Journalists in Afghanistan face violence and threats that undermine their work. An organization called Internews and their local partner Nai are working to improve media freedom and support journalists. They have collected data on 266 incidents of violence against journalists from 2001-2011, including 27 killed and 73 beaten. They created an interactive online map to make this data publicly available in order to increase collaboration and help defend media freedom.
2. The Story
Journalists in Afghanistan face violence, intimidation, and threats that
undermine their ability to produce quality reporting.
Together, Internews and their local partner Nai are working to
improve media freedom, funding and implementing projects designed
to support and train local journalists.
In this case, they are working to document the extremely difficult
circumstances journalists routinely face that prevent them from
carrying out their work.
Open Data Initiative in Afghanistan
4. The Data
Nai's MediaWatch team has collected and aggregated hundreds of
detailed reports of violence against journalists in Afghanistan. The
database covers ten years (2001-2011).
Open Data Initiative in Afghanistan
5. The Intent
We set out to create a visualization that exposes the challenges that
journalists face and allow other CSOs and the public to interact with
Nai’s data through a fast, dynamic, interactive map.
data.Nai.org.af not only allows better analysis of the situation but also
enables collaborations and networking between Afghanistan's CSOs
around data sharing and strengthens links between the media sector
and the broader civil society.
Open Data Initiative in Afghanistan
6.
7. Interactive Data Maps: All data is geotagged down to the
province level and the size of the point represents the number of
reported incidents. Mousing over any point shows specific data for
that province.
8. Visualizing Complex Relationships: To add context, the
site allows you to view additional maps and combine data sets,
from reports of corruption to ethnicity.
9. Granularity in Navigation: The map lets you filter the data
by year. and see data specifically for each province.
10. Raw Data: All the original data is displayed under the map to let
power users see all the details. The listing of data is fully interactive,
so you can select a column and the data will filter for you.
11. Using open data: all data is cited, pointing users to original
source documents.
12. Using open data: all data is cited, pointing users to original
source documents.
13.
14. Using open data: all data is cited, pointing users to original
source documents.
15. Opening Data
Violence against journalists has an impact on media freedom which in
turn affects the work of all CSOs.
That's why this data needs to be shared with others, so that other non-
media organizations can buy-in to defending media freedom, and where
appropriate get involved and collaborate with media organizations like
Nai in protecting journalist rights and their ability to their work.
Open Data Initiative in Afghanistan
16. 100% open data: Users can download the data or the geo data.
17. Powered by Open Source: Both the maps and the code that
power the data browser are made using open source tools.