Diversity Exchange, Issue 19, August 2011

Date: August 12, 2011

Diversity Exchange

Issue 19 | August 2011

Contents

Editor’s Note

By Saeanna Chingamuka
In our newsletter last month, we highlighted the phone-hacking scandal that witnessed the closure of the News of the World, newspaper. The closure of the 168 year old newspaper is an opportunity for citizens to question the issue of rights and responsibilities. The scandal is far from ending as Murdoch and his family still have to answer to a number of issues. August is women’s month in South Africa. On 1 August 2011, South Africans were shocked with a column in one newspaper titled “Haffajee does it for white masters” written by Eric Miyeni. The column prompted debate on social media and within newspapers about media ethics, responsible journalism as well as the role of the editors. Read more…


		GMDC News

Gender Links becomes a coalition member of Windhoek +20 campaign

Gender Links (GL) is now a coalition member of the Windhoek +20 campaign. Among other things, GL will be canvassing the draft declaration on access to information with its partners, host seminars that provide citizens with a platform to debate access to information issues, put together a journal and also input in the overall programme of the Pan African Conference on Access to Information. Read more…

Declaration on Access to information in Africa out for comment

The second draft Declaration on Access to Information was released on 20 July 2011. The declaration acknowledges that access to information “is the right of all natural and legal to seek, access and obtain information from public bodies and private bodies acting in a public nature.” The Declaration will be adopted at a session that will bring together two important conferences Read more…

Tanzania pioneers the launch of media Centres of Excellence in SADC

The 9th of August will be a big day for the GL’s gender and media programme. The first Media Centres of Excellence will be launched in Tanzania. The COE project is a follow up to the gender and media research, advocacy, training and policy work that GL has been conducting in SADC since its establishment in 2001. GL will work with 8 Tanzania media houses representing 32 newsrooms. Read more…

Angola Business Unusual

Gender Links (GL), in its capacity as the coordinating organisation of the Southern Africa Gender Protocol Alliance will be conducting a gender and economic reporting workshop in Luanda, Angola ahead of the Heads of State (HOS) Summit in August 2011. The workshop will be collaboration between GL, the Angola Journalism Training Institute, the Association of female journalists and the Association of Economic journalists. Read more…

Zimbabwean wins Caine Prize

Zimbabwean author NoViolet Bulawayo won a major African literary award the Caine Prize for her short story about a starving gang of children from a shanty town who steal guavas from an upmarket suburb. The story titled Hitting Budapest is about six children including one who is pregnant with her grandfather’s baby. Read more…

Celebrating women in broadcast

August is women’s month in South Africa. We say our farewells to Oprah Winfrey as her talk show comes to an end after running on television in different countries for 25 seasons. To bring these celebrations closer to home, Gender Links caught up with three women who have made it in the broadcasting sector in SADC in different capacities. Read more…

The curtain comes down on News of the World

End justifies the means. Here today, gone tomorrow. This has been the fate of a 168 year old British tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch which bowed from the world stage in July 2011. There I was trying to just get a glimpse of the News of the World website. And the banner on that could as well have been shaped as a tombstone. Read more…

Beyond Broadcast: the “Oprah Effect”

If you sat in my living room during the last three episodes of The Oprah Winfrey Show, you would think I was a lifelong, die-hard fan. I was transfixed by the last moments of Oprah on television. My head nodded in fervent agreement. I laughed. I must admit I cried. I had a notebook in my lap and a pen in my hand as I took notes of Oprah’s final words of wisdom to the world. Read more…

Palestine’s Norwegians: Questioning diversity in Norway

My I-Phone pinged, and news came of the bombing in Oslo and the massacre on UtÁƒ ¸ya Island. The dead at the latter were from the Workers’ Youth League (AUF), linked to the Norwegian Labour Party, but with roots in the Communist and Socialist movements of the 1920s. The current Prime Minister of Norway, Jens Stoltenberg, was once leader of the AUF. The initial reaction in the West was that the attacks had been conducted by Muslim jihadis. Read more…

