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Freedom of Speech and Gender Equity Project

Gender mainstreaming report

Members and non-members can apply for Research Postion

IAWRT has secured UNESCO funding to develop a project based on the successes of the 2014-2015 pilot Gender Mainstreaming Project (GMP). 

This will further our work in the area of freedom of speech and gender equality in the media. The 2014-2015 pilot GMP resulted in the report, pictured, Gender Equality and Social Justice in Public Media available here which was based on media monitoring research in 8 countries and the designing and presentation of IAWRT workshops and discussions on gender equality in the media inspired by that report.

In the the upcoming 2018 GMP,  we are planning to develop a handbook for media students, journalists, and media professionals, based on our experiences and best practices from the GMP pilot and additional research. It will focus in particular on best practices from the Global South. Then this will be followed up by workshops in all 14 countries where IAWRT has chapters to provide applied learning grounded in the handbook.

IAWRT is now calling for applicants for a researcher & report writer position to take responsibility for collecting and compiling experiences and examples of best practices, based on the GMP pilot study and additional research, particularly focusing on South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and India.focusing on the key questions

●Why is gender equality important and what items related to gender equality are more often reported by women journalist and neglected by males?

● How journalists, editors, and producers understand the importance of gender balance in the media, and what works best to convey the message of gender equality to media practitioners. 

● How journalists, editors, and producers see the need for concrete guidelines on how gender equality can be realized in the media

● What strategies are helpful in keeping gender equality in focus throughout the daily difficulties and challenges of media work.

● What are the biggest obstacles to realizing gender equality in and through the media in practice and what are the best ways/examples of overcoming them

● What are the biggest cultural taboos that prevent gender balance from being reached in and by the media and how to overcome them.

● What is the need for guidelines and policies on how to prevent sexual harassment in media organizations and hate speech towards journalists.

The full text of the call for applicants and the application form attached below. Deadline May 21 2018.

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Preaching the ‘Gospel’ of Digital Safety

photo Maundu

Video Editor, Filmmaker

Digital Safety Trainer & Consultant

Nairobi, Kenya

What type of projects do you do?

I edit raw footage of different programs into a sequence that tells a story. I input music, dialogue, graphics and sound effects, consulting with producers from production to the post-production process. Developsuperior skills and expertise in handling computer editing equipment, video switching devices. Organize and assemble video segments to deliver continuous and sequential stories to a specified length

As a digital safety trainer, I conduct training on how to stay safe online. Everything we do is becoming traceable, the websites we visit, who we talk to (and how often) where we have been and what we care about. All this data can be used to make sensitive inferences and predictions about people. Personality traits can be predicted from Facebook likes or phone metadata. And if the recent scandal of Facebook and the Cambridge Analytica company is anything to go by, where millions of people’s personal data was harvested, then digital safety has never been more crucial than now. As journalists it is important we learn how to be safe online. Digital safety is very crucial to journalists as there are times we handle very sensitive information, and we must protect our sources as well as ourselves.

Why did this sort work interest you, and how did you get started?

I remember vividly that I was in grade two, when a television crew came to our school, to record us as we performed dance and poetry. We were later featured in a programme entitled Variety Show, which was aired on Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), and I was thrilled and fascinated at the same time. This incident aroused my curiosity about television programming, I was curious to know how we managed to fit it in that “small box” called a television. And this where my passion and desire for television production began. After completing high school, I went to pursue film\video production, as I desired to tell stories of people, stories that will not only be interesting but also life changing.  

What part of this job do you personally find most satisfying? Most challenging?

First and foremost, I get to do what I love, and it is very satisfying. It gives me an opportunity to be creative. Creativity comes with the job and you find yourself thinking outside the box, working hand in hand with the producer to create a program that will keep viewers glued to their television. Working for the media, gives you an opportunity to network through several organisations, IAWRT being one of them and this strengthens your network; after all your network is your worth.

The media can be quite intimidating especially if you work with a big media house like KBC and the best way to survive to have a thick skin. It is not for the faint hearted.

What do you like and not like about working in this industry?

The media industry in Kenya is very vibrant; we are trail blazers in the African continent. And you get to see that the programs and productions you are involved in are changing people’s lives, they are having an impact on people. That brings a lot of satisfaction.  

Media everywhere is going through a lot of change. These changes are being driven by technology and where media channels are becoming more fragmented the media consumer is more empowered than ever before. The audience has moved from being passive to becoming an active audience. Social media has really revolutionized how most audiences are consuming content. And this is a threat to old media, like television.

There are a lot of amazing opportunities in this industry, fellowships, training, workshops, you name it. I have been very fortunate to have been granted several fellowships, for example in the year 2016, I applied for a film production fellowship in New York, to work on the production of the Emmy award winning series The { } And and I was lucky to be selected as one of the fellows. In 2017, I was selected for a coaching and leadership fellowship at the Poynter Media Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida. As fellows we were tasked to each mentor two young people getting into the media industry. In 2017 I was also selected to be a safe sister fellow, a fellowship on digital security conducted by Internews in Washington DC and DefendDefenders Uganda.

