Media

The Media Department is happy to announce that three interns have recently joined the Gender Links media and communications team. They come to us from the media departments at the University of Limpopo, National University of Lesotho and the University of Malawi. Welcome to Hunadi, Thato and Daud!

Our work with media regulators continues. The Botswana Press Council adopted a Gender Code of Ethics and will soon start implementing it. In Malawi, the Media Council of Malawi (MCM) is also in the process of consulting its members on its draft gender code of ethics. They intend to have a final and adopted code by 30 April 2011.

On the research front, the department has completed the Gender and Media Prgoress Study (GMPS) and Gender In Media Education (GIME) country reports. Launches have occurred in Lesotho and Malawi. The findings of the research are being used to lobby media houses to adopt gender policies throughout the region.

The GMPS and GIME reports will also be launched in Mozambique and Tanzania in March.

Twenty-two first year students at the National University of Lesotho participated in the recent gender and media literacy course there. The students will work on various projects that demonstrate how they can apply the knowledge and skills learned in the course.

Gender policy work has already started in Swaziland and in March, the department will target Lesotho’s media houses.

A seminar is currently being planned to celebrate the centenary of International Women’s Day (IWD) in Johannesburg. The one-day event will be held at Constitution Hill and highlights will include a book exhibition; graduation of women informal traders who participated in the gender and media literacy course; a debate on the economic empowerment of women and the launch of the ninth Gender and Media Diversity Journal.