Welcome monitors!

Comment from David Kapp on 17/05/2006 4:24 pm:

Woman, what are you worth?

What are you worth,
unemployed woman
in the townships?
in the kitchen?
in the office?
in the bedroom?

Are you worth less, in pink,
than the boys, in blue?

Are you worth more or less than your
blue-eyed and blonde compatriots,
worth less or more than your straight-haired and
sharp-nosed counterparts?
(and what about your model-shaped colleagues?)

What are you worth,
sex worker in the streets?
sex worker in the kitchen?
sex worker in the office?
sex worker in the bedroom?

Are you worth more than
a priest or politician in a 4X4?
a TV presenter?
a glossy magazine editor?
the machinist in the factory?

What are you worth,
unemployed woman?

Woman, what is your value,
to yourself?
your community?
to society?

Woman, how many special days
do you need?
A Mother’s Day?
A National Women’s Day?
An International Women’s Day?

16 days of activism?

How many more days do we need,
Women, Men and Children?

David Kapp, South Africa, written Thurs, 25 Nov 2004, 0730am, the morning of our 16 days of activism.

Comment from David Kapp on 17/05/2006 4:22 pm:

Everybody wants headlines

‘Gods have clay feet’ said my mom,
some many years ago, in response
to my disappointment on learning
that Mao Tse-tung drank alcohol

Down there – or up there –
depending on your status,
in Jacob Zuma-land

Everybody wants headlines

Down here – or up there –
depending on your vote,
in 2-City-Manager-land

Everybody wants headlines

Up there – or up yours –
depending on your affiliation,
in gangster-territory or turf
(Hanover Park or Hout Bay)

Everybody wants headlines

When might you make it
to the front-pages
not baring your chest (hair)
cultural weapon in hand

not barefoot and pregnant
not for rape
not for murder
not for anything
not a trial by media
subliminal or otherwise
generally corrupt
or otherwise

When are going to
come out of the shadows
make your parents proud
make your community proud
make yourself proud

With a headline of your own

DK, Western Cape, South Africa, written Sunday, May 14, 2006, the title taken from something someone said on ‘The Editors’ and / or ‘Media at SAFM’ radio programme I listen to regularly.

Comment from oliver omotto on 21/04/2006 8:05 am:

once again i wish to highlight that i meant the leadership position in the media. The mainstream media now boasts of only 3 women in its management positions.
Women need more recognition. Congrats to Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai. But who thinks she can now be a full minister. The president (Mr Mwai Kibaki) surely doesn't think so, despite Wangari's achievements.
As media practitioners we need to change the status quo. Journalism schools should be equiped to be able to train journalist on coverage of genger issues. It is high time media houses recruit Gender Editors who will specialise on highlighting gender issues.
It is even a shame to see how our media thrives on cheap political gossips and sensationalism, while a the people are langusihing in poverty.
What happened to people watch dog? Have we finally degenerated to become lap dogs and gurd dogs of the political elite?

Comment from oliver omotto on 21/04/2006 7:55 am:

Thank you for this noble duty of campaigning for social equality. Women have been ignored whenever it comes to leadership.
In Kenya, there are only 3 women in leadership positions so far: Rose Kimotho (kameme fm), Lucy Oriang' (Nation Media) and Pamella (Standard).
Even worse from the cabinet which has only 3 female ministers.
KEnyan women need more positions. They need a levelled playing ground in order fro them to compete fairly with their male counterparts.
Keep up the faith!

Comment from Crimson Tazvinzwa on 27/03/2006 12:50 am:

On 21 March 2006 the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)reported that Mugabe's government has drafted a Bill to spy into telephonic and e-mail messages while making it compulsory for service providers to install the enabling equipment on behalf of the state.

The proposed law, the Interception of Communications Bill 2006, empowers the chief of defence intelligence, the Central Intelligence Organisation(CIO), the Police and the Commissioner General of the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority to intercept telephonic, e-mail and cell phone messages.

The Bill also allows state agencies to open mail passing through the post and through licensed courier service providers.

