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Journalists for Human Rights (JHR), is an international media development non-governmental organization based in Toronto, Canada.

JHR was founded Benjamin Peterson and Alexandra Sicotte-Levesque in 2002. Ben Peterson is currently JHR’s Executive Director.

Its mission "is dedicated to increasing the quality and quantity of human rights reporting in the African media." JHR’s programs are split into two categories—its work in Africa and its work in North America.

In Africa, JHR claims to have worked in 14 countries, where it runs programs for local journalists aimed at increasing the quality and quantity of human rights reporting in the local media. JHR says that its programming helps reach over 20 million Africans a week, through its local media partners (radio, print and TV) with human rights information they wouldn’t have received otherwise.In theory, this helps to increase public awareness and debate about human rights issues, empowering victims to fight back. It also creates a climate where human rights abusers are less likely to get away with their crimes. JHR has offices in Accra (Ghana), Freetown (Sierra Leone) and Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of the Congo).

In North America, JHR has chapters at universities across Canada and a few in the United States. These chapters aim to engage students in the importance of human rights reporting, and to encourage them to spread awareness on campus about rights issues through various forms of media. In Canada, JHR has 25 chapters at universities that include the University of Toronto, Queen’s University and McGill University. JHR claims that over 20% of Canada’s journalism students are involved in one way or another with JHR’s Chapter program. JHR is now working to expanding this program in the US. Chapters there include Southern Methodist University and the University of Washington.

JHR has received media attention in Canada, including from The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. This coverage has been largely focused on its work in Ghana and on Executive Director Ben Peterson.

JHR claims that it is the largest media development organization in Canada.

Criticisms

In 2005, JHR accepted funding from Barrick Gold Corporation, a Canadian mining organization known for it's human rights abuses, particularly in Tanzania, where JHR was NOT operating at the time. The funding represented a tiny portion of JHR's overall budget to date and JHR has since developed a strict policy in assessing donors on a case by case basis.

In January 2008, one former employee reported that in 2005 they were living in an abandoned building in Lagos, (Nigeria) At the time JHR offered assistance in finding alternate accomodation but was turned down.

In September 2008, JHR Executive Director Benjamin Peterson, admitted that JHR does short-term work in some countries as 'test cases' to see if JHR should develop full programs in the country. Mr. Peterson stated that interns are sent to do short-term work (as requested by local organizations) to determine if JHR should establish a presence in a particular country, and expecting to achieve significant development results is not realistic." As the employees are only in country for 6-8 months, achieving long-term results would not be realistic.

References

1. Davis, Nicholas, "Africa got under his skin," Toronto Sun, November 1, 2004
2. Journalists for Human Rights: Who we are, accessed January 19, 2008
3. JOURNALISTS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS -- MISSION, accessed January 19, 2008
4. " Stephens, Lisa, "Benjamin Peterson, 29 Ontario Co-founder, executive director, Journalists for Human Rights, Toronto", Report on Business Magazine, May 7, 2007
5. ^ JHR website, accessed January 19, 2008 Cite error: The named reference "JHR" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
6. Kelly, Deidre, "For society, Africa is the cause du jour; Local philanthropists are developing a global perspective, Deirdre Kelly writes," Globe and Mail, October 12, 2007
7. , accessed December 28, 2008
8. Minogue, Sarah, "Paper Route," This Magazine, January, 2008
9. Mendleson, Rachel, "Helping the world and Helping Me," Macleans Magazine, September 19, 2008

External links

• Journalists for Human Rights
• Paper Route:Journalists for Human Rights has a high-minded and worthy goal: send Canadians to Africa to train reporters and editors there. But, as it turns out, it's often the Africans who end up training their Canadian "teachers". by Sarah Minogue, This Magazine, January 2008
• Helping the world and Helping Me by Rachel Mendleson, Macleans Magazine, September 19, 2008
• The sound of silence: Laurier-Waterloo chapter of Journalists for Human Rights raises awareness for social injustice by Michelle Caldaroni, The Cord Weekly, Nov 7, 2007
• Africa got under his skin," by Nicholas Davis, Toronto Sun, November 1, 2004
• All the news that's fit to print: Changing the face of human rights reporting in Ghana
• JHR Partners with UNDEF, Friday 20 October 2006.

• International nongovernmental organizations
• Journalism organizations
• Organizations established in 2002
• Canadian journalism organizations
• International human rights organizations