WUNRN
UNESCO Launches Women Make the News 2015
On the occasion of the International Women’s Day, 8
March, UNESCO joins forces with the Global Alliance on Media and Gender to
launch the Women Make the News 2015 under the theme, “Yes we must! Reaching Gender
Equality in the Media by 2030”.
This year’s
theme is an echo of Women Make the News 2014, Advancing Global Partnerships to Achieving Gender Equality
in and through Media. UNESCO and its partners are
determined to keep up the momentum started by the pioneering Global Alliance on Media and Gender (GAMAG) and to highlight gender and media in the Beijing+20 Review process.
We are
inviting editors-in-chief of newspapers, radio, television on and offline to
join UNESCO’s initiative, and to produce special supplements/programme on these
topics and/or to entrust women journalists and reporters with editorial
responsibility for the newsroom for a limited period over the duration of the
WMN initiative, from 1 March to 5 May, encompassing the International Women’s
Day (8 March) and the World Press Freedom Day (3 May).
The WMN 2015
advocacy efforts will also continue to push for change and will include the
following features:
1. Promote an increase in female sources interviewed in the news to at least
30%;
2. Invite international development organizations as well as private
corporations to pledge to be a part of a donor framework to support the
activities of GAMAG;
3. Strengthen cooperation with our media partners and their role in GAMAG;
4. Shine the spotlight on the necessity of partnerships to achieve the
objectives of the Media and Gender critical area of concern of the Beijing
Declaration;
The theme of
the United Nations observance of IWD 2015 is “Empower Women, Empower Humanity -
Picture it!” This theme will be one of the main topics to be addressed during
the Special International Gender and Media Side Event of the Fifty-ninth
Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (Beijing+20) to be held in
March 2015.
Launched
annually on the occasion of the International Women’s Day (8 March), Women Make
the News is a global initiative. It aims at fixing global attention on an issue
relating to gender equality in and through the media, driving debate and
encouraging action-oriented solutions until global objectives are met.
The International Steering Committee of GAMAG recently met for the first
meeting in Geneva (4-5 November 2014). The Committee reflects regional,
linguistic and generational diversity, and includes 8 broadcasting/print unions and associations, 10 regional and international
civil society organizations, 2 youth representatives. The key outcomes of
the meeting include calling on UN member
states to include strong
provisions on gender, media and ICTs in the Post-2015 Sustainable Development
Goals and reaching an agreement on
priority actions of GAMAG.
Following
the success of the GAMAG International Steering Committee meeting in
Geneva, let us keep up the
momentum throughout 2015 with
the upcoming:
·
World
Radio Day on 13 February 2015;
·
Special International Gender and Media Side Event of
the Fifty-ninth Session of the Commission on the
Status of Women (Beijing+20) in March 2015;
·
World Press Freedom Day, 2-4 May 2015
·
Celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the
Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in September 2015;
·
First General Assembly of GAMAG in November 2015
·
And the on-going 70th Anniversary
Celebration of UNESCO
Please contact
Alton Grizzle (a.grizzle@unesco.org)
or Eunkyung Shin (e.shin@unesco.org)
if you require any additional information.