UNESCO AND IFJ LAUNCH “WOMEN MAKE THE NEWS 2001”

             Paris, February 22 (No.2001-25) – UNESCO and the international Federation of Journalists (IFJ) are launching the operation Women Make the News 2001 to call on print, broadcast and electronic media world-wide to place news under the editorial responsibility of women journalists for a full week (March 5 to 11) to mark International Women’s Day, March 8.

             The Web-based operation is designed to draw attention to the fact that, although the number of women in the media is increasing, they are all too few to rise to top positions. By stressing this point, UNESCO is reaffirming the commitment made at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing (China) in 1995 to promote equal professional opportunity for women.

             Women Make the News was first launched on International Women’s Day last year when UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura made an appeal to the world’s media to have women take editorial responsibility for the day. Many international organizations supported the initiative and issued messages backing the operation. Massive support was registered by media organizations. More than 1,000 media from 56 countries took part in the operation and many asked for a similar, but longer, initiative in 2001.

             This year, UNESCO invited the International Federation of Journalists to become a partner in the week-long operation. The IFJ is the world’s largest organization of journalists with some 450,000 members in more than 100 countries. It promotes international action to defend press freedom and issues such as equal opportunities for men and women.

             In June 2001, the IFJ will organize a global conference for women journalists, Equality and Quality: Women in the Media as part of the IFJ World Congress in Seoul (Korea). On this occasion, the results of a joint IFJ/UNESCO survey on the status of women journalists will be released.

             UNESCO and the IFJ believe that it is up to each media organization to determine how it carries out the one-week Women Make the News operation. Last year, for example, some media, for March 8, appointed women editors-in-chief or named them head of newspaper sections, while others chose to publish special features on issues related to women and the media.

             Media organizations are invited to register their participation in the initiative through the Website (www.unesco.org/march8). The site contains the IFJ/UNESCO questionnaire on the status of women. Reactions and proposals are also welcome on the Website.

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