GEMSA Newsletter, January 2005
Date: January 31, 2005
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Greetings and happy new year to all! Karibu to new members of GEMSA who may be receiving this newsletter for the first time! You are most welcome to this forum of organisations and individuals who work to “make every voice count, and count that it does.”
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E-Newsletter of the Gender and Media Southern Africa Network |
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Issue 1, January 2005 |
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IN THIS ISSUE: · Letter from Exco · Breakthroughs · Notice board · Gender justice barometer · Network news · Membership barometer · Resources
Remember to send information you think that the network will find useful to: admin@genderlinks.org.za and we will include this in the newsletter. The newsletter reaches over 800 individuals and organisations, so share with us your challenges and successes so that collectively we can build a stronger gender and media network in the region. Contact your GEMSA country representatives: Contact the GEMSA Executive Committee: Chair: Colleen Lowe Morna ( Deputy Chair: Emmanuel Kasongo ( Secretary: Tom Mapesela ( Treasurer: Patricia Made ( We would like to know your thoughts on the newsletter. Write to us at info@genderlinks.org.za We encourage you to send us alerts, news and any other information you think may be of interest to others. Media Institute of Southern Africa Gender Links |
Letter from ExcoDear friends and members (especially new members!) Greetings and happy new year to all! Karibu to new members of GEMSA who may be receiving this newsletter for the first time! You are most welcome to this forum of organisations and individuals who work to “make every voice count, and count that it does.” (Go to the GEMSA website) Exco and committee meetings Although the New Year has just started, it feels like the old year already. On 1 February, the GEMSA Executive Committee met ahead of a Media Partners Consultation to refine GEMSA’s POA, and then had a teleconference with the steering committee. Many members of this committee also participated in the Media Partners Consultation (MPC). Media consultation The MPC on 1 and 2 February, supported by OSISA and NIZA, is itself an example of how GEMSA has been at work since the historic Gender and Media (GEM) Summit in September 2004. Following the summit, some committee members participated in a NIZA meeting in October and others in the Southern African Editors Forum (SAEF) AGM in Two important outcomes of the MPC (see below) are the SADC Civil Society Initiative and the Media Action Plan- MAP- for HIV/AIDS and Gender in Southern Africa, coordinated by SAEF. GEMSA, with other partners, will play an important role in both the policy and training sub-committees of MAP. Exco endorsed participation in MAP as an important priority activity for 2005. What do networks do well? In seeking to prioritise activities for 2005, the GEMSA Exco listed the kinds of activities that a Network – as opposed to other kinds of organisational structure – is best placed to conduct. These included: · Advocacy and campaigns. · Activist research, such as monitoring. · Raising alerts and exerting political pressure through the enormous power of the media that GEMSA is closely linked to. · Conducting audits of performance by national governments in relation to regional and international commitments, such as the audit of the SADC Addendum on the Eradication of violence against women and children. · Networking theme groups within the bigger network (eg trainers). · Sharing of information and best practices. Priorities for 2005 Against this background, Exco prioritised the following activities for 2005: · Advocacy and campaigns: The Beijing Plus Ten Review from 28 February to 11 March, including International Women’s Day (see below); World Press Freedom Day on 3 May (which will be used to launch the Gender and Media Audience Research, where this has taken place); the African Protocol on the Rights of Women (ongoing) and the Sixteen Days 2005. GEMSA has also given its backing to the SADC Civil Society Initiative as a way of calling on leaders to account for progress in achieving the target of thirty percent women in all areas of decision-making by 2005. · Research and monitoring: The main focus this year will be the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) in February that is being coordinated regionally by the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), with technical support globally by the Media Monitoring Project (MMP): both core institutional members of GEMSA (read more about this further down…) · Training: GEMSA, in collaboration with the Southern African Media Trainers (SAMTRAN) Network is forming a Gender and Media Trainers Group that will be working together to mainstream gender in media training, drawing on experiences such as the Polytechnic of Namibia gender mainstreaming pilot project (see new