This comes despite a Supreme Court ruling two years ago, which deemed unconstitutional Sections 98 and 103 of the Posts and Telecommunications (PTC) Act because they violated Section 20 of the Constitution.

Section 20 guarantees freedom of expression, freedom to receive and impart ideas without interference with one’s correspondence.

The Bill compels telecommunications services providers to install software and hardware to enable them to intercept and store information as directed by the state. In my view this smells of the last nail into the coffin of freedom of expression and association in Zimbabwe. This new development makes almost impossible for people of Zimbabwe to communicate with the outside world and with each other without the state listening in. This apparently is a travesty of justice and freedom and compromises the right for Zimbabweans to receive and impart information without fear of persecution.

Comment from Anna Turley, WACC on 08/03/2006 3:03 pm:

The front page of The Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk), a leading liberal British broadsheet newspaper is covered with statistics about women to mark International Women's Day. Much of the content of the inside of the paper is also dedicated to exploring various gender issues. Great to see this. Shame that none of the statistics on the front page are from GMMP 2005!

Comment from Aleksandra, Montenegro on 07/03/2006 11:32 am:

2 texts published in daily news DAN:

First is published in part called Family: Title: "Save peace in home and money in valet--March the 8 is here". Advice for men, how to manipulate with women and wives. Some of advice (they called it extra recopies for love) are: “You have to buy the flowers, or you have to be clever and buy only one but special(It is cheaper)... You need postcard with I love you message and candy in box with heard shape…If you don't do it, you will be miserable for the rest of the year…On the end, you have to present to her all your costs…

Second text is affirmative and called: In municipality of Kotor women are majority in local parliament and have the most of responsible functions-Title is ” Pants are not privilege of man”

Comment from GFUA AFRICA on 07/03/2006 10:54 am:

Anybody can make a news/report about what happened in a particular incident. It depend on to the reader or receiver of the information given. In our African culture, we are use that a jounalist must be a Man. But we have realised that anybody who is given an equal opportunity can fullfi the matter.

Comment from GFUA AFRICA on 07/03/2006 10:53 am:

I am greatly happy to repoart that it is a great pleasure as my Government/president gave an equal opportunity in a leadership of our county - Tanzania EA.
Our member of parlianment as well as council of Ministers is consisting, at least more than 30% of women as people representatives.
It is an interesting information as it proves that, even women can do better into key position of leadership.
My personal acssesment shows that, even daily reporting into our news instruments like News papers, TVs and others are mostly done by women, who are given an opportunities as jounarlists.
So it is a progress of equal oppotunities to all sex.

Comment from Amanda Watson on 07/03/2006 10:37 am:

My students have done a small media monitoring project here in Papua New Guinea over the last couple of weeks, and the results are striking. A couple of the major media outlets are quite balanced in their presentation of gender. Some others demonstrate similar results to the GMMP key findings.

One interesting thing is that there are more female journalists than male journalists in Papua New Guinea. There are also some females in editorial roles. Perhaps this helps to get a more balanced perspective into the final media coverage.

The full results will be posted onto the GMMP website, and the DWU website
(www.dwu.ac.pg) once the report is completed within the next week.

Amanda Watson, lecturer, Divine Word University, Papua New Guinea.

Comment from Aleksandra, Montenegro on 04/03/2006 6:27 pm:

Daily news „Pobjeda”, 4.03., interesting announcement for Women Day: Center for transfusion organize voluntary giving of blood for women

3.03. Daily news „Dan”:”Project:Roma women can do it”, and subtitle:

„From poverty to politic”( We found this subtitle very strange and discriminative).In text:explanation of project and status of Roma women in Montenegro-96% of Roma women are analphabet and live in chain of traditional community...

