by Cyril Dayao

On November 25, International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT) – Philippines held a training-workshop on sexual harassment in workplaces for Filipino women journalists.

“Indifference to complaints of sexual harassment victims should no longer be tolerated. There are social movements that have raised awareness on the continued prevalence of sexual harassment especially in the workplace,” said Atty. Minnie Lopez, Assistant Secretary-General for Campaigns of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers.

She discussed the existing Philippine laws that can help women who experience sexual harassment in the workplace.

“We have a big role even though we are not victims. We should assist victims through continuous education because they need to know that they have rights and they have remedies under the law. Our moral support is a big help in empowering them,” she added.

The hybrid event was attended by journalists, communication practitioners, and students, and it had a breakout session where the participants were able to share and talk about their gendered experiences.

This event was organized by IAWRT-Philippines and the Digital Safe House Project in partnership with International Media Support.

The IAWRT Philippines paralegal handbook for journalists ‘What to do’ was launched in the workshop.

Photos by Erica Ann C. Villasorda

by Empowerhouse / Birgitte Jallov

16 women working with community radio to strengthen the voices and lives of women in their area

Kanchan K. Malik, Community Media and Women Researcher, India

Kachan K. Malik (Ph.D) is a university professor at the University of Hyderabad and is a Faculty Fellow with the ‘UNESCO Chair on Community Media’, there, where she unfolds her work in support of community media in India and in South Asia with a particular focus on the importance of having women at the stations in all roles and functions.

Kanchan says she is a researcher, learning from the powerful people building community media where her journeys take her.

For over two and a half decades, Kanchan K. Malik’s academic interests and endeavours have been in Community and Alternative Media; Women and Community Media; Journalism Studies; and Media Ethics. She has worked with national and international research projects and published scholarly papers and chapters on media interventions by non-governmental organisations for empowerment at the grassroots level. Her research has also contributed to policy advocacy efforts for community radio in India.

Read more here: https://empowerhouse.dk/kanchan-k-malik-india/

EMPOWERHOUSE launches its contribution to the 16-day campaign by sharing 16 women’s community radio stories: unfolding how each broadcaster has been seeing positive change for women and girls – working intensely to eliminate violence against women and girls.

by Empowerhouse / Birgitte Jallov

16 women working with community radio to strengthen the voices and lives of women in their area

Rose-Haji Mwalimu, Community Radio Specialist, Tanzania

Rose is a women’s rights and press freedom activist, a community radio advocate, trainer and supporter and a voice for women’s equal access to the airwaves. She has been active in these fields for a lifetime. Known, recognized and loved in every one of the 35 community radio stations in Tanzania, she has trained and mentored, she is simply known as ‘Mama Rose’ – a name she is proud of, and which is being used far beyond the radio stations and Tanzania’s borders.

Rose has been active since her early 20s – more than 30 years ago – with the creation of TAMWA – the Tanzania Media Women’s Association, later the creation of the Tanzania chapter of the International Association of Women in Radio and TV, IAWRT, while she has been directing press freedom work in Tanzania and grown into becoming a midwife and trainer of the Tanzania community media.

Rose has played an active part in the mushrooming community media landscape growing from 2 to the present 35 stations from her seat as national director of the Media Institute of Southern Africa, Tanzania, her communication work in UN Women and later UNESCO. Now an independent consultant, Rose continues to support all that can advance people’s lives, culture and positive development – and community media are an important aspect of all of this.

Read more here: https://empowerhouse.dk/rose-haji-mwalimu/

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EMPOWERHOUSE lanuches its contribution to the 16-day campaign by sharing 16 women’s community radio stories: unfolding how each broadcaster has been seeing positive change for women and girls – working intensely to eliminate violence against women and girls.

by Empowerhouse / Birgitte Jallov

16 women working with community radio to strengthen the voices and lives of women in their area

Caroline is a professor (PhD) of radio, researcher, networker–and beyond and above all–a feminist activist. Since she joined ‘Women’s Airwaves’ in the 1980s, she has worked to turn her professional and social engagement real by strengthening women and women’s voices with a focus on ensuring space, justice and empowerment for and of women.

Fem FM – an 8-day radio licence in 1992 – co-created by Caroline and Trish Caverly, was planned for a year, housed in a borrowed 4-storey building, filled with the 200 women (two hundred women, Caroline insists) who had taken holidays or in other ways made the dream of a lifetime come true: UK’s first all women’s radio station.