publications). One of the tools that trainers will seek to build on is the Virtual Resource Centre (VRC) that contains case studies from the GMBS. This in turn will be a centre piece of IT training workshops that GEMSA, in partnership with Gender Links, another core institutional partner, hopes to run in all SADC member countries in 2005. These workshops will target trainers (on the VRC) as well as GEMSA members more broadly on the use of ICTs in advocacy, networking and training on gender and the media. They will also be an opportunity to build GEMSA’s membership and profile on the ground. · Policy: In addition to working with SAEF on HIV/AIDS and gender policies in newsrooms, GEMSA will seek this year to develop tools for analysing media laws from a gender perspective. Membership and country level activities At an institutional level, GEMSA hopes to soon have a coordinator in place to ensure regular communication and updating of the membership drive, which continues to gain momentum (see below). But it is important to remember that only so much can happen at regional level. Much of the work of GEMSA Networks takes place at country level. Get in touch with your country representatives to find out how you can be involved! What is in it for me? Membership of GEMSA offers: · Regular news updates on key gender and media developments in the region. · Access to a substantial and growing database of gender and media activists. · Information on new publications. · The possibility of linking local initiatives to regional and international campaigns, garnering support for, and maximizing the impact of your work on the ground. · The opportunity to participate in the biennial GEMSA general meeting which, in the tradition of the GEM Summit, will be a market place rich in ideas and examples of what works. What can you contribute? Your time, ideas, passion and creativity are vital to the success of GEMSA! Let us know what you think about the GEMSA POA for this year and how you might like to get involved. Make your voice count, and count that it does! With warm regards from Colleen (clmorna@mweb.co.za) – Chair; Emmanuel (ekasongo@coppernet.zm) – Deputy Chair; Pat (chisamiso@webmail.co.za) Treasurer; Tom (tmapesela@yahoo.co.uk) – Secretary; Jenny (jennifer@misa.org.na) Exco member. Breakthroughs!Media partners join hands to promote diversity and free speech Johannesburg, 8 February: In an unprecedented show of solidarity, regional media organisations have formed an alliance to promote more balanced reporting on HIV/AIDS and gender as well as fight for press freedom in Southern Africa. The Media Partners Consultation that took place in Johannesburg from 2-3 February adopted a Media Action Plan (MAP) on HIV/AIDS and Gender spearheaded by the Southern African Editor’s Forum (SAEF). The meeting, which brought together over 30 representatives of media organisations and funders from around the region, also backed a proposal to engage with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on civil society participation in key meetings of the regional body, starting with the Heads of State summit in Gaborone in August 2005. Read more by clicking here. For information contact: For more information on GL and GEMSA’s involvement in the MPC contact Colleen Lowe Morna on 082-651-6995 or email clmorna@mweb.co.za Notice boardSouth teaches north as cyber dialogues go global! The cyber dialogues, invented by gender and media activists in Africa, are taking to the global arena with a daily newspaper and online discussions at the Beijing + 10 Review in New York from 28 February to 11 March. Brainchild of Gender Links which piloted daily Internet link ups between community groups across Partners from around the globe are joining the initiative that will have a strong African foundation. Partners on the continent include GEMSA and GEMSA country chapters; FEMNET; Wildaf and ISIS. These groups will be facilitating access by women around the continent to the discussion that will take place at 9 am New York time on 2-4 March and 7-11 March. As in the case of the Sixteen Days, GEMSA will run a daily e-newsletter with brief highlights each day and information on how to join the chat. For more information on how to get involved contact kubi@genderlinks.org.za and watch this space for more information!
INSTRAW call for contributions INSTRAW is looking for brief commentaries on your experience(s) at one or more of the UN women’s conferences – Mexico 1975, Nairobi 1980, Copenhagen 1985, Beijing 1995, and the Beijing+5 special session in 2000- and how this experience has affected your life or women’s/gender issues in your community. Experiences may be anecdotal accounts of the conferences themselves, discussions of the relevance of these conferences to the women’s rights agenda, or critical reviews of the implementation of the conference conclusions. They will be featured on the Beijing Review section of the INSTRAW website: http://www.un-instraw.org/en/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=888&Itemid=158.
