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Partners of "Women Make the News 2001"
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International Federation of Journalists
Message from IFJ Project Director,
Bettina Peters
http://www.ifj.org
"The International Federation of Journalists is proud to be associated with the 'Women Make the News 2001' initiative to mark International Women's Day. The IFJ, which represents more than 450,000 journalists in over 100 countries, has called on its member organisations to lobby media owners and editors to give editorial responsibility to women journalists during the week of March 5-11.
As long as women still bump their heads on the glass ceiling, we need initiatives like 'Women Make the News 2001' that - if only for a short time - allow women journalists to show their talent as decision-makers in media. Women journalists make an important contribution to quality journalism but often their work is not sufficiently recognised. They still tend to be less well paid than their male colleagues, and they often do not enjoy equal access to promotion or further training.
Together with UNESCO, the IFJ is compiling a survey on the status and conditions of women journalists around the globe. The report will be launched at the IFJ Global Conference "Equality and Quality: Women in the Media" in Seoul, Korea, on 11 June 2001.
A questionnaire on the status of women journalists is posted on the IFJ web site. We hope that many colleagues, media organisations and NGOs will take a moment to fill out the questionnaire and send us any relevant information on success and setbacks of women in journalism.
With your help we want to make sure that gender equality and fair portrayal of women stay firmly on the media's agenda, even after International Women's Day is over."
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International Women's Media Foundation
Message from IWMF Co-Chairs,
Bailey Morris Eck, The Reuters Foundation
Carole Simpson, ABC News
http://www.iwmf.org
"The news media play an increasingly influential role in an increasingly global world. When editors and producers decide which events to cover and how to cover them, they are making critical choices for their readers, listeners and viewers. Yet, in all media, in most countries throughout the world, men most often decide what constitutes the news. Responding to a recent IWMF survey, top international women leaders in the media said that women journalists, more often than their male colleagues, see the human dimension of the news. The world needs this human perspective. The world needs to understand the social, cultural and community aspects of war, peace and economic development.
For that reason, we applaud UNESCO's initiative, 'Women Make News 2001'. If the voices of women remain absent from decision-making positions in the media, the world will lose a valuable perspective. This week will be a reminder of that fact - and a reminder that women's voices need a permanent place in the international media."
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International Association of Women in Radio and Television
Message from the President,
Gundel Krauss Dahl
http://www.iawrt.org
"The International Association of Women in Radio and Television gives full support to the UNESCO / IFJ initiative. By following up and prolonging last year's drive through 'Women Make the News 2001', this project will gain considerably in strength and durability. It could be an eye-opener both to the general public and within the editorial offices themselves. Media management should not see this not as a threat, but look upon it rather as an opportunity to bring new vitality, broader content and a
fresher style into its reporting. IAWRT will make the UNESCO / IFJ initiative known through all channels open to us."
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World Editors Forum (WEF)
Message from Director,
Mogens Schmidt
http://www.wan-press.org
"The World Editors Forum, which has members from all over the world, fully endorses equal rights for female editors and journalists. The World Editors Forum has encouraged all its members to work actively for the rights of female colleagues within the press."
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Asian Media Information & Communication Centre (AMIC)
Message from the Secretary-General,
Vijay Menon
http://www.amic.org.sg
"The Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC) is pleased to partner UNESCO and the IFJ in ‘Women Make the News 2001’. We applaud, endorse and enthusiastically support this commendable initiative.
At an AMIC seminar ‘Women and the Media’ in 1987, participants pointed out that portrayal of women was generally narrow, often demeaning and sometimes damaging. As recommended, in the years that followed, AMIC conducted a study on the access of women to communication education and employment, organized an exchange scheme for women media professionals, and arranged training programmes for women in middle management positions.
Research, carried out in six Asian countries in 1989, revealed that female students in communication programmes generally outnumbered males. But this was not reflected in the gender balance in newspapers. At senior levels in media organizations, the number of women was particular low.
In recent years, due to the combined influence of education, technology and rapid economic growth, women have recorded commendable progress. But this is not adequately reflected in the media.
As the MacBride Commission pointed out almost a quarter century ago, the media are not the fundamental cause of the subordinate status of women, nor can it be remedied by the media alone. But it is within the power of the media to stimulate or retard change to a significant degree.
It is our fervent hope that ‘Women Make the News’, by focusing attention on this critical problem, will serve as a rallying point for collective action to speedily undo the injustice of gender imbalance in the media. AMIC is ready and willing to do its bit."
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Women’s Network of AMARC’s Latin American and Caribbean Programme
Message from Interim WIN AMARC ALC Coordinator,
Ximena Gudino
and Representative of WIN ALC on AMARC Regional Board,
Maria Suarez Toro
http://www.amarc.org/ALC/
"On behalf of the Latin American and Caribbean Women´s Network of AMARC (World Association of Community Radios), we congratulate you for such a significant initiative on International Women´s Day. We will promote your initiative among the more than 200 community radios in our region so that their broadcasts on that day can contribute to give visibility to women and their news.
