MISA holds workshops on gender and broadcasting

The workshops are a follow-up to the Gender and Media Baseline Study, released last March by MISA and GenderLinks. The study examined how women and men in 12 southern African countries were represented and portrayed in the media. It revealed that women constituted only 17 per cent of news sources, and women journalists represented only 20 per cent of articles published, MISA says.

The objectives of MISA's workshops are to stimulate debate about the study's findings; identify areas of intervention; mobilise various stakeholders; and develop concrete plans for national advocacy campaigns. MISA's country chapters will hold workshops in the following cities: Mbabane, Swaziland (4-5 August); Johannesburg, South Africa (7-8 August); Gaborone, Botswana (14-15 August); Harare, Zimbabwe (21-22 August); Maputo, Mozambique (25-26 August); Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania (29-30 August). Workshops have already been held in Lesotho (28-29 July) and in Zambia (1 August). For more information, contact MISA: or read the Gender and Media Baseline Study: http://www.misa.org/gender_study/main.html.

Meanwhile, MISA has been actively promoting public service broadcasting in the region. Last month, it organised a workshop on broadcast regulation in Pretoria, South Africa, with the Southern African Broadcasting Association (SABA). Funded by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, the workshop brought together representatives of broadcasting regulators, national broadcasters and government officials from 10 southern African countries.

In a joint statement issued on 30 July, participants stressed the need for an effective network of regulators in the region to exchange information and skills. They also reminded governments of their responsibility to provide reliable, sustained funding to public broadcasting services.

Read the full statement here: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/52785/