What Happened to Section J? Gender Equality in the World’s Media

What Happened to Section J? Gender Equality in the World’s Media

In 2005, only one woman appeared for every four men as subjects in the world’s radio, television and print news. Expert opinion in the news was also overwhelmingly male. Only 10% of news stories focused centrally on women.

Since 1995 The Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) has produced the longest-running, participatory research on women in the news media around the world. The only initiative of its kind, it engages volunteers in a world-wide effort to monitor national news media from a gender perspective over the course of a single day.

On 9 November 2009, volunteers in 127 countries monitored their news media to gather data for the fourth edition of the Project. Will the preliminary results from 2009 show any change? The panel will present the initial findings to assess progress towards balanced representation and participation of women in the world’s media, and debate what should be done by the media, governments and civil society groups to make progress on Section J (on Women and the Media) of the Beijing Platform for Action.

Panelists:
• Regional perspectives
o Ms. Sharon Bhagwan-Rolls, FemLink Pacific: Media Initiatives for Women, Fiji
o Ms. Amie Joof, Executive Director, Inter Africa Network for Women, Media, Gender Equity and Development, Senegal
• GMMP 2010 – Preliminary Findings: Ms. Lavinia Mohr, Director of Programmes, World Association for Christian Communication (WACC)
• Ms. Saniye Gülser Corat: Director, Division for Gender Equality, Bureau of Strategic Planning, UNESCO
• Mr. Sanjay Suri: Editor in Chief, InterPress Service

Moderator:
• Ms. Joanne Sandler, Deputy Executive Director, UNIFEM

To RSVP for the event please contact Ms. Jennifer Cooper.