for a significant percentage of its national GDP. Bolivia has the largest proportion of indigenous people in Latin America. President Evo Morales, elected in 2006, was re-elected in 2014. The media landscape is polarised and dynamic. Bolivia is ranked 91st in the 2015 Freedom of the Press Index by Freedom House. There is growing concern over the expansion of state-owned channels and conversion of public media into a "proselytising force" for the president. Permanent tension exists between the press and the government. Violence against journalists has decreased but self-censorship is rampant. Press freedom is more tenuous after the Law Against Racism and All Forms of Discrimination passed in 2010, which includes sanctions for publishing information deemed as racist or discriminatory. The journalism profession is seen poorly by the general public. The country is currently experiencing a severe economic crisis caused by the fall in oil, minerals and soya prices. Corruption and rising unemployment are rampant. In early 2016, a constitutional referendum to amend the constitution to allow the president to run for a third term was defeated. The government blamed this defeat on a group of journalists it calls the “cartel of lies”. PROBLEM ANALYSIS: Bolivia is currently ranked 97th of 180 countries in press freedom. Although freedom of expression and the press are guaranteed under the National Constitution and Press Law, these freedoms are restricted because journalists are considered enemies of the state. The recent cases of prosecution of prominent journalists confirms that these freedoms are fragile and that the judiciary system has an extreme dependence on the executive. The campaign promoted by the government against what it calls the “cartel of lies” signals further intolerance and threats to human rights and freedom of expression. At present, most media disseminate information not critical to the government for fear of reprisals and retaliation. The government often punishes media who report corruption or mismanagement by cutting off state-funded advertising revenue or subjecting media houses to lengthy financial audits. Self-censorship is common among print and radio media out of fear that the government will not to renew their operating licenses. As most media in Bolivia are small and heavily dependent on government-funding advertising, much of their programming is foreign and designed to attract audiences not critical of the government. The quality of the broadcast news is very low and media are polarised between those who are pro-government and those with a critical view. In this context, the vital role of trained professionals who are committed to the values and principles of journalism takes on even further importance. The shortage of trained and qualified professionals to develop a democratic and civic culture is evident as journalists focus more on sensationalism than on fact-based reporting and do not respect the ethical principles of journalism. The Access to Information Law is likely to be approved this year, which will put pressure on open data laws, but citizens and journalists are mostly unaware of the impact it can have on their work and unsure of the legal framework within which it exists. The capabilities of Bolivian journalists are very limited and there is a lack of sufficient quality journalism training in the country. This can be seen almost daily in the media and is one of the reasons why the government continually accuses the media of lying. The media and journalists have lost credibility and the independent journalist association has limited ability to improve this negative perception. Given the climate of government-sponsored reprisals, the journalist profession has weakened considerably. There is a lack of specialisation courses and many reporters are poorly prepared to cover topics of national importance, such as health, finance, extractive industries, development and transparency. Bolivia also has the highest rate of gender-based violence in the region, but there is little, if any, attention paid to these issues in the media. Investigative skills and journalism ethics are unknown to the average journalist. Community-based media often do not possess the skills and knowledge to produce quality news and information, in line with ethical standards. Platforms for citizen participation and engagement are next to non-existent.