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Gender and Media Advocacy in the Pacific

Module 2_Topic 4: Gender and Media Advocacy in the Pacific

Gender and Media Advocacy in the Pacific

By the end of this topic, students should be able to: Demonstrate an understanding of how Pacific Island women have collectively challenged patriarchal structures contributing to their oppression; Define the key term of Pacific feminism; Identify the main findings in the Pacific Women and Media Action Plan; and Discuss the importance of media advocacy networks in the Pacific.

Pacific Women in Media Action Plan Symposium (2006) The Pacific Women in Media Action Plan.

Gender and Media Advocacy in the Pacific

This lecture establishes a framework for studying gender advocacy in the media within a Pacific context. It situates this discussion within the broader framework of womens activism in the Pacific. Womens Activism in the Pacific The UN Decade for Women impacted greatly on Pacific Island women as it fostered a surge of publications, networks, newsletters, seminars and workshops. This consciousness-raising process was strengthened at three intergovernmental world conferences on women the NGO Tribune Meeting in Mexico City in 1975, the official UN Conference in Mexico City in 1975 and the UN Mid-Decade Conference on Women in Copenhagen in 1980. Vanessa Griffen writes: These conferences made Pacific Island women aware of the multiplicity of interests that made up the international womens movement. From these encounters with global womens organisations, a regi onal feminist consciousness emerged. Behind this consciousness was the recognition that: The individual voices of Pacific women were inadequate if they wished to raise issues; they found that they must present their views as a region (Griffen in Morgan, 1984, 519). At the first Pacific Womens Regional Conference in Suva in 1975, two issues regarded as central to the oppression of Pacific Island women were French nuclear testing in the Pacific and the independence of colonial territories. These issues provided a formative experience for Pacific activists. The Women, Development and Empowerment workshop held in Fiji in 1986 was attended by women from Fiji, Guam, Papua New Guinea, Tokelau Islands, Kiribati, Cook Islands, Tonga and New Caledonia. The workshops primary concern was to initiate and stimulate theoretical or ideological discussions on and around western and Pacific feminisms. Through a critique of western feminisms, Pacific Island women began to develop a postcolonial, Pacific feminist stance. The participants believed that this Pacific feminist vision would provide women with a regional platform to challenge conditions and cultural practices that contributed to their subordinate status (Griffen, 1989, 21). They were guided by the view that We could not divorce our womens struggles from the struggle of our people (Griffen, 1989, 6). Six focus areas that were part of this Pacific feminist vision were: the family, education, religion, the economy, the environment and politics.

Gender and Media Advocacy in the Pacific

In 1995, a critical document was produced highlighting the goals and statuses of Pacific Island Women, The Pacific Platform for Action: Rethinking Sustainable Development for Pacific Women towards the Year 2000. This regional statement, prepared by the South Pacific Commission (SPC) highlights the problems women face regionally and within specific island states. It states: The women in the Pacific region have a unique identity which has been and continues to be, shaped by the interaction of our people with our particular oceanic, geographical environment and historic events. The resultant

richness and diversity in culture and gender roles throughout the island region is highly valued and constitutes the reference-guide for the inevitable change and development that we wish to bring to our societies (SPC, 1995, 2). Pacific Women in Media Action Plan In line with the activism that was taking place during this period, womens NGOs and media associations in the Pacific began to work towards promoting gender-sensitivity and equality in the media. In September 2006, participants from the UNESCO/SPC/CBA Pacific Women in Media Action Plan Symposium compiled the Pacific Women in Media Action Plan. This document, acknowledged the inequalities that existed between men and women in the Pacific region and lobbied for fair and balanced representation in the media that resisted stereotypes based on gender, ethnicity, class, sexuality and other social markers. An emphasis was also placed on human rights education and the importance of raising awareness on such violations in the Pacific. Concerns were also articulated on the issue of violence against women, particularly on the inclusion of material that condones or incites any form of violence. Media organizations were urged to: follow a code of ethics that promoted gender equality; further a gender sensitive agenda; use gender-inclusive language; and to prohibit gender discrimination and sexual harassment in the newsrooms and workplace (Pacific Women in Media Action Plan, 2006). The symposium highlighted the need for the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) to develop and implement a gender equality policy across Pacific Island countries.

Gender and Media Advocacy in the Pacific

Click on read icon above and read the article on The Pacific Women in Media Action Plan. What practical strategies did the participants take away from the workshop that to help them develop local gender equality actions plans for their own organisations? Pacific Gender and Media Advocacy Workshop Efforts to bring about gender and media advocacy continue throughout the Pacific region. In October 2007, femLINKPacific (with WACC) held a three day training workshop on gender and media advocacy in Suva. The workshop was attended by representatives from the National Councils of Women and media organizations in Fiji, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, Cook Islands, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Bouganville. The main aim of the workshop was to discuss the findings raised by GMMP in the Pacific region. It stressed womens underrepresentation in the news in the Pacific as primary subjects or sources of news and stated that when women were portrayed in news stories, they often featured as stars or as victims. Unfair and imbalanced representation of women and men in the media

perpetuates stereotypes about gender that form the basis of practices of exclusion and marginalization in everyday life situations (WACC, 2007). The workshop equipped participants with the skills and knowledge to carry out gender and media advocacy work. It was an opportunity for groups working on gender and media issues in the Pacific region to network and share their experiences with a view to working together in the future to develop advocacy campaigns. Pacific WAVE Media Network Pacific WAVE (Women Advocating a Vision of Empowerment) Media Network, initiated by journalist Lisa Williams-Lahari, was established to empower Pacific women through media advocacy and change. Its primary objective is to provide support to women media practitioners, particularly those in isolated areas, by building alliances among womens movements and other organizations globally and regionally. More specifically, this network aims to raise awareness and open spaces for women's voices in areas of current critical concern to our Pacific world: climate change, violence against women and children and HIV/AIDS (Pacific WAVE Media Network, 2009).

Gender and Media Advocacy in the Pacific

Pacific WAVE media Network also advocates for change by organizing formal meetings, for example, the inaugural meeting held in Brisbane in May, 2010. At this meeting, twenty Pacific Island women met in Brisbane to discuss the theme mediafreedom@work. WAVE partnered with organizers at the University of Queensland of the UNESCO World Press Freedom Day to lead the mediafreedom@work activity. This meeting was crucial because it aimed to build safety, excellence and leadership networks for Pacific women in media (The Pacific Islands Media Association, 2010). It also drew attention to the crucial relationship between journalism and ethics from a regional context and also made global links to the Brussels Declaration on Ethics, Gender and Equality in the newsroom (Pacific Wave Network Meeting, 2010). WAVE has recