No News is Bad News - Kenya EJC has been collaborating with its partner, AfricaonAir since 2011 through MFSII and was one of its first supporters. AfricaonAir has quickly become a leading centre for journalism training specifically on development/investigative issues as well as an advocate for embedding development reporting in university journalism curricula through EJC’s work with 14 journalism faculties. Through its partnership with AfricaonAir, EJC has collaborated with other stakeholders that actively lobby the government for increased accountability, transparency, press freedom, security and women’s issues such as the Kenyan Correspondents Association, African Media Initiative, Association of Media Women in Kenya, Code for Africa and media environment, Science, Health and Agriculture. STRATEGY FOR L&A: EJC will collaborate with its partner to support increased government accountability and transparency, press freedom and safety/security, to empower youth to become engaged media literate citizens, to improve quality and perception of journalists and to empower citizens to increase their engagement in the democratic process. This will be accomplished by: creating an enabling environment with safe/encrypted platforms where development and investigative journalism can thrive (such as Kenyaneditor.com, Afrileaks) and perform its watchdog role; champion best-practice solutions for journalism and higher quality development journalism; support youth-focused media literacy initiatives; implementation of community debates and commissioning of investigative journalism pieces aimed at uncovering government corruption. STRATEGY FOR CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT FOR L&A: EJC's strategy for capacity development for L&A of partners will focus on the following key themes: Support and improve journalists' role as civil society watchdogs by increasing their capacity to produce and securely place high-quality impact of multimedia content on important development issues, including investigative and accountability reporting; Improve ability of media to use data and innovative digital tools and platforms in accountability journalism; Strengthen the capacity of AfricaonAir to interact and strategically integrate into pan-African media networks and work more closely with local CSOs; Support increased media literacy among university-age youth and overall perception of the journalistic profession through the production of youth-generated content, curriculum development, mentor-ship and internship programmes, Increase the capacity of AfricaonAir and its partners to effectively lobby and advocate government bodies to strengthen press freedom, journalist safety/security and freedom of expression, especially in the current atmosphere of threats to Kenya's security by terrorist groups and the government’s willingness to utilise the situation to clamp down on press freedom. GENDER EQUALITY will be approached through two kinds of interventions: Increasing awareness among the BP 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. Emphasis will be placed on specific safety/security situation of female journalists. SAFETY ASPECTS will be approached 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; Safety/Security/Ethics resources will be produced and made available to Kenyan journalists Media professionals, journalism students, CSO stakeholders CONTEXT ANALYSIS: Kenya is classified as a low-income country; ranked 147 out of 187 in the Human Development Index. Freedom of expression in Kenya has continued to decline under President Kenyatta. Ranked 57th in the 2015 Freedom of the Press Index, Kenyan media continue to operate in a precarious environment following new laws that are increasingly giving the state greater control over media. There has also been a rise in the number of journalists harassed or attacked by politicians, the police or other state actors and the number is projected to rise as the country approaches the 2017 general election. Hate speech in the media is also increasing, as the elections get closer. Kenya is among the most corrupt countries in the world, with the Transparency International 2015 report ranking it 139 out of 168 countries. Kenyan media focus heavily on politics with little attention to development issues such as food security and health. A study by the Media Council of Kenya concluded that there is very little experience in covering specialised topics such as environment, health and agriculture. PROBLEM ANALYSIS: Between 2013 when the current government came to power and 2016, the space for freedom of expression in Kenya has shrunk considerably. Through a slew of new legislation, the government has continued to gain greater control of media. For example, the Media Council of Kenya was established as a self-regulating body, but now is a statutory organisation that receives government funding and the Cabinet Secretary for Information has the right to reject names submitted for appointment to the Council board. The President appears to have a personal distaste for the media and has said publicly that newspapers are only ‘suitable for wrapping meat’. Harassment of journalists is increasing. Between July-September 2016, politicians and the police attacked five journalists. A photojournalist was killed over a picture he had taken. Journalists work in an atmosphere of fear and intimidation. Kenya has a vibrant media that tries its best to work in the public interest. However, in reality, the media walks a tightrope trying to balance commercial interests and political pressures with the public interest. Many media outlets are now owned by or have links to politicians, which prevents them from being truly independent especially during elections. Corruption has permeated the media sector with journalists often induced to drop stories critical of some individuals or organisations caught in wrongdoing. Playing the watchdog role is becoming harder and sometimes dangerous for journalists. The result is diminished motivation and capacity to hold power to account. This is reflected in the very limited number of active investigative journalists in Kenya. Journalists lack the skills to effectively report on accountability, good governance, citizens' rights, business, gender and ethnicity issues. Also, they lack the skills to translate socioeconomic and political news and information into engaging reporting that is of interest and understandable to the general public, particularly to youth- which is the largest segment of the population. Universities lack resources and practical curricula to adequately train journalists on development and good governance topics. Lack of skilled staff often results in sensationalist reporting. Media houses hardly invest in training and educational institutions lack sufficient curriculum on topical training for journalists. Editors continually express their frustration over the poor skills of those who graduate from media schools. The situation is much worse when it comes to specialised reporting on critical development issues such as health, agriculture, security and energy.