Comment from Benaz Batrawi on 04/03/2006 1:41 pm:

I like this project and believe in it although I did not have the chance to participate in it either last year or this year for several reasons. Having said that does not mean that Iam not folowing up on the contrary I do here Iam stating an example. I just watched Egyptian movie about marginalized young women under the title of "Girls of the down town". The film was amazing about representing women in a different way they were simple, active, full of life and hope,they were untraditional and they have dreams of love, marriage and career. The traditional Arab society would accuse those girls of being a way from traditions and mainstream while this film gave them a space to say whatever they want and to express themselves the way they want it.
Good for the alternative media "Independent Cinema"
Benaz Batrawi
Trainer and Consultant in Gender and Media
Palestine

Comment from Mehriban Zeynalova on 03/03/2006 4:46 pm:

We’ve begun to conduct monitoring about gender situation in Azerbaijan in some newspapers. And we’ve run into a very interesting situation.
I connect to my colleagues. We’ve already spoken, written about gender inequality for some years, but, unfortunately, the problem remains the problem. We think that in the main women journalists must be more active in this problem. And we’ve conducted the 3-days seminar for women journalists. We’ve discussed the problem and decided that we must struggle for our rights with editors ourselves. And to compel them to respect women’s opinion. For example, almost all the materials in our newspapers are about the politics and economics. And men’s opinion is only published in the newspapers. They apply to women specialists very seldom. In spite of there are very good women specialists in Azerbaijan. Or when both of the specialists were interviewed (man and woman) then men’s opinion is only published in the newspaper or it’s noted more place for man specialist in the page of the newspaper. And also man’s photography is published. But woman’s photo isn’t published. Unfortunately, bare women’s photos are only published with pleasure in the newspapers. But not those women who can think and struggle.
After some time we’ll submit you the results of our mini monitoring.

Mehriban Zeynalova
The head of the "Clean World" Social Union for Civil Rights AZERBAIJAN

Comment from Crimson Tazvinzwa on 03/03/2006 1:10 am:

This is a general comment on the media coverage of the situation in Zimbabwe. I have just observed that we hardly hear anything about Mugabe's evil dictatorship anymore. The world media it seems has decided to give a blind eye on the hardships experienced by thousands of innocent people in that country. Does this mean that the plight of Zimbabweans has become less important than other issues elsewhere in the world? I find it very disappointing that the world's attention on Zimbabwe has become almost extinct, a development that leaves Mugabe with a free hand to torture and maim opponents of his policies at will.

Comment from Aleksandra, Montenegro on 02/03/2006 2:40 pm:

Text in daily newspaper DAN,1.03.

„Montenegrin love steak for Women day”

„Ladies and their companion(gentlemen) on Women Day in „City cafe”can enjoy in Montenegrin love steak, specially prepared for this day. In the evening of March the 8, special program called ” She was so beautiful”...For all guests plenty of food for consummation price of 15 euros...".

Comment from Veerle (senior student Belgium) on 02/03/2006 2:23 pm:

Some other issues, monitoring other media…

The film entitled 'Grbavica" by a young Bosnian female director, Jasmila Zbanic, won the top award at the international film festival in Berlin. Grbavica is the name of a suburb of Sarajevo but is also a term for "woman with a hump" that refers to raped women. The movie focuses on the problems of rape during the war in Bosnie-Herzogovina.

We‘ve discovered a website (www.peeceefobie.be) that gives a very stereotypical image of women.
This website is meant to sensibilize people to use their computer in a safe way and offers tips to protect your computer against viruses. On the website we see a woman in her kitchen. She wears a pink and white checkered dress and a white apron. In the left corner you see a washing machine and a basket full of laundry. Even if you see through the window of her kitchen you can see laundry hanging on a washing line.
The site has absolutely nothing to do with computers (you only see a laptop on her kitchen table) and the creators of this campaign could have thought of something different to made their point. Instead, they chose to make this stereotypical campaign.

Comment from Katrijn and Ann (senior students Belgium) on 02/03/2006 2:19 pm:

We found an article in the newspaper “De Standaard” on Monday 20th of February about students who set up mini-enterprises in Flemish secondary schools. It's a project guided by VLAJO (Flemish Young Enterprises). The article is full page sized and includes 4 pictures of students involved in the project. The interesting fact here is that 3 of the 4 pictures show female students. Similarly in 2 of the 3 testimonies, female students are talking. In our opinion, this article is clearly a challenge for the 'male entrepreneur' stereotype.

