Women’s Communication and Information (CIMAC) was founded in 1988 by a group of communication professionals. Its mission is to generate and publish news information, ensure that journalists incorporate women’s human rights into their reporting and promote media as an educational and social transformation tool to be used as a strategy for civil society organizations to transmit their activities, demands and proposals.
Our vision is to contribute to social change and the democratization of the media. We seek to influence national and global agendas in favor of human rights and social equity.
CIMAC has four programmatic areas:
The Multimedia News Agency – The CIMAC News Agency develops and distributes written information on a daily and weekly basis to over 2,000 subscribers, produces a weekly news radio program and manages the cimacnoticias website
http://www.cimacnoticias.com/site/CIMAC.7.0.html - Spanish
http://www.cimacnoticias.com/site/English.602.0.html - English
The Social Communication Program – Through this program CIMAC provides training and consultation to non-governmental and governmental institutions, journalists and other communication specialists on how to incorporate a non-sexist, non-discriminatory, gender perspective into published media.
The Journalist Networks Program – CIMAC coordinates the Network of Journalists from Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, the National Journalist Network and the Tri-national Journalist Network: and the newly-formed International Journalist Network with Gender Vision, in order to promote media democratization and create media spaces for the production and dissemination of information on women’s social conditions.
The Documentation Center – Through the Documentation Center CIMAC facilitates information research for journalists that allow them to contextualize their reports and investigations.
Achievements
- Partnerships with seven news agencies: DDN, APRO, Prensa Latina, OEM-Informex, Cerigua and ASIC, to republish and broadcast cimacnoticias products. Other 70 printed media and radio stations in Mexico and Spanish speaking countries use the information, as well.
- 15,000 daily visits to www.cimacnoticias.com and 3,400 potential visits at ProdigyMSN, from all over Latin America. Our internet outreach includes 99 media sites and 111 NGO sites in America and Europe.
- Continuous broadcasting since 2003 of the weekly program Public and Private, one of the most popular at XEKQ The Citizen’s Radio, serving Mexico City, Estado de México, Morelos, Puebla, Hidalgo, Queretaro, Guerrero, Veracruz y Oaxaca.
- Organization and consolidation of: the Network of Journalists from Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean; the National Journalist Network; the Tri-national Journalist Network: Canada, Mexico and the U.S; and the International Journalist Network with Gender Vision.
- CIMAC was chosen to be the Mexican representative of the ANDI Network for the Defense of Children’s Rights, with an outstanding role in the media of 12 Latin American Countries.
- Construction of a documentary data base with over 30,000 titles, housed in the Cimac Documentation Center.
- Equivalencia Parlamentaria, a bi-monthly magazine published by the Gender and Equity Commission at the Mexican Congress in partnership with CIMAC.
- 13 books on topics ranging from women’s participation in the elections to the experiences of women journalists.
- Development of a television series on Democracy and Human Rights, transmitted in 2000 on public, cable and state television channels, reaching 20 million citizens.
Awards
· The civil society organization, Catholics for a Free Choice-Mexico recognized Cimac’s work during their XV anniversary celebration in November 2003.
· The International Planned Parenthood Federation, Western Hemisphere Region (IPPF) granted CIMAC the Rosa Cisneros Information Prize in September 2003 for their contribution to the defense and promotion of Sexual and Reproductive Rights.
· In July 2003 the Independent Commission for Human Rights in Morelos, Mexico officially recognized CIMAC’s contribution to defending Human Rights.
· In April 2002 Cimac was awarded the National María Lavalle Urbina Prize for its contribution to defending Women’s Human Rights. This prize is sponsored by the Mexico Women’s Alliance and given annually to individuals. CIMAC was the first social organization that has received this recognition.
· The Cimacnoticias web site was considered the “Best in 2001 in Communication Media” by Yahoo – Mexico.