Diversity Exchange, Issue 18, July 2011

Date: July 12, 2011

Diversity Exchange

Issue 18 | July 2011

Contents

Editor’s Note

By Saeanna Chingamuka

As much as we demand freedom of expression and professionalism in the media, the latest scandal involving News of the World, begs more of how we define media freedom as embraced in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World is recently closed down after being embroiled in a phone-hacking scandal. My four questions are: when we talk about freedom of expression, who has the right to media freedom? Who has the right of access to information? How do those who have rights use them responsibly? How do we balance this freedom with ethics that govern journalism as a profession? Read more…


		GMDC News

Debates on Access to Information in Africa intensify

Those interested in freedom of expression issues would agree with me that debates on access to information in Africa have intensified. First it was the Draft Model Law for African Union Member States on Access to Information that has been released into the public domain by the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to information in Africa, Commissioner Faith Pansy Tlakula. Read more…

Ensuring women’s rights to Access to Information (ATI)

The release of the draft Model Law on Access to Information for AU Member States for public comments provides an opportunity for gender dimensions of ATI to be explored before it is adopted in October 2011. While this is a positive development to ensure improved accessibility of information as well as increased openness and accountability of public institutions, it remains worrisome that this model is silent on the gendered nature of ATI. Read more…

Africa Information and Media Summit: 17-19 September 2011

To mark the 20th year of the Windhoek Declaration, the Windhoek +20 Campaign on Access to Information in Africa is convening the Pan African Conference on Access to Information (PACAI). The conference will run from 17 to 19 September 2011 in Cape Town. Read more…

Tanzania Centres of Excellence launch

Gender Links (GL) will launch its media Centres of Excellence (COE) in Tanzania on the 9th of August 2011. This ground breaking project, funded by the UK Aid’s Department for International Development (DFID), seeks to work with six media houses in Tanzania to mainstream gender in media content and practice. Read more…

Gender and Media Regulation in Southern Africa

The Swaziland Media Complaints Commission (MCC), a self regulatory media body has been registered by the government of Swaziland after a long-drawn registration process spanning four years. According to the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), the registration of the MCC marks the end of a 14-year struggle by the media in Swaziland to operationalize media self-regulation. Read more…

Celebrating fathers, let’s hear about the role models

Too rarely, do we hear of the stories of positive role models, the children who say that “without Dad, life just would not be the same.” Instead, we usually hear about the poor example of fathers, the men who are absent, uncaring or even use their children as a way to ââ‚¬Ëœget back’ at the women with whom they share these children. Read more…

Media Alert: Editor perpetuates blatant stereotypes

In Issue 14 (February 2011) of the Diversity Exchange, we reported the sexual assault of Lara Logan, a renowned female journalist practicing in the US. Logan was beaten and sexually assaulted by a mob at Tahrir Square during the uprisings in Egypt. Two months ago, Logan began to speak about the assault to help end the stigma around rape. Read more…

What has gender got to do with media freedom?

Gender and media freedom was a hot topic at the GMDC Advisory Group meeting held in Johannesburg from 19 to 20 May 2011. Rosemary Okello, a GMDC International Advisory Group member, reported on the proceedings of the 5-6 May 2011 celebrations of Windhoek +20 in Windhoek, Namibia. Okello noted that a task team set up to revise the Windhoek Declaration, highlighted the fact that gender is not mainstreamed in the document. Read more…

Centres of Excellence: A first for the south

Following its extensive work with the media in the last decade, Gender Links is establishing Centres of Excellence (COEs) in gender mainstreaming in both the media and media and journalism training institutions. Read more…

Eye on video

If you take 10 minutes out of your busy day to watch this YouTube clip, it will be 10 minutes well spent. Produced by Chedza Media in 2009, this short film takes a hard look at the role of men and the church in decreasing levels of gender-based violence in South Africa. The film argues that in order to understand gender-based violence, it is necessary to understand men and why they might perpetuate abuse Read more…


		Partner News

Media and Information Literacy and women

The aspect of media and information literacy is closely related to access to information. Media literacy provides participants with skills to be able to access information from different mediums, engage with it critically and create information that is relevant to their needs. Gender and media literacy has been one way women and men have challenged media about how they represent women and in a way forced the media to also produce gender-sensitive stories and adverts. Read more…

Voices of women in newsrooms and rural Africa

The International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) is transforming the reporting of agriculture and rural development by giving voice to rural women farmers. With support from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, the IWMF has launched the Reporting on Women and Agriculture: Africa (RWA) programme. RWA aims to help African journalists boost coverage of rural issues and to increase women’s voices – both as journalists and as sources – in stories about agriculture. Read more…

Opportunities: Editor: Opinion and Commentary Service, reports, publications

Gender Links, a dynamic Southern African NGO based in Johannesburg, invites applications for the post of Editor of its Opinion and Commentary Service, reports and publications. All applications must be received by close of business on Friday 22 July 2010. Late applications will not be considered. Read more…