Comment from Mathieu, Astrid and Frédéric (senior students Belgium) on 02/03/2006 2:17 pm:

A paper without women
"De Tijd" is an economic newspaper published in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium. It gives an interesting example of imbalance between men and women in the graphic representation. For example, if you take the main part of "De Tijd" of Friday 17th February 2006, there are – advertising not included – 18 pictures representing people, all men. If you include the advertising, there are 22 pictures representing people: 21 men and one woman. Another example with the main part of "De Tijd" of Thurstday 23th Febuary 2006. The 18 pictures – advertising not included – represent men (in one of them, you can see women, but the main subject of the photograph is a man). Including the advertising, all of the 20 pictures represent men.

Sport journalist
We found an article in "La Libre Belgique" of the 12th January 2006 (a French speaking daily newspaper in Belgium) about a woman who works as a sport journalist in Belgium. You must know that in Belgium (and especially in the French part of Belgium) they are not many women working in this kind of job. In this article, you find totally an in-appropriated comment: the journalist of "La Libre Belgique" says in a sentence: (...) this young mother. It may be a subtlety but we don’t think that the journalist would say the same thing for a man (like (...) this young father). And in the same article, the journalist describes the fact that the female journalist has admiration for a football player. Would he write the same for a man? Often the sport journalist can be impressed by a team but we don’t see often comments about his favourite ( understood: most beautiful) player. That may mean: she is a woman who has interest in football and she watches the players. She is impressed “in this men world”. The journalist of the newspaper writes also that the woman knows all the rules and details of football. We’re asking: why a woman couldn’t know everything about football? Is that a men’s privilege?

Comment from Lisa, Inge en Michelle (senior students Belgium) on 02/03/2006 2:13 pm:

Critical reading of popular or so-called 'high-standard' newspapers in Belgium shows an immense (ab)use of stereotypes. This is - in my opinion - also the case with another mass-medium: television. Using stereotypes of people by the media-producer eases and fastens the media-users' (mis)understanding of the concerning text/image. But the categorisation of people and/or their specific characteristics in/by media is often restrictive, old-fashioned, sexist and implies or emerges a moral judgement about which personal qualities are favourable (good or bad) in a certain time-space context or a society. It produces and re-enforces prejudgements.
Gender is nowadays a 'hot topic' and gender-awareness is steadily growing. Still... it is hard to decide which media texts are really subversive, breaking-up conservative role patterns, ideas and male-bias in media - in favour of women!
Some examples of all kind:

Newspaper: De Morgen, ( quality newspaper ) sat.25feb weekend edition
- an article about luxurious bathrooms seems to suggest that only women need to take a shower! Why using only female nude in the pictures? The male gaze as a marketing strategy?
- a political interview with top politician Johan Vande Lanotte (sp.a) and top trade unionist Xavier Verboven (ABBV) about their relation is titled: 'We're not girls'. What does this title presupposes? We're not quareling? We're not soft? In my opinion a totally misplaced title.
- an article (written by a female journalist!) about the violent death of a famous Iraki female journalist Atwar Bahjat in Samarra last week. In the article she is praised for her commitment, courage and her neutral/objective reporting about the war in her homeland Irak. She is put as an example/role model for all reporters and for the Arabic community (Bahjat was half soennitic, half sjiitic)
This article provides us an image of a strong, intellectual, (Arabic/muslim) women.
- a vacancy for a job shows a picture of a women without face and on her badge is written 'stupid chicken' instead of her name and function. The text beneath explains this 'advertisement' is about the fact women earn 24% less than men do. Is it a campaign for raising consciousness about this subject?