Read more here: https://empowerhouse.dk/rose-haji-mwalimu-duplicate-3494…/

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EMPOWERHOUSE lanuches its contribution to the 16-day campaign by sharing 16 women’s community radio stories: unfolding how each broadcaster has been seeing positive change for women and girls – working intensely to eliminate violence against women and girls.

by Empowerhouse / Birgitte Jallov

16 women working with community radio to strengthen the voices and lives of women in their area

Saritha Thomas, Peoples’ Power Collective, India

Saritha is the founder and driving force of Peoples’ Power Collective (PPC), turning Saritha’s lifelong love for radio into an organisation supporting people in far-away places from strong grassroots community radio stations.

Saritha believes in the life-changing capacity of community radio, giving a voice to people with no consideration of class, caste and creed – simply by being inclusive, and building stronger, forward-thinking communities.

Today the PPC counts five partner community radio stations, including the newest: Sona FM in Salem in the South Eastern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

Read more here: https://empowerhouse.dk/saritha-thomas/

EMPOWERHOUSE lanuches its contribution to the 16-day campaign by sharing 16 women’s community radio stories: unfolding how each broadcaster has been seeing positive change for women and girls – working intensely to eliminate violence against women and girls.

by Empowerhouse / Birgitte Jallov

16 women working with community radio to strengthen the voices and lives of women in their area

Jubiel M. Zulu, Radio Kwietu, Zambia

Jubiel is an award-winning journalist and media and communication specialist. Now working as a District Information Officer in Zambia’s Eastern Province. Jubiel said there is so much basic information that people do not have access to. One example of her work as a District Information Officer (DIO) in Chadiza district is an article where she tells about fistula, a terrible, life-changing condition suffered by no less than 25% of Zambia’s women

Jubiel also worked in Kwithu FM, in the capital Lusaka, for ten years. There, she integrated issues of importance to women and women’s lives in the general programming: political, economic, social, and cultural.

Jubiel has a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication and Public Relations from Cavendishi University, and she is Vice President of the Zambia Institute of Independent Media Alliance, a ZAMWA (Zambia Association of Women in the Media) board member and has won both international and national awards for her journalism.

Read more here: https://empowerhouse.dk/jubiel-m-zulu/

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EMPOWERHOUSE lanuches its contribution to the 16-day campaign by sharing 16 women’s community radio stories: unfolding how each broadcaster has been seeing positive change for women and girls – working intensely to eliminate violence against women and girls.

by Empowerhouse / Birgitte Jallov

16 women working with community radio to strengthen the voices and lives of women in their area

Maru Chavez, Radio Violeta, Mexico

Maru Chavez, co-founder of Mexico city’s feminist women’s radio station RADIO VIOLETA, is featured by EMPOWERHOUSE and me. Maru describes herself as a journalist, feminist and activist for women’s rights.She shares powerful reasons why a women’s radio is so important for ALL areas of women’s lives.

Radio Violeta consciously challenges the traditional ways of the media and aim to transform communication to be more real: real women’s real voices covering all the issues of importance in women’s lives.

Radio Violeta went on air in 2016 as a feminist community radio station in Mexico City. The station has many women involved and broadcasts 24/7. The station has around 150.000 listeners and receive regular feed-back from women listeners stressing the importance to have the station, which covers issues of special importance to women, which is covered no-where else.

The station therefore never has a shortage of community broadcasters – and considers itself, sustainable. Part of the financial sustainability is secured through providing access to organisations who want to run their own programmes. When within the values and principles of the station, they can do so, and they pay for airtime and for rent of the studios. This secures a minimum financial basis along with projects that the station is a part of.

Read more here: https://empowerhouse.dk/maru-chavez/


EMPOWERHOUSE lanuches its contribution to the 16-day campaign by sharing 16 women’s community radio stories: unfolding how each broadcaster has been seeing positive change for women and girls – working intensely to eliminate violence against women and girls.

The International Association of Women Journalists in Radio and Television (IAWRT) – Philippines launched its recent publication entitled “What To Do: A Guide to Understanding Attacks Against Women Journalists” last November 25, 2023 at the UP Hotel, Diliman, Quezon City.

This guide is intended to be used by women journalists in the Philippines to understand and address threats they commonly face. Data and practical tips included in this guide were lifted from training, interviews, and consultations of IAWRT Philippines with experts in the field.