Eye on video

This short video is part of the farewell that was put together for Oprah Winfrey, to celebrate her as a woman who has changed the lives of many people in the world. We celebrate her as a woman who has made an impact on the broadcast industry. Read more…


		Partner News

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. The objectives of this meeting include; exchanging knowledge and experience on information rights and access in Africa Read more…

Call for contributions: Gender and Media Diversity Journal Issue 10

The Gender and Media Diversity Centre (GMDC) seeks proposals for contributions to its tenth journal that will enhance the development and sharing of knowledge, best practices and debate around media diversity, as well as promote probing, analytical and contextual journalism. The Gender and Media Diversity Journal (GMDJ) is the biennial journal of the GMDC, a physical and virtual resource centre based in Southern Africa, managed by Gender Links with linkages in Africa and across the globe. Read more…

Opportunity: 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. The successful candidate will have at least ten years experience in writing/ editing for the media and publications Read more…


		GL Opinion & Commentaries

South Africa: A humorous perspective on the serious issue of women’s rights

Imagine if, in celebration of Women’s Month, men and women could switch places for just a short while, to experience life in the other’s shoes? Women in South Africa face one of the highest rates of gender violence in the world. If abusers could experience violence first hand, even for just a day, would it open their eyes to the physical, emotional, and psychological harm caused? Society and culture often undervalue women. If men could experience being ignored, or discounted, just because of their gender, would it be a catalyst for change? Read more…

Women’s Day: Overcoming a different apartheid

It is an image that has become the symbol of youth resistance to political oppression. A young man, Mbuyisa Makhubo, runs through the streets of Soweto cradling the limp body of a boy, Hector Pieterson, clad in school uniform, blood oozing from his mouth. The boyââ‚¬â„¢s sister, Antoinette Sithole, runs along with the pair, her right palm open wide, her face inscribed with the horror of the fate that has befallen her little brother; a fate that befell many other young South Africans that day in 1976. Read more…

South Africa: Sowetan furore casts shadow over Womenââ‚¬â„¢s Month

I am confused and disappointed about the public discourse and happenings in this special August month of women. 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 and MISA, 8 August 2011, Gender, media freedom and access to information seminar, Hotel School: Windhoek, Namibia, 18h00-20h00

Gender Links, MISA Tanzania and University of Dar es Salaam, 9 August 2011, Gender, media freedom and access to information seminar, Mt Kilimanjaro Hotel: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 18h00-20h00

Gender Links, Media Monitoring Africa and MISA South Africa, 16 August 2011, Gender, media freedom and access to information seminar, GL Offices: Johannesburg, South Africa, 18h00-20h00


		GMDC Databases

Clippings

Haffajee does in for white masters – Sowetan

Julius Malema must never answer a Ferial Haffajee. Who the devil is she anyway if not a black snack in the grass, deployed by white capital to sow discord among black? In the 80s she would probably have had a burning tyre around her neck. We know where she comes from. She was groomed by the Mail and guardian, the some news paper that produced the Jacob Dlaminis of this world, black people who say it was nice to live in the township under apartheid. Read more…

Rape suspect has 12-day erection – The Voice

A man accused of statutory rape has received the sympathy of a magistrate and a prosecutor after appearing in court with a throbbing 12 -day old boner. Read more…

Song not an insult to women – Sowetan

Mandla Magwaza, whose song has hit the Top 20 on Ukhozi FM, is in the middle of a row between the station and Universal Music’s top house DJ Choice. An irate DJ accused the station of implying that it will no longer play his song. A fuming Choice denied that his song, Casanova, denigrated women as claimed by station. Read more…

Research

The female voyeur and the possibility of a pornography for women: Redefining the gaze of desire

Psychoanalytic film theory, which informs most film theory, defines the gaze as premised upon an unequal relationship between men and women: the active viewing subject is inevitably male while the passive object is always female. Pornography is perceived as extending this misogyny because the pleasure offered by sexually explicit images is believed to be accessible only to men, the holders of the active and controlling gaze. Women are, accordingly objectified and degraded by male voyeurism. Read more…

