Editor’s note by Saeanna Chingamuka

Welcome to Issue 22 of the Diversity Exchange!

Sex, politics and power seem to be at the centre of news in both the West as well as in the South. Dominique Strauss-Kahn is at the centre of a series of sex scandals that have allegedly thwarted his political aspirations to become the next president in France. As much as he is unpopular in his home country now, the French generally draw a distinct line between the personal and the political. So we could be in for a surprise in the next elections in France.

In South Africa, recent revelations that Sports Minister Filike Mbalula had sex with Joyce Molamu, during a separation from his wife, have prompted public debate about how public the private lives of politicians should be. Mbalula has called on young people to be faithful to their partners in the context of the fight against HIV and Aids. Media commentators have justified publication of the story on the basis that it was in the public interest to know about his hypocrisy, as it raises questions about his trustworthiness as a politician.  President Jacob Zuma, a polygamist who has had several liaisons in addition to his many wives, sparked off the debate

Women bloggers are calling for an end to gender based violence on line.   Crude insults, aggressive threats and unstinting ridicule: it’s business as usual in the world of website news commentary À“ at least for the women who regularly contribute to the national debate. The frequency of the violent online invective À“ or “trolling” À“ levelled at female commentators and columnists is now causing some of the best known names in journalism to hesitate before publishing their opinions. As a result, women writers across the political spectrum are joining to call for a stop to the largely anonymous name-calling. This campaign would not have come at a better time than now when the world is preparing for the 2011 Sixteen Days of Activism. The global theme for 2011 Sixteen Days of Activism Against Gender Violence campaign is From peace in the Home to Peace in the World: Let’s Challenge Militarism and End Violence against Women! Militarism is the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests. Southern Africa will link with the global theme under the banner: From peace in the home to peace in the world; end gender violence by 2015!

Different organisations are coming up with different and exciting ways to create awareness on gender based violence. As part of the UNiTE campaign to End Violence Against Women and Girls, the Southern African Regional Office of UN Women has commissioned Afroes to create a mobile game targeting young people. The free mobile game is a quiz adaptation of the hugely popular Southern African board game Morabaraba À“ also known as Umlabalaba or Zulu Chess (LINK). The game adds a quiz element that forces users to answer questions about GBV À“ and in doing so educates and empowers users about GBV.

As part of larger efforts to improve media’s coverage of gender based violence, Gender Links (GL) is running a series of training workshops for the media in the Southern African Development Community. This training project, taking place just a few weeks before the commencement of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence, complements the media centres for gender in the media project which offers thematic training for media in the region.

With a few days to the world conference on climate change, COP 17, different stakeholders are anticipating that Durban will yield concrete outcomes on how countries can improve efforts to adapt to climate change as well as the adoption of a green climate change fund to assist developing counties deal with effects of climate change. Gender Links in partnership with the African Women and Child Feature Service will be producing a daily online newsletter on gender and climate change from 28 November to 9 December 2011.

Throughout the Sixteen Days of Activism Gender Links will host cyber dialogues that will daily cross over to the conference, making the link between gender and climate justice.   These will culminate in a GMDC seminar on this topic on 9 December. The different seminars will discuss how communities are adapting to the effects of climate change as well how the green climate fund can benefit women. GL, which will host cyber dialogues every day during the Sixteen Days Campaign except on weekends, will start each discussion with a 10-20 minute update from COP 17.

The discussion on the Draft Model law on Access to Information   for AU member states has been extended. The Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information, Advocate Pansy Tlakula recently attended a consultative meeting in Senegal for the West Africa region. The next consultative meeting will be held in January 2012 in Egypt for the North Africa region.   The draft is expected to be adopted at the 51st session of the AU in April 2012. What is still missing are the gender dimensions of access to information which should be articulated in the draft model law.  

While positive signals elsewhere in the continent show that governments are embracing principles of freedom of expression, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) seems to be retrogressing. Namibia and South Africa, once beacons of media freedom in the region are no longer conducive environments for the press according to Freedom House, an independent watchdog organisation that supports the expansion of media freedom around the world.   Yet, there can be no media freedom unless women’s voices are heard in the media.

We feature a new documentary that has just been released titled Miss Representation. Actress-activist Rosario Dawson notes the importance it is for women to write their own stories. This is equally important in entertainment and in journalism alike. Yet as she discusses in the film, today’s media climate is extremely toxic for women and girls, and for people of color. That is because the main purpose of TV programming today is not to entertain, engage or inform us. Sad but true: the purpose is to generate sky-high profits for the six major conglomerates (Disney, Time Warner, NewsCorp, Viacom, CBS and General Electric) that own and control the vast majority of what we are given to watch, see, hear and play in newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, movies, billboards and video games. As a result, women are misrepresented and marginalized as op-ed writers, front-page news sources, lead anchors, and broadcast journalism commentators… that is, when they aren’t missing entirely.

The GMDC has put out a call for applications for the January to June 2012 internship. Students from Southern Africa universities, who have to do experiential learning as part of their learning, are encouraged to apply.

The GMDC knowledge hub is offering new information which can be used by trainers and researchers for topics related to gender, media and diversity. Each issue highlights three items from each of our databases: newspaper clippings, case studies, research and publications. Our “Mirror on the mediaÀ section provides an analysis of how the media covered a cybercrime case.

Finally, the GMDC will soon be signing an MOU with Lovelife, an NGO based in Johannesburg, South Africa.