DW Akademie in Ghana is supporting women reporters who face persistent gender-related hurdles as they try to advance in their careers and shape public debate.
Ewurama Attoh has worked across Ghana’s media for more than a decade — from television reporting and promotions to co-hosting a morning show. She sees her role as amplifying voices that often go unheard. Still, Ama Kodjo, DW Akademie’s program director in Ghana, says that the greater responsibility women take on, the more resistance they encounter.
To respond to these challenges, DW Akademie ran a “Safety for Female Journalists” workshop earlier this year. Twelve women from the country’s northern regions — areas that tend to be more conservative and less developed than the south — met to swap newsroom and field experiences and to practice concrete safety measures.
While participants reported frequent harassment and discrimination, the sessions focused on practical solutions: how to de-escalate tense encounters, carry out risk assessments, protect oneself when covering violent events, and adopt everyday precautions. Trainers stressed simple but crucial steps, such as documenting insect bites for medical records, telling colleagues about allergies, keeping insurance information handy, choosing hotel rooms with easy exits and lower floors, and changing accommodations if a lodging felt unsafe.
“There was a lot of interest in this,” Kodjo said, noting employers rarely provide such training. For Shawana Yussif, Tamale bureau chief for Channel One TV and Citi FM, lessons on staying calm and safe while still getting the story were especially valuable. Yussif routinely contends with scarce resources for fieldwork, poor roads to remote assignments, tight deadlines, limited access to timely information, and the constant pressure to balance speed with accuracy in an environment of misinformation and security risks.
Ghana ranked 52nd out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders’ 2025 World Press Freedom Index. Like many journalists in the Global South, Ghanaian media workers face threats and attacks, and news organizations operate under financial strain. DW Akademie’s programs in Ghana therefore emphasize strengthening reporting skills, building resilience, and improving coverage of conflict and trauma. Workshops also address responsible use of AI-generated content, fact-checking, and responses to cyberbullying and hate speech.
Attoh describes more subtle but corrosive obstacles: having to work harder to be heard in decision-making and seeing male panelists cancel once they learn a woman will host. Hamdia Abdul Hameed, an anchor and reporter with multimedia outlet Zaa, says sources sometimes resist speaking with women; she tries to remain composed and professional to secure information.
Training reinforced practical field tactics, too. Yussif recalled visiting a drought-affected community where farmers offered to lead her to their fields; noticing several men carrying cutlasses, she discreetly recorded a short video, shared it with trusted contacts, and sent her live location. Those precautions let her complete the reporting safely.
The workshop is part of DW Akademie Ghana’s Media Safety project, funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The initiative aims to give women journalists tools to manage everyday sexism and safety risks, improve reporting practices, and strengthen their ability to participate fully in public life.