We welcome this initiative, as we are committed to the promotion of women in decision- making in community radios and in our organization. The Women's International Network of AMARC (AMARC-WIN) is a large assembly of women communicators working to ensure women's right to communicate through and within the community radio movement. WIN works for women's right to communicate as a basic human right expressed through community radio. It supports women's empowerment, gender equity, and a general improvement in the condition and position of women world-wide. It promotes women's access to all levels of community radio, including decision-making. WIN also supports women's efforts to express themselves within and beyond their communities, by providing training programmes and production exchanges at the international and local level. The Women’s Network aims to change negative images of both women and men in the media and to challenge stereotypes being reproduced by media all around the world. WIN subscribes to the principles of the Beijing Platform for Action.
AMARC is non-governmental organization with consultative status at UNESCO and ECOSOC. It has nearly 3000 members and associates in more than 160 countries involved in the development of community radios for the democratization of information and communications. AMARC was created in August 1983, when 600 radio producers from 36 countries gathered in Montreal, Canada, during the International Year of Communications promoted by the United Nations."
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Association des femmes journalistes (AFJ)
Message from Board Member and former President,
Monique Perrot-Lanaud
http://www.femmes-journalistes.org
"The French Association of Women Journalists (AFJ) fully endorses the UNESCO/IFJ ‘Women Make the News’ initiative. AFJ believes that increasing the number of women in decision-making posts is an important step towards greater democracy.
Such an initiative helps draw attention to:
- The unequal opportunities that exist for men and women journalists in newsrooms;
- The insufficient coverage of news concerning and including women and their voices;
- The obstacles that continue to hamper 1) women journalists’ equal participation in the newsroom and 2) the publication of issues of concern to women;
- The link between the presence of women journalists in decision-making positions and a greater visibility of women in news content;
- The significant impact that the publication of news relative to women has on decisions at the political level.
AFJ recently published ‘Dites-le avec des femmes’ (Say It with Women), a book containing four reports on the status of women in news and newsrooms. AFJ awards an annual Documentary Prize at the Creteil Women’s Film Festival, and in 2001 AFJ will launch a Prize and Grant for Women Photojournalists."
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Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE), Uganda
Message from Centre Director
Patricia Munabi
http://www.qweb.kvinnoforum.se/members/fowode.html
"The Forum for Women in Democracy, whose goal is to achieve gender equality in decision-making, supports UNESCO’s initiative. Women have shown their capability of managing multiple roles and being exemplary leaders, proving that they can be excellent editors. We support you."
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Uganda Media Women's Association
Message from Coordinator,
Margaret Sentamu-Masagazi
e-mail: umwa@swiftuganda.com
"On behalf of UWMA, I wish to submit that we support this initiative."
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Foundation for the Future of Colombia (Colfutura)
Message from the Executive Director,
Isabel Londono
e-mail: londonis@unete.com
"El Tiempo, the national newspaper with the highest circulation in Colombia, gave all its editorial pages to women last year on 8 March. I had the privilege to write a column about the law on quotas for women in public office. This column was very instrumental in the approval of the law by the Constituional Court. I believe the issue of including women's issues in the media agenda, as well as the promotion of women to editorial management positions, are very important measures. Though this initiative is very effective, results in the long term are still lacking. But I am sure significant changes will come. I congratulate you in this effort. I am going to call all my journalist friends and the two directors of Colombia's main newspapers (El Tiempo and El Espectador) to encourage them to take part. Thanks for your good work."
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Feminist International Radio Endeavour (FIRE)
Message from the staff
Costa Rica
http://www.fire.or.cr
"Congratulations on such a significant initiative which FIRE fully endorses. We have circulated the press release on ‘Women Make the News 2001’ among all media in Costa Rica and also to the ‘Colegio de Periodistas’ with the objective of getting them involved. On 8 March, FIRE is organizing a marathon webcast dedicated to the global struggles of women against racism called ‘Full Spectrum Women Against Racism’; during the marathon we will also talk about ‘Women Make the News’. FIRE, a non-profit, non-governmental organization, is one of the women-owned media in Costa Rica. We also have two women-owned monthly newspapers. There are at least three women directors in two main radio stations and one main TV station. A lot remains to be done to get women into decision-making in media. Women are working at it."
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International In-Service Training Centre for Journalists, Uzbekistan
Message from Director,
Gulnara Babadjanova
http://oina.freenet.uz
"The International In-Service Training Centre for Journalists is delighted to support this initiative. We have distributed information on ‘Women Make the News’ to media circles in Uzbekistan. As an NGO, we cooperate with many international organizations; one of our main functions is to provide training seminars and conferences for journalists around Uzbekistan. We aim to improve journalists’ professional level, to broaden their contact with media persons from other countries for information exchange, to support the protection of journalists’ rights and to encourage NGO development."
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The Guardian (UK)
Message from Columnist,
Polly Toynbee (British Journalism Award-Columnist of the Year, 1998)
http://www.guardian.co.uk
"This is a splendid initiative. We do need more women in powerful positions in the media. Women often see the world through different eyes, so a male-run media misses out on the experience of half of society."
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