Opportunities: Scholarships for New Media Women Entrepreneurs in India

The International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) is offering an opportunity for two women entrepreneurs in the new media sector to join an upcoming class of Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women in India. Through 10,000 Women, participants receive a world class education focused on helping entrepreneurs to think big and grow their businesses. Selected women entrepreneurs will receive full scholarships to participate in the training program in Pune from September 19, 2011 to November 21, 2011. Read more…


		GL Opinion & Commentaries

Mauritius: The Call

There are signs in one’s life that are only understood when one looks back in the rear-view mirror. Why was I not successful in achieving the goals I set myself? There were recurrent obstacles on my road towards a career. I could hardly understand the reasons and in moments of discouragement, my elder sister would simply tell me: “There is always a better reason why something you want doesn’t happen!” Read more…

Zambia: Caring for the deaf

My passion to help the deaf and differently-abled comes from my friendship with a man called Rueben, who is now dead. He taught me sign language and was 19 when he died. He had developed water in the spinal cord and I helped interpret for him at the hospital and also paid his hospital bills. Read more…

Lesotho: Voice of the voiceless

No child under my care goes to bed hungry and all have the opportunity to access primary, secondary and tertiary education. Losing their parents is no longer the end of the road for these children. Women and children abuse, which was rife in my community, is virtually abolished today thanks to my influence and persistence to protect. I am training and mobilising support for care-givers in other communities to create a network across the country. I feel more people need to get involved. The arrival of HIV and AIDS, the stigma, the abuse and the death that accompanied the pandemic represented a turning point for me. As a mother of seven, I felt constant ache in my heart for the children who had no one to turn to in their darkest hour. I attribute my passion and dedication to my grandparents, who raised me and taught me to live a productive life and never hang around idle. Read more…


		Seminars

Gender, media freedom and access to information

On 3 May 2011, the world celebrated World Press Freedom Day. For Africa, the 2011 celebration is special as it marks 20 years of the Windhoek Declaration. However, there can be no press freedom in Africa until women’s voices are equally heard in the media. The questions arising are: has the Windhoek Declaration enhanced media ownership by women? Are women’s voices represented in the media? What are the lessons learned over the last 20 years? What can Africa do going forward? Read more…


		Upcoming Events

Gender Links Polytechnic of Namibia, MISA and University of Namibia, 21 July 2011, Gender, media freedom and access to information seminar, Windhoek, Namibia

Gender Links, MISA Tanzania and University of Dar es Salaam, 9 August 2011, Gender, media freedom and access to information seminar, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Gender Links, Media Monitoring Africa and MISA South Africa, 15 August 2011, Gender, media freedom and Access to Information seminar, Johannesburg, South Africa


		GMDC Databases

Clippings

Give fathers a chance- Botswana Gazette

Some Botswana men are defying the stereotype of the traditional father. Fathers used to be distant disciplinary figures whose role was to put food on the table and bark out orders. I have recently noticed a new generation of men who apparently juggle corporate accounts. They run off to soccer matches with their children in tow and know all the ins and outs of their children’s lives. Read more…

Taxi driver rapes boy, 10 – The Midweek Sun

A 39 year old taxi driver of Zezuru origin was on Monday released from police custody in Palapye following his arrest on Saturday evening shortly after dragging a ten year old standard four boy to the bush where he allegedly raped him. It is a heart rending story of an otherwise jovial and hyperactive child who would not have guessed at what was about to happen to him when his trusted driver offered to help hm. Relating the sordid events of his ordeal to both his famiy and later to the police, the young boy still exuded his happy go lucky element and spoke with the confidence, bravery and authority of someone triple his age. Read more…

Father shoots wife and daughters – Cape Times

The last words Sandla heard coming from the Ndude’s family home in Langa yesterday morning were hayi dad (no dad). This was followed by a gun shots and then the silence. He entered the house and found the Ndude family, the father Thabo, wife Nosolomzi and their two daughters, Lihla eight and Hlomla four laying on the floor in Zone 23 Langa. Little Hlomla was the only survivor of the shooting. Read more…

Research

Caveats in doing fatherhood research

Traditionally, academic research on families has focused on mothers or children; only recently have researchers become concerned with testing specific hypotheses about fathers. Similarly, most government-sponsored, policy-oriented family research has focused on mothers rather than fathers, even when men were present in the home. By contrast, newer family assistance programmes embrace a variety of specific goals relating to the encouragement of father involvement. These programmes often serve specific target populations and are typically part of integrated services designed to benefit at-risk populations. Measurement and evaluation strategies, however, have tended to focus on broad indicators of social problems (for example, rates of unemployment, school dropout, teenage pregnancy, and child support payment) rather than indicators of fathering in relation to child outcomes. Read more…

