Vacancy, Managing Editor – 211CHECK #defyhatenow South Sudan/in

Position: Managing Editor – 211CHECK  #defyhatenow South Sudan  

Duty Station: Juba, South Sudan 

Duration: 12 months 

Type of contract: Fixed Term Contract 

Form of employment: Fulltime 

About #defyhatenow 

#defyhatenow is a global initiative that works on creating frameworks for enhancing trust between stakeholders in Africa and beyond through mobilising civic action against all forms of hate speech, misinformation, human rights violations, and incitement to violence, primarily that which is induced through online media. The initiative is considered one of the leading entities working on providing data-driven and community-based solutions to the problem of hate speech, fake news, and misinformation, working at the nexus of technology, peacebuilding, and human rights. #defyhatenow’s teams of researchers, designers, data analysts, artists, activists and programmers have a wide range of experiences. They are currently leading flagship projects in Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Uganda, Cameroon, and Kenya.

#defyhatenow has provided extensive capacity-building programs for civil society, humanitarian agencies, the media, the private sector, and government agencies in the region. Through these programs, #defyhatenow has reached over 300,000 people with essential hate speech awareness and knowledge on the impact of misinformation. #defyhatenow is also invested in nurturing a community of young people through Fellowships. #defyhatenow Fellowships provide youth activists and community leaders with resources and expertise that enable them to tackle hate speech online and offline; thereby bringing together grassroots organisations and youth groups to create a healthier public discourse and prevent conflict among communities. #defyhatenow has had over 50 fellows across its countries of operation. #defyhatenow utilises a partnership-centred approach to program implementation; this model emphasises the need to enhance collaboration and strengthen the capacity of local and international actors while creating synergies with like-minded individuals and organisations. 

About our South Sudan Program

The South Sudan program is part of a broader intervention framework that aims at increasing trust among stakeholders online and improving the public discourse health among social media users in Africa; with a specific focus on Hate Speech Mitigation, Misinformation Mitigation, Tackling Incitement to Violence and Data Analysis. The program aims at promoting freedom of expression, access to information, and digital rights to create a framework for increasing trust between stakeholders and communities in South Sudan while mobilising civic action against all forms of hate speech, misinformation, human rights violations, and incitement to violence. Our program relates to the global objective of supporting and strengthening civil society organisations, democracy activists and human rights defenders working on critical human rights and democracy issues in South Sudan. #defyhatenow South Sudan Program functions on the frontline of the fight against hate speech, misinformation, and human rights violation. We believe in the centrality of human rights and human dignity in all our programs and projects. We draw inspiration and guidance from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights & African Charter on Human and People’s Rights. These principles and values guide the #defyhatenow South Sudan program.

Program Objectives 

  • To contribute towards freedom of expression, access to information and the fight against misinformation and hate speech in South Sudan.
  • To empower South Sudanese civic actors to mitigate hate speech, misinformation and increase access to information.

About the Role

211CHECK is a fact-checking and information verification platform (www.211check.org ) and a community that consists of people from various disciplines working on providing accurate information and fact-checking misinformation in South Sudan. 211CHECK ‘s work on countering misinformation and disinformation in South Sudan acts as a frontline conflict prevention mechanisms by ensuring that citizens are adequately informed and have the factual information to exercise their civic duties in the county. 

The managing editor is the overall authority when it comes to setting the editorial plan and managing the day-to-day operations of the platform.  The managing editor should have a keen eye to details and a good understanding of South Sudan’s media and political landscape as well as a good grasp of social media and online information analysis.  

To succeed in this role, you should have:

  • At least three years of experience of working in the media field as an editor, senior reporter  or a newsroom manager 
  • Demonstrable prior experience of successfully and ethically managing/editing an online publication or a digital media outlet in South Sudan (blog, online magazine etc)
  • Good understanding of data gathering and analysis of online trends and current affairs. 
  • Good understanding of the media landscape in South Sudan and the various challenges faced by journalists and media professionals with regard to access to information, newsgathering, and information verification.
  • Ability to work within South Sudan’s difficult media landscape and navigate the various constraints and the constants restrictions and red tapping by powerful actors.
  • Excellent writing and editing skills 
  • Ability to motivate and manage a team of diverse individuals 
  • Be self-directed, take initiative, and be keen to detail.

Main Roles and Responsibilities

  • Work on fact-checking current news and provide accurate information to various stakeholders in South Sudan. 
  • Work on strategies to reduce the spread of misinformation in South Sudan. 
  • Develop and manage the implementation of the overall editorial strategy for the 211CHECK platform. 
  • Set the guidelines and operational framework for fact-checking information within South Sudan. 
  • Manage and train fact-checkers from the various states of South Sudan to generate weekly fact-checking reports and stories to be published on 211CHEK. 
  • Gather weekly news and online rumours and make an editorial judgment on what needs to be published. 
  • Contribute to various regional and international platforms by writing fact-checking and data content related to South Sudan. 
  • Co-manage two fellowship programs for data journalism and fact-checking in South Sudan.   

The duty station for this job is Juba, South Sudan and it’s open to South Sudanese Nationals only.

This is a time-limited, task-oriented engagement, funded as a project between September 2020 and June 2022. If you are the person we are looking for, please send us your Curriculum Vitae/Resume and Cover Letter to [email protected] by 30th September 2020. Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.