Newspaper: Het Laatste Nieuws, ( popular newspaper ) mon.27feb.
- an article about popular mediaperson Luc Appermont who visits his foster child Cherry in Manilla is titled: 'without me, Cherry would be a prostitute'. This title draws the attention to his male, white, western generosity instead of discussing the problem of poverty and prostitution in Manilla. I think this is a missed opportunity!
- this newspaper comments a lot of TV-shows, some examples:
- Big Brother, zero privacy: a short introduction of all participants is given. It is striking how the introduction of the female participants is focused on their reproductive role and how the introduction of the male participants is focussed on their 'productive' role. Three out of six women are introduced as mother or being pregnant. None of the six male participants are fathers?! I hardly believe...
(instead they're playing hockey, working at the café,...)
- A short article about an informative programme on the public channel 'Koppen Justitie' makes clear that the female journalist Caroline Vandenberghe has to simplify difficult law-items for a broad audience. Law is what you could say a 'hard' subject. Nice a female journalist is engaging with it? But her task is to be the mediator, to make it all understanding, play the communicative role, ... often associated with female (lower, less capable of...) characteristics.

Comment from Evi and Ann (senior students Belgium) on 02/03/2006 2:08 pm:

In the Belgian popular newspaper “Het Laatste Nieuws” (largest audience) the Lingerie Bowl gets as much attention as the Super Bowl, a worldwide known football game. The front page of the sport section showed us a picture of men playing football during the Super Bowl and a picture of women playing “football” in their lingerie. If you just count, you should say that men and women are equally represented. But the only reason why the Lingerie Bowl was mentioned in the newspaper was because it were beautiful women playing football with not many clothes on. The text next to the pictures says that both games were very exciting and that the result of the Lingerie Bowl didn’t matter.

Comment from Katrien and Stéphanie (senior students Belgium) on 02/03/2006 2:05 pm:

In the left winged quality newspaper ‘de Morgen’ of Belgium, we saw last week a big photo with a woman on it who was watching at the Kellogs boxes in a shop. The title of the article started with ‘diet’. When you see these elements you immediately think of an other new story about women and being on a diet. That was wrong. When I read the article I learned about the history of Kellogs and only at the end there where some words about the fact that it isn’t as healthy as we think. So they never even mention women. We can see the photo as a missed opportunity because they could have set a man on the picture. Why did they use a woman when they didn’t wrote about them?

Comment from Pieter, Tim en Dado (senior students) on 02/03/2006 2:01 pm:

A column in the Belgian newspaper ‘De Standaard’ deals with sex stereotyping. The male columnist talks about the single wage-earners. He himself, being the single wage-earner in his relationship, is very much in favour of this system. Despite feminism and good will, sex stereotyping continues to exist. His case is even more serious than most others. He can’t cook, can’t iron his shirts, doesn’t do the dishes and so on. A survey states that women spend 36 minutes a day out shopping, men 26 minutes. So, in the columnist’s case, the relation is 62 (36+26) shopping minutes for his wife. And what’s more, he argues, his wife is an expert in these things and likes doing them. Of course he realises that the single wage-earners are becoming scarce, and if they ever wind up alone, the big loss awaits them. But hey, there’s always a solution to that: a younger woman with not too many ambitions in her life.

The Belgian paper ‘Het Nieuwsblad’ published an article on the 1th of March about the fact that women are mostly outnumbered in the Parliaments all over the world, but that the situation is turning. It’s remarkable that the country that is viewed as most ‘woman-friendly’, concerning the representation in Parliaments, is Rwanda. Belgium is ranked on the 11th position, but Herman De Croo, chairman of the Belgian Chamber, says to be proud about the Belgian position and also about the global evolution. But there is also a negative newsfact in this case: the number of countries without women elected for the parliament, has not reduced.

Comment from Sharon Thelemque on 01/03/2006 11:10 am:

Since the begining of the GMMP campaign I have been reading the Seychelles daily newspaper every day and it is dissapointing to see that women are still being marginalised. In one issue last week in twelve national items only one source was a woman. It sad to see that the paper is gender biased and sadder to see that the reporters who are the
majority women are gender blind.
Sharon Thelemque (Seychelles)

Comment from Al Alegre on 01/03/2006 8:45 am:

AS some of you probably know, there is a brewing political crisis in the Philippines, and a constroversial state of emergency has been proclaimed, opposed by democrats and activists of all stripes.

Who makes the news in the Philippines? Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, our woman "president", and thousands of activists (men and women) opposing her.

Below is our organization's statement:

PROCLAMATION 1017: A THREAT TO COMMUNICATION RIGHTS
Statement of the Foundation for Media Alternatives
February 25, 2006

The Foundation for Media Alternatives adds its voice to the growing
national chorus expressing grave misgivings at the issuance of
Proclamation 1017 declaring a national state of emergency. Although we
grant the State the prerogative to protect itself from unlawful threats,
we draw the line when the state itself becomes the threat to democracy and
human rights.

We leave it to the lawyers to question the Proclamation's flimsy legal
and factual basis, even as we concur with an initial assessment of the
Proclamation being an overreaction of an Administration increasingly eager
to quell voices questioning its mandate to govern.

We will not discuss for now the irony that the Proclamation has already
been used as a weapon against the citizens'right to peaceably assemble,
and in fact became the basis to arrest peaceful marchers commemorating the
20th anniversary of the EDSA People Power I revolt.

What most disturbs FMA--a civil society organization that promotes
communication rights as essential to any democratic society--is how
Proclamation 1017 poses a clear threat to freedom of expression, media
freedom, and other civil liberties essential for exercising the right to
communicate.

We note with concern how one of the premises of the Proclamation was how
the national media, in its exercise of its duty to report on the issues of
the day, had been tagged as a contributing factor to destabilization. We
note with skepticism at how the National Telecommunications Commission
(NTC) is already moving beyond its mandate to act as a de facto censor for
all anti-government views expressed in media. We view with alarm the
explicit threat of outright takeover of private media organizations by the
state.

These implicit and actual threats contained in this Proclamation only
serve to proscribe media practitioners' performance of their duty to
report the events of the day through the strict and skewed prism of
"national security"; this creates a chilling effect on all media which may
lead to actual censorship of the press. Furthermore, any curtailment of
media freedom will only amount to the erosion of the basic right of
citizens to freedom of expression.

The right to communicate flows from the various rights which give citizens
and communities the freedom to use the social communication processes
available to them in order to construct a socio-political order which
embodies their highest democratic ideals.

Proclamation 1017 only serves to further deny this, and will only put the
country closer to the edge of the dangerous abyss of authoritarianism.

Alan Alegre
Executive Director
info <at> fma <dot> ph

Comment from Sandra on 28/02/2006 2:42 pm:

Hi all,

I thought I would tell everybody about an exciting new application that should be available for the 3 weeks next year. The Monitoring Made Easy tool by Media Monitoring Project, has been developed and customised for a Southern African audience to make monitoring for gender issues easy for all gender / media organisations. This easy-to-use programme has extensive guides on how to monitor, capture and produce reports on monitoring. We trust that it will make regional monitoring projects easier as the methodology is already standardised. If you want more information, please email me – sandrar@mediamonitoring.org.za or go to http://mediamonitoring.org.za/cms/files/MMEblurb.pdf . This application will help us build on the momentum and monitoring information gained through the GMMP. Best, Sandra

Comment from Anna Turley on 27/02/2006 4:05 pm:

There is an interesting article in the UK newspaper, The Guardian today called 'I was not only tough, but rough' by Esther Rantzen. You can read the article at:
http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,1718465,00.html

Esther Rantzen is a well-known female TV presenter in the UK. In her article she talks about what a difficult and sometimes unreasonable boss she was when working in the media. The article raises the uncomfortable question of how women sometimes behave when they finally do reach the upper echelons of the mainstrem media. Rantzen implies that many women once they reach management positions behave in 'unsisterly' ways and do not facilitate the career development of other women in the media. This is an issue that many gender and media activists are often unwilling to confront because by recognising that this sometimes happens, we are blaming women for their low level of advancement in the media. This is an issue that was also raised by some female journalists at the roundtable discussion that was part of the international launch of the GMMP 2005 results in London. What do other people think?

Perhaps the biggest problem with Rantzen's article is that is implies that the most senior level of the media is over run with women. This is absolutely not the case. As the GMMP 2005 results show, whilst women as presenters and repporters are increasing, no where in the world are do they form the majority of reporters and presenters (except on TV and there women as presenters is clearly linked with age and appearance). The GMMP 2005 results do not look specifically at women in senior decision making positins in the media but other research and the national, regional and global level shows that there are still very few women in senior decision making positions. There remains a tough glass ceiling in the media just as in many other industries.

