UNESCO launches Women Make the News 2015

19 February 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

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