The portrayal of women in television advertisements on SABC3: A reflection on stereotypical representation

Media representations of minority groups particularly representations of women has been a popular and contested area of research and an important issue in public debate. This study involves an analysis of sampled television advertisements drawn from SABC3. The way that the media represents women is a part of women’s issues. These issues in South Africa continue to feature prominently in state policy and initiatives that emphasise the point that many of the issues that have faced women in the past require constant revisiting to understand the current state of women in society. Read more…

The media and domestic violence in Zimbabwe

n spite of the enactment of the Domestic Violence Act, domestic violence is still prevalent in fictional work such as drama and soaps on the only station in Zimbabwe. This study concentrates mainly on physical abuse as depicted in locally produced fictional programs. Viewers look forward to these but they are also heavily influenced by the actors, especially the young viewers. It is not uncommon to hear people discussing or arguing about characters in soaps and drama as if they are real. Read more…

Case Studies

The lens of life – Daily Sun

In this article, Happy Baloyi features Nozipho Radebe, a 25 year old woman who has found her joy in creative production and broadcasting. She recently finished a 30 minute film entitled Positive Truth. Nozipho uses her camera (lens) to express her perspective of life. Read more…

Metro FM boss marched out – Sowetan

Metro FM station manager, Matona Sekupwanya, was dismissed before her five-year contract expired. She was told not to return to work the following day, with security escorting her from the premises. All her office equipment (laptop, 3G card, access card and cell phone) were seized from her that afternoon. Read more…

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…

Publications

Gender Stereotyping: Transnational Legal Perspectives

Drawing on domestic and international law, as well as on judgments given by courts and human rights treaty bodies, Gender Stereotyping offers perspectives on ways gender stereotypes might be eliminated through the transnational legal process in order to ensure women’s equality and the full exercise of their human rights. A leading international framework for debates on the subject of stereotypes, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, was adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly and defines what constitutes discrimination against women. Read more…

New questions, new insights, new approaches

Rapid and dramatically changing digital and converging media and communication processes have given rise to new questions about the relations between children, youth and media. This book contains presentations made at the World Summit on Media for Children and Youth. For children and youth, the many media platforms of today are often combined into the trinity of internet, television and mobile phone. They intersperse a myriad of optional applications providing increasing possibilities to engage individual users interests and mark their activities. Yet social networking, blogging, producing alternative media contents on the internet etc are possible only for those who have access to these media. Emerging from the books articles are the deep structural media divides within and between countries ââ‚¬” divides that in their turn depend on economic, social, political and cultural inequalities in society that are much more sluggish. Read more…

Gender, rights and religion at the crossroads

This IDS Bulletin questions what the intersection of global, local and national politics means for policy and practice in the realm of religion and gender. It brings together scholars, scholar-activists and development practitioners to share their analyses of the critical challenges and opportunities that are transforming their realities today. A workshop at IDS in September 2010 took the debates further, leading to a series of interventions, shared in this issue. One of the clear messages that emerged from both the workshop and these articles is that the current scholarly approach to the study of gender and religion is wanting – because it is locked in a binary framework of secularism vs religion, modernity vs tradition and moderates vs extremists. We need new lenses to engage with the complexities of the politics of gender, which means the deconstruction of the old, and greater conceptual clarity over what is meant by the religious and the secular. Read more…


		Internships				Members

Internships

Laurentia Golley

My name is Laurentia Geraldine Golley. I hail from a small village in the South of Namibia called Aroab. It is situated about 600km from the capital Windhoek. I completed my primary school at Oosterheim Junior Secondary School. Secondary school was completed at Taben College in Windhoek. Read more…

Members

Malawi Institute of Journalism

The Malawi Institute of Journalism (MIJ) is a leading training institution for professional journalism. MIJ is the only training institution in the region with its own radio station and a news paper. With over 10 years of experience MIJ is committed to maintaining excellence in developing media independence and professionalism. Read more…

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Diversity Exchange, Issue 19, August 2011

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