Comment from Gemma on 27/02/2006 11:56 am:

Fantastic! Well done to WACC, MMP and all the other participants all over the world! This is a wonderful advocacy effort.

Comment from Bieke on 24/02/2006 8:25 am:

Hi, at the University of Gent (Belgium) we are taking action in this amazing GMMP-project! Our workshop with 20 students is working out fine! :-) The students are looking for interesting news about 'women in the media' and will post their experiences next Thursday! So, watch out for our comments ont this blog!!!

Comment from Myriam on 22/02/2006 6:11 pm:

Thanx for this, enlightning. Feel free to add links to the articles if they are online. For us, on the 16th, we started very well: first day of the campaign and on the front page of the Metro (free newspaper available in most European cities and beyond now, but with a local angle coverage), which many Londoners read when we catch the underground/subway to work. On the first day of the campaign the front page of the Metro was showing a 2/3 page picture of the arrival of Rapper Kenye West (spelling?) at the British Music Award the night before. The picture showed around 10 girls wearing nothing but a bra and a thong each, all painted in gold and all wearing the same haircut. The picture was taken from the back so you can easily imagine the view. If we had any doubt that Western media was ahead of any other media regarding gender representation (as we were often asked), on the first day of the campaign, we got the answer. The GMMP report is right, there is no difference and the issue is a global one.

Comment from Lindiwe Sola on 22/02/2006 1:06 pm:

I was reading the Observer/World on 22/02/06,the article entitled 'D-day for the 'new Mugabe' of Africa. The article was reported by a Richard Dowden on the 19th. It covers various men and one woman extensively, the only other woman mentioned is Janet, as the president's formidable wife.Allow me to repeat the story in brief, not 'briefs'.Ist to be mentioned is President Yoweri Museveni, then his opponent Dr Kizza Besigye and the news is about their political lives.Next comes government spokesman Roger Kamushega representing the president, then Andrew Mwenda described as the most articulate government critic, a radio journalist.Eriya Kategaya is another man, this one opposes the president's decision to serve another term.Then the extensively covered woman, Winnie Byanyima, a Ugandan MP who was once the president's girlfriend.The article then shows a history of the said affair and how she, after failing to get the president to divorce said formidable wife, she then married his opponent Besigye.She has currently come out fighting against the president by threatening to expose several love children fathered by the president.Apparently this female MP has nothing political to say about this political battle except 'woman talk'hey!Wither goest the Observer?

Comment from Aleksandra on 21/02/2006 10:03 am:

Montenegrin daily news "Dan":, 20.02.:"Gender equality law in Montenegro will be adopted in the middle of 2006" and announcement for today 21.02. round table about gender sensitive language with experts from Serbia &Montenegro and region of Europe

Comment from Sheila George on 19/02/2006 11:32 am:

Here in Washington, D.C. in the United States, today's Washington Post (19 February 2006) has a front-page feature story "After War Injury, An Iraq Vet Takes On Politics" on a female Army helicopter pilot who lost both legs in Iraq who is now running for political office in the U.S. Congress.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-...icle/2006/02/18/AR2006021801295.html. It is a pretty long story, covering a full page on the inside of the A Section. It features 5 photos that I would consider standard "politian photo op" photos (meeting voters, walking with staff, etc.) It does have a photo that shows her disablity - artifical legs peeking out from a long skirt as she strides along a street, but it is not exploitive. It seems like a pretty balanced story on a female veteran running for political office, but there is one tiny paragraph that I am not sure how to analyse:
"A self-described girlie girl whose favorite color is pink, she watches "America's Next Top Model" and laments not being able to wear feminine shoes. She has ordered special prosthetic "runway feet" that will allow for a two-inch heel...she still wears pink. She has a baseball jersey that reads, "Dude, where's my leg?"

