Gender and Media (GEM) Commentary Service - Africa

The service targets the opinion and commentary pages of mainstream newspapers, radio stations, and wire services in Southern Africa, East Africa, and globally (through GL's partnership with the African Women and Child Feature Service in Nairobi and Inter Press Service (IPS), a global development news agency.

The service consists of a core group of activists from around Southern Africa who met in Johannesburg from September 29 to October 3 2003 to map out a strategy. During the workshop, the 17 participants from 16 media and non-governmental organisations in 9 countries produced opinion pieces that will be marketed to mainstream media. This team, and other opinion-shapers who have an interest in promoting gender equality, produced a series of additional opinion and commentary pieces for the Sixteen Days of Activism on Gender Violence from November 25 to December 10. These pieces will also be collected in a souvenir issue of GL's bimonthly gender justice journal, Amalungelo, which was launched on November 25 - International Day of No Violence Against Women.

The service is providing an average of 15 articles each month that reflect on current events from a gender perspective and that provide insight on gender justice.

"The service is one of several strategies arising from the Gender and Media Baseline Study (GMBS) that shows that women's voices are grossly under-represented in the media and that coverage of gender issues constitutes a mere two percent of overall coverage. The former Director General of IPS, veteran journalist and gender activist Patricia Made will edit the service." Click here for a summary of the GMBS.

Gender, Justice.