In Ghana, DW Akademie supports women journalists working to advance their careers amid persistent gender-related obstacles.
Ewurama Attoh has spent more than a decade across Ghana’s media landscape — from TV reporting and promotional work to co-hosting a morning talk show. Her commitment to communication, she says, has helped raise underrepresented voices and shape public debate. Yet the more responsibility women like her take on, the more resistance they meet, says Ama Kodjo, DW Akademie’s program director for Ghana.
To address these realities, DW Akademie launched a “Safety for Female Journalists” workshop earlier this year. Twelve women from northern Ghana — a region that is often more conservative and less developed than the south — gathered to share newsroom and field experiences and to practice practical safety strategies.
While harassment and discrimination are common themes, the workshop emphasized solutions: how to intervene in difficult situations, conduct risk assessments, protect oneself when covering violence, and other everyday precautions. Participants discussed small but important measures such as documenting insect bites for diagnosis, informing colleagues about allergies, keeping an insurance card on hand, choosing hotel rooms on lower floors with two exits, and switching accommodations if a hotel’s reputation felt unsafe.
“There was a lot of interest in this,” Kodjo observed, noting that employers rarely offer such training. For Shawana Yussif, Tamale bureau chief for Channel One TV and Citi FM, the sessions on maintaining calm and safety while still getting the story were especially useful. She faces limited resources for field reporting, poor roads when covering remote areas, tight deadlines, difficulty accessing timely information, and the tension between speed and accuracy amid misinformation and security risks.
Ghana placed 52nd out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders’ 2025 World Press Freedom Index. Like other journalists in the Global South, Ghanaian reporters face threats and attacks, and media outlets struggle with financial constraints. DW Akademie’s Ghana projects therefore focus on strengthening reporting skills, resilience, and coverage of conflict and trauma. Workshops also cover critical use of AI-generated content, fact-checking, and responses to cyberbullying and hate speech.
Attoh says her challenges are often less overtly dangerous but still undermining. “I often have to work twice as hard to be heard and taken seriously, especially when it comes to decision-making,” she said. She has experienced male guests canceling last minute from panels once they learn she will host, claiming discomfort at being interviewed by a woman. Hamdia Abdul Hameed, an anchor and reporter with multimedia organization Zaa, hears similar resistance from sources; she tries to remain calm and professional to avoid confrontation and secure information.
Training also reinforced practical reporting tactics. Yussif recalled traveling to a drought-affected area where farmers offered to take her to their fields. She noticed several men carrying cutlasses and felt uneasy. To stay safe, she discreetly recorded a short video of the group, shared it with trusted contacts, and sent her live location. Those precautions allowed her to complete the assignment without incident.
The “Safety for Female Journalists” workshop is part of DW Akademie Ghana’s Media Safety project, supported by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The program aims to equip women journalists with strategies to manage everyday sexism and safety risks, improve reporting practices, and strengthen their ability to participate fully in public life.