This is a very small part of a very long, serious article that shows many sides of Tammy Duckworth: Army helicopter pilot, veteran, Ph.D, married to a husband she describes as "a true partner" - how should we view this one paragraph? Is it the reporter's way of showing the personal,female side of this Army vet and politican? Is this how the interviewee really did automatically characterize herself, or was it as a result of leading questions by the reporter? Is this an example of gender biased reporting? What do you think?

Cheers,
Sheila

Comment from Colleen Lowe-Morna and Loveness Jambaya on 17/02/2006 4:23 pm:

GMMP and snapshot of Southern Africa
Southern Africa has made some strides towards achieving greater balance in the news and newsrooms but it is clear that there is still a long way from achieving gender equality.

Prior to the GMMP 2005, Gender Links and the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) conducted a Gender and Media Baseline Study (GMBS) in 2002 drawing on GMMP’s two previous researches. The GMBS however was a more in-depth regional study as it was conducted over a month. Results showed that women were under represented – of the 25 000 news items monitored, women constituted only 17% of news sources.

Following this study all 13 Southern African countries participated in the GMMP 2005 thus providing a useful benchmark for the region on how far it has come in achieving gender equality in media. The study revealed that women sources have increased from 17% in 2002 to 19% in 2005. Also nine out of the 13 SADC countries showed an improvement with South Africa now leading the way with 26%. Further analysis shows that six of these were above the global average of 21% - Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. The seven which were below the global average included: Angola Botswana, Lesotho, Seychelles, Tanzania and Zambia.
Among the key findings:
• There has been some improvement in women’s voices being heard in hard news
• But this is still out of sync with women’s strengths and professions
• Women are most likely to be approached as news sources in their personal rather than in their professional capacity
• More stories than not challenge stereotypes: Southern Africa is the only sub-region in the study in which the proportion of stories categorised as challenging stereotypes (4%) is higher than those classified as reinforcing stereotypes(3%)
• Blatant and more subtle stereotypes abound
• Gender still hardly features as a topic
• There has been a dramatic increase of women in print media and there is a greater diversity of women in different beats
• Women journalists are more likely to consult female views
• But the major challenge is still to find gender angles in all beats and all stories
• And to deepen awareness that gender balance is good for journalism, as well as for business.

Please engage on these findings on this blog even if you are from outside the Southern African region – Making every voice count and counting that it does

Comment from Loveness Jambaya on 17/02/2006 12:28 pm:

Analysis of The Sun, United Kingdom newspaper.
Background: The Sun is one of the tabloids that attracts the largest female readership in United Kingdom yet notorious for its negative portrayal of women. The question is – Is this what women want to read? Is this why they buy the Sun? But there are a lot of opportunities for gender aware reporting that the Sun and other newspapers can use. It is not that every news story should be bogged down with too much detail and analysis but gender dimensions to different stories should be explored and aim to make gender aware reporting second nature for reporters.
An example: Thursday, 16th February, 2006, The Sun story Note saves Kidnap girl By LACHLAN CARTWRIGHT, Summary: The story was about a 13 year old girl who was kidnapped by a 35 year old man. She got saved by the note she threw out of the window from the apartment she was being held. The 35 year old man has since been arrested on kidnapping the minor.
The story could have been written differently to make it more gender sensitive. While it is plausible that the reporter picked up that she is a minor, the reporter could have picked on the implications of the kidnapping on the minor who is a girl. He could have explored other angles such as statistics on the prevalence rate of these kind of kidnappings.
Please send comments on what women would want to read in newspapers to this blog.

Comment from Song, Za kam on 11/02/2006 2:30 am:

Congratulation new Blog.
It can access easily in Burma, Bagan Cybertech banned many sites .Blogger.com also access denied.
Thanks
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Tedim PO,
myanmar
tel;0095 70 50134

Comment from David Lin on 09/02/2006 11:49 am:

Congratulations to your web effort in making the GMMP campaign more accessible through the Internet. I promoted the GMMP when attending the Asia and the Pacific WACC Excom meetings held in Hong Kong and Fiji in the past couple of weeks. A blog like this will definitely allow more people to participate, even in those countries such as South Korea that does not have GMMP activity yet. Keep up the good work!

David Lin
<On transit in Hong Kong International Airport, homeward bound>