(Source: GAIN)
Global Media Monitoring Project GEMSA Global Media Monitoring country coordinators recently participated in a training workshop in preparation for the GMMP which will take place in February. Eighty-eight countries are expected to participate in the GMMP which will study the representation of women and men in news media – television, radio and newspapers. All countries will use a standard set of monitoring tools to collect the necessary data and the monitoring will involve both quantitative and qualitative analyses. MISA is coordinating the Southern African input while the Media Monitoring Project in Contact your GEMSA GMMP coordinator in your country for more information: Gender justice barometer16 Days of Activism December 10th marked the end of the 16 Days of Activism campaign for 2004. For GEMSA the campaign culminated in a regional video conference which linked Reports from many countries indicate that the 16 Days of Activism received a great deal of media coverage, with many media using survivors of violence as sources for their stories. Throughout the region, GEMSA and GEM representatives united under the theme ‘Peace begins at home’ and participated in and hosted a number of activities including a cyber dialogue in To view the GEMSA newsletters produced during the 16 Days of Activism Campaign click here.. Boost for women in local government as SADC deadline draws near As the deadline for the 30 percent of women in decision-making target set by SADC Heads of State draws near, there are signs that some countries have made strides in achieving this. But in other countries the low numbers of women are cause for concern. The Lesotho IEC has announced that one-third of the overall 1 272 seats in the local government will be reserved for women. These will be rotational within the first two terms of the local governance – an attempt to decentralise governance and make it more participatory. All political parties registered with the IEC in The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) of In In contrast in The Assembly of Heads of States of the African Union decided on a 50 percent quota for the appointment of women at the African Union and urged SADC to do the same. Ironically, this decision was taken at a meeting in (By Tom Mapesela) Network NewsActivists and media get acquainted in Media Watch Organisation arranged for members of 15 NGOs to visit to La Sentinelle Ltd – the largest media house in the SADC region – on January 25th. The purpose of the visit was for civil society organisations to get a better understanding of how media works. The 30-member delegation was hosted by Jean Claude de L’Estrac, Director General of La Sentinelle and Editor in Chief of all newspapers within the media house. New members of MWO include CEDEM, the Idriss Goomany Centre, Lupus Alers, Audrey Kelly a reporter at L’Express, Georgina Ragaven, the Chairperson of Teens in Control and Lovania Pertab. GEMSA Member barometer
Total GEMSA members at end January 2005 = 77 Become a GEMSA member by filling out the GEMSA membership form at: https://www.genderlinks.org.za/gemsa/membership.asp ResourcesGetting it Right: Gender and Media in Southern Africa Edited by Colleen Lowe Morna The book is a compilation of the ideas, strategies and tools shared and discussed at the historic Gender and Media Summit held in 2004. It includes a CD-Rom which, in addition to the case studies provided in the book, allows users to access actual artifacts, tools and outputs that are described. Over 50 experts and practitioners from across the region have contributed to the rich insights and examples contained in this book. They stand as testimony to the groundswell of support for a media that is more representative of and responsive to the women and men of Southern Africa. The book costs R100.00 and can be ordered from Susan Tolmay at susan@genderlinks.org.za Gender in Entry Level Journalism: Lessons from the Polytechnic of Namiba Department of Media Technology / Gender Links Pilot Project This book describes the strategies adopted, steps taken and lessons learned during a pilot project to mainstream gender into entry level journalism education at the Department of Media Technology, Polytechnic of Namibia. It documents one of the most far-reaching efforts to mainstream gender in media education in Southern Africa and possibly even further afield. The book costs R50.00 and can be ordered from Susan Tolmay at susan@genderlinks.org.za Gender and the information revolution in Africa Edited by Eva M. Rathgeber and Edith Ofwona Adera The essays in this book examine the current and potential impact of the ICT explosion in Africa. They focus specifically on gender issues and analyze the extent to which women’s needs and preferences are being served. The authors underscore the need for information to be made directly relevant to the needs of rural women, whether in the areas of agriculture, health, micro-enterprise, or education. They argue that it is not enough for women simply to be passive participants in the development of ICTs in Africa. Women must also be decision-makers and actors in the process of using the new ICTs to accelerate African economic, social, and political development. The book is published by the International Development Research Centre and available through their website: http://web.idrc.ca/ev_en.php?ID=9409_201&ID2=DO_TOPIC Creating Voice and Carving Space: Redefining Governance from a Gender Perspective (Source: CIVICUS Newsletter No 237). |
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