Journalist Lady Ann Salem, who was arrested on International Human Rights Day in 2020 and detained for almost three months, said the manual is a handy and practical guide for her fellow truthtellers as they find themselves in difficult situations.

“These situations are things they used to just report about but now also find themselves in, with the increasing attacks against journalists through traditional means and now also social media and lawfare and the continuing impunity for crimes against them,” Salem said.

Salem, who is also the communications officer of the international board of IAWRT, said that during her arrest, “I saw how the stories I used to write, report or edit happened to me, in a checklist-like fashion. And my mind raced and protested at all my rights that the police violated then but I could not do anything about it because my life was literally in their hands.”

“It was a point that I think all my journalists’ safety trainings reached their limit – for what is a journalist to do amid 20 armed police in your home after they planted guns and explosives and are about to put you in jail. But it was also then that I knew that these safety trainings have helped me a lot up until that point. So innovations like this paralegal manual are always a welcome effort from journalists to give and offer to other journalists,” said Salem.

The manual was written and published as part of the Digital Safe House and Collaboration Platform for Women Journalists in the Philippines project of IAWRT Philippines, through its engagement with the International Media Support.

Limited print copies of the manual will soon be available. To get a digital copy, head on to https://bit.ly/What-To-Do-Digital.

by Empowerhouse / Birgitte Jallov

16 women working with community radio to strengthen the voices and lives of women in their area

Gwendolyn Gay L. Gaongen, Station Manager, Radyo Sagada, International Association of Women in Radio and Television – Philippines

Radyo Sagada is not just led by a woman, the core group of broadcasters are women, and despite the very dangerous political climate for journalists in the Philippines, the authorities apparently recognize the station’s importance for community development – despite their oftentimes inconvenient truths being shared.

Gwen is the station manager of the Radyo Sagada – a de-facto women’s station. Gwen takes us through the gestation process of the station and why it – the only indigenous community radio station in the Philippines – has such a strong women’s focus.

While women struggle to have an appropriate space in most other community radio stations in the Philippines – due to tradition and culture – Radyo Sagada is seen as a development dynamo due to women’s strong engagement.

The station has been on air since 2011 and Gwen has been on of the radio team since then. Conceptualized in 2003, it only went on air in an experimental mode in 2010 and for real in 2011. It is the Philippines’ only indigenous peoples’ radio located in the mountain province, the Condillera, in the north of the main Luzon island.

In the podcast Gwen unfolds how this all has developed. Gwen talks about the how the dangerous situation for journalists in the Philippines including red-tagging influences Radyo Sagada, and why despite threats, they stay on as as it is so important in a reality with and only 60 % literacy rate.

Read more here: https://empowerhouse.dk/gwendolyn-gay-l-gaongen/

EMPOWERHOUSE lanuches its contribution to the 16-day campaign by sharing 16 women’s community radio stories: unfolding how each broadcaster has been seeing positive change for women and girls – working intensely to eliminate violence against women and girls.

by Empowerhouse / Birgitte Jallov

16 women working with community radio to strengthen the voices and lives of women in their area

Siphathisiwe Ncube, Zimbabwe, Radio Ntepe-Manama, Gwanda

Siphathisiwe has worked with Ntepe-Manama Community Radio based in Gwanda, Matabeleland South , Zimbabwe for 10 years.

In Sipathisiwe’s reality it used to be seen as normal that women were exposed to violence. They were surprised and empowered by the station sharing information about their human rights – also in this area?

Since 2013 the community has been organising, training and advocating for access to get licenses.

The station finally got its licence and sending permission in 2022 as one of the first community radios to go on air in Zimbabwe. During the almost 10 year period prior to this, the community brought out community news and information via whats app, facebook and twitter.

As Siphathisiwe says in the interview, the station is based in the deep rural area of Matabeleland South where there used to be no or very little reliable local information, and where people had difficulty getting other news as well. The Ntepe Manama Community Radio has all along taken upon itself to make up for this – and grateful now to finally be on air. The more than 20.000 active listeners bears witness to this fact. But listen in – there is a lot more!

Read more here: https://empowerhouse.dk/sphatiziwe/

EMPOWERHOUSE lanuches its contribution to the 16-day campaign by sharing 16 women’s community radio stories: unfolding how each broadcaster has been seeing positive change for women and girls – working intensely to eliminate violence against women and girls.