Taboom Media has received renewed support from the Arcus Foundation to increase ethical media coverage of LGBTQI+ rights and faith issues in East and southern Africa through training and support of journalists and activists. This initiative expands on our 2019-21 grant and previous Arcus Foundation support.

As part of this new program, with ongoing COVID travel restrictions in mind, we will create, distribute, and promote online video resources (including short lectures, panels, Q&As, and FAQs) that will be used to remotely train regional journalists and activists. We will conduct East and Southern Africa cross-sector collaborative workshops with local partners, bringing journalists and activists together (remotely if need be). We will expand the LGBTQI+ Media Monitoring and Response Coalition (MMRC), which mobilizes media practitioners and affirming stakeholders to combat dangerous media portrayals of SSOGIE issues. We will host our fourth flagship journalism workshop for journalists from priority countries across Sub-Saharan Africa in Cape Town (or remotely if need be). Trained journalists will publish articles demonstrating lessons learned and informally train their newsrooms and national colleagues using Taboom’s new online videos and updated resources. These activities will take place between April 2021 and March 2023.

About Taboom Media

Taboom’s media training, mentoring, publishing, monitoring and response programs catalyze ethical journalism and public discourse around taboo topics. By shining light on taboos in the news, we aim to break their power. Our global work challenges stigmas, replacing stereotypes and discrimination with fairness and accuracy. We facilitate responsible media coverage to safeguard and champion vulnerable communities and to advance human rights.

About the Arcus Foundation

Arcus believes that respect for diversity among peoples and in nature is essential to a positive future for our planet and all its inhabitants. The Arcus Foundation partners with experts and advocates for change to ensure that LGBTQ people and our fellow apes thrive in a world where social and environmental justice are a reality.

You can read the Arcus Foundation press release here.