The media industry has a lot of opportunities especially for women, one has just to be on the look out for them.

My strongest assets/skills, areas of knowledge, personality traits and values are….

I am an excellent public speaker, very eloquent, and I have a good mastery of language. This has really come in handy when I am doing digital safety training. I am also dependable, whenever I begin an assignment I make sure I see it through to completion, because it’s not how you start, rather, how you finish. I have a great sense of humor I must say I make dull moments a little bit better.

I am a skilled video editor, with over ten years of experience. I am good with most of the editing software, am good at creating content and my greatest strength is my creativity.

I have a Masters in communication studies (which would not have been possible without the generous funding of an IAWRT Scholarship). I’m currently pursuing my PhD in communication studies. Because of my academic qualifications, I have been privileged to lecture part time at the Multimedia University of Kenya, which is a public university. I lecture on television production techniques, concentrating on the technical aspects of production – editing, special effects and camera work. I must say this is a field that is male dominated and hence I have used the opportunity to mentor young women in this field, encouraging them to take up more technical roles.

Has IAWRT’s network of media women around the world helped or inspired you?

IAWRT network is where it all began for me; this year specifically marks ten years since I became a member of IAWRT. When I wanted to join IAWRT I asked the then Kenya chapter Chairperson Rachael Nakitare, “What can IAWRT do for me? And she told me it’s not about what IAWRT can do for you rather what you can do for IAWRT” and that question challenged me and I love challenges, they bring out the best in me, they push me out of my comfort zone. Immediately I joined IAWRT, and I am the current elected Kenya chapter secretary. Through the members I have been inspired over the years to push myself, to keep going, no matter what. When I came into the media my vision was different from the reality on the ground. And it is through the network of the women in IAWRT that I was able to put things into perspective. I have also been privileged to get meet my mentor through IAWRT and she has been a great support in my career

Being a member of IAWRT is more than just belonging—it is not only about what you can get from your association but also what you can give back to the profession.

After IAWRT Kenya worked on research for the Women’s Rights Online, Digital Gender Gap Audit which looked at how many women use the internet, (Kenya report here) I saw that one of the major reasons why women were less online was because of  gender based online violence. One of the many things I have learnt through interaction with members of IAWRT is solution-based journalism. Hence, I immediately took the initiative of becoming a digital trainer to close that gap. It was during the one-year SafeSister fellowship that I got to literally learn everything on how to be a digital safety trainer. I am currently in the process of organizing a UX (user experience) training for women journalists.  I have also taken up online courses, on https://advocacyassembly.org where they have a lot of great resources on digital security. All this desire for digital security was born out my contact with IAWRT. We are living in a time of unprecedented connectivity, and it is easy to forget that there are dangers out there, on the internet, on social media, in the apps we use every day. The internet is the vehicle of the future and the future is now and we cannot afford for women to be left behind in fear of being harassed online. I am committed to preach the “gospel” of digital safety to the ends of the earth.

What are your long-term goals?

Currently I love what I do. However, my long-term goal is to set up my own production house where I can continue producing programs and films which are centered on social change – programs that bring about capacity building.  Through this production house I want to continue mentoring young women in the media, demystifying the idea that the technical aspects of production, like camera and video editing are for men.

Also, I want to venture into consulting work specifically in digital security. My main goal being able to get more women online and training them how to be safe online; Creating safe spaces for women online because unless the most vulnerable feel safe online, the internet will continue to be a male dominated space. Hence, we achieve one Millennium Development Goal.

What special advice do you have for young women seeking to qualify for this type of work?

In this industry it takes passion, zeal and enthusiasm. You must be willing to sacrifice your time and put your best foot forward, because the media industry is evolving every day, with new trends and one must keep up in order to stay on top of the game.

Do you have any special words of warning, or encouragement, because of your experience?

Passion is what should drive you in this industry, not money, because if it is vice versa you are in the wrong place.

links to some of work available online

Environmental Sanitation

The State of Journalism in Kenya

Twisted Love Cecilia

Personal profile

https://ke.linkedin.com/in/cecilia-maundu-33a24b55

 

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IAWRT: 2018 WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY

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Attacks on media women undermine the work of women journalists and is a media freedom issue. 

Journalists around the world still face serious challenges and are victims of murder, detention, torture, disappearances, extrajudicial killings along with online attacks and sexual harassment which are overwhelmingly directed at female journalists.

The International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT) once again joins the rest of the world to mark World Press Freedom Day to call for the safety of journalists especially female journalists around the World. We condemn the recent targeted killing of ten journalists in a series of attacks in Afghanistan; among them was one female journalist.