Masculinity and male gender identity in advertising

This is a research paper by a journalism student at Stellenbosch University. The essay offers a critical discussion of masculinity and male gender identity in South African advertising. This is done by, firstly, looking at how masculinity or – more correctly – masculinities are defined and understood. Secondly, this essay looks at how these ideas of masculinity are portrayed in advertisements. This discussion is situated within the ambit of media literacy. Potter defines “media literacy” as “a perspective from which we expose ourselves to the media and interpret the meanings of the messages we encounter” (1998: 5). Because the media largely construct our ideas of reality, we – as media consumers – need to be able to understand these messages so as not to develop “faulty beliefs” of the world (Potter, 1998: 38). Read more…

Masculinities and multiple-sexual-partners in KwaZulu-Natal: The making and unmaking of isoka

This paper examines one dominant element of masculinities worldwide – the high value placed on men’s “success” with women. In southern Africa, where HIV infection rates are typically one in four, sexual networks characterised by multiple concurrent sexual partners are said to be an important factor driving the AIDS pandemic (HSRC, 2002). Given the tragic levels of AIDS deaths today, masculinities that celebrate multiple sexual partners are facing intense criticism in African communities Read more…

Case Studies

A father who served with distinction – The Herald

This article celebrates the life of a father, the late Phillip Mbofana, who raised his children with love and respect. In doing so, his love trickled to his community and work place. The article is based largely on the memories and accounts of Mbofana’s children, who provide examples of the way in which their father was an extraordinary gentleman. Read more…

Dear dad… – Sunday Independent

This is a story that was published for Father’s Day. It is about a woman who regrets neglecting her father for many years until her father died. She tells of how painful it feels to be away from her parents for many years and to only to see them when they die. The writer says she focused on building her career and forgot about visiting or calling her father. This story poses a different perspective to regular stories written for Father’s Day. While most stories focus on absent fathers or the role of fathers as caregivers, this story angle is from the child’s perspective. Read more…

Oh Father, Where Art Thou? – The Sunday Independent

Father’s Day has a different meaning to different people. For some it is a commercial venture, whereas for others it is a day when children yearn for their absent fathers. This article is about how children need father figures to teach them constructions of masculinity and identity. The story focuses on the need for young boys to have a father figure, without making any mention of young girls. This is a gender-blind perspective as it ignores female children on the basis of their sex. The writer also blames fathers for the high rates of gender violence because they are not present to teach their children how to behave in moral ways. While the writer presents the importance of fathers in boys’ lives, the journalist fails to provide evidence of her speculation that young men become abusers and rapists because they do not have fathers. Read more…

Publications

Teenage Tata: Voices of young fathers in South Africa

Teenage Tata: Voices of young fathers in South Africa provides a fresh and in-depth portrait of impoverished young South African men who became fathers while teenagers. It provides space for their articulate and impassioned voices to be heard amidst the outcry against the absence of fathers, and offers insights into young fathers’ personal, emotional, financial and cultural struggles as they come to terms with fatherhood. The study highlights young fathers’ strong sense of responsibility; poignant accounts of emotional engagement with their children and the women in their lives; the motivating power of young fathers’ own absent fathers on their parenting intentions; their desire for sex- and relationship-education from male family members and their clear recognition of the help they need. Read more…

Baba: Men and Fatherhood in South Africa

Baba: Men and Fatherhood in South Africa provides answers to some of the most difficult questions about fatherhood in South Africa: Who is a father? What does it mean to be a father? Is it important for fathers to do more for children in a world that assumes that mothers take the primary parenting role? Do different people understand fatherhood in different ways? What evidence is there of new fatherhood styles emerging in South Africa? Read more…

Promoting Gender Equality in Education

This publication was originally designed in 2003 when the Gender in Education Network in Asia-Pacific (GENIA) was established. Few gender in education resources were available at that time, and until the 2006 version, documents were mainly intended to be used by GENIA members, who are representatives (gender focal points) from ministries of education in the Asia-Pacific region. GENIA members have been using the Toolkit to sensitize and train their national counterparts ever since. Read more…


		Internships				Members

Internships

Ntolo Lekau

I am Ntolo Lekau and I work as an intern at Lesotho GL Office. Prior to joining Gender Links formally as an intern in August 2010, I did volunteer work with the Lesotho GL Office by assisting the Lesotho Country Facilitator during the first GL Gender Justice and Local Government Summit and Awards earlier in 2010. As a college graduate from the Lesotho College of Education, I was looking forward to kick starting my career by doing something exiting and I was fortunate to be granted an opportunity to work with Gender Links. Read more…

Members

African Fathers Initiative

This month the GMDC will sign an MOU with the African Fathers Initiative. African Fathers Initiative is an Africa-wide organisation aiming at improving the well-being of children and families by promoting involved, responsible and committed fathers. We aim to build an African consensus that active involved fathers can improve men, women and children’s lives. From our base in Harare, Zimbabwe we involve all men and women who want to know more about the value of fathering and fatherhood initiatives throughout Africa. Read more…

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Diversity Exchange, Issue 18, July 2011

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