A number of women journalists have died in the line of duty in various countries. IAWRT would like to pay tribute to:

  •  Daphne Caruana Galizia (killed in a car bomb attack on 16 October 2017 for exposing corruption in Malta;
  • Gauri Lankesh (shot dead in India on 25 September 2017) for criticizing the woman’s place in the caste system;
  • Miroslava Breach (killed on 23 March 2017), an anti-corruption and human rights reporter for the Norte de Ciudad Juárez and La Jornada newspapers in Mexico;
  • Kim Wall, a Swedish journalist who was sexually assaulted and killed while working on a submarine story in August 2017.

We also condemn the threats to journalists in the Philippines. The most recent ones being threats to: Rosemarie Alcaraz of Radio Natin Guimba, who received threats after recording on camera the shooting of farmers by men working for a local landlord and Kath M. Cortez, who was physically harassed for covering a protest action in Marawi, the city at the cxentre of the matail law dclaration on the Island of Mondinao.

In Iran, Reporters Without Borders have revealed that many feminist journalists have been subject to judicial harassment and imprisonment in connection with their writing. They include: Mansoureh Shojaee, who now lives in exile, and Narges Mohammadi, who is still detained. Moreover, efforts to discredit the role of media have become stronger. The powers-that-be wield disinformation and lies via social media to undermine the truth. Women journalists have become targets of these attacks, often with a sexual dimension.

The recent cyber-attacks against Indian journalist Rana Ayyub is a case in point. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Ayyub received pornographic videos of her face morphed onto “bodies of naked women” in her Facebook inbox and via Twitter in April. After that, trolls barraged her with sexist comments.

The same treatment was received by Filipino women journalists Jamela Alindogan, Gretchen Malalad, Inday Espina-Varona, among others, for writing about killings associated with President Rodrigo Duterte’s so-called ‘anti-drug operations’.

The consequence of the attacks on media women globally undermines the work of women journalists and is a media freedom issue.  IAWRT is committed to ensure safety of journalists around the World. We launched a Safety Handbook for Journalists in 2017 , with advice and recommendations on security and safety, which is specially addressed to women journalists working in war and conflict. IAWRT has also given safety training to hundreds of journalists around the world.

We commend the support from various partners including UNESCO and FOKUS that have enabled us to reach out to vulnerable journalists. We have held a number of workshops around safety in our IAWRT Chapters and commit to continue with the struggle. IAWRT appreciates the work of the local chapters in countries that are high risk: such as Afghanistan and Iraq, where Najiba Ayubi and Awaz Salim respoctively have established chapters respectively (to be officially installed later this year).

On World Press Freedom Day 2018, IAWRT celebrates the fundamental principles of press freedom; pays tribute to our colleagues who were killed doing their jobs and joins partners all over the world including; UNESCO, RSF, IWMF, CPJ and EJN who continue to defend the media from attacks on their independence.

In the words of UN Secretary General António Guterres: “Promoting a free press is standing up for our right to truth.”

IAWRT President, Violet Gonda 

 

 

False post to harass Indian investigative journalist

Ayyub

Mumbai-based investigative freelance journalist Rana Ayyub became the subject of online threats after a parody account on Twitter in April falsely attributed a quote defending child rapists to her.

“Minor child rapists are also human, do they have no human rights. This Hindutva Government is bringing ordinance for death to child rapists just to hang muslims in larger numbers. Muslims aren’t safe in India anymore,” said the false quote by an account @republicTV.

This false quote went viral on social media, with mostly right-wing accounts sharing it more than 10,500 times.

As a result, Ayyub, who investigated communal riots in Gujarat in 2002, was subjected to various online threats, including an exhortation to gang rape her. According to a statement by the Network of Women in Media in India, the threats warned her to “stop talking against Hindus and [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi.” Ayyub’s address and personal phone number were also published on social media.

Ayyub also told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that her face was morphed onto those of women in pornographic videos, and that trolls on social media told her to “leave journalism because prostitution is your cup of tea.”

The CPJ has called on Indian authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into the threats against Ayyub. As of April 26, the police have not filed a First Information Report, a document filed at the start of an investigation in India. Meanwhile, the Twitter account that posted the false quote has already been deleted.

In 2016, Ayyub self-published a book, Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover Up, which examined the role of government officials, including then Gujarat chief minister Modi, in the riots.

Since the book’s publication, Ayyub told The Commottee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that she has been harassed by social media accounts that she described as supporters of the prime minister. “In the past, they’d troll me on the grounds of being a Muslim, being a woman and called me an ISIS supporter,” she said.

According to a recent report by Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF) cyber-violence constitutes 43.8% of attacks against women journalists covering women’s issues. Cyber-violence includes increasingly violent and sexist online threats, with cases most common in India, the United States and France.

“Fake news,” or false information being circulated on social media is also of increasing concern in the information landscape. The case of Ayyub shows that journalists are also becoming victims of disinformation campaigns as a means of intimidation and harassment, with women journalists more vulnerable to the sexist and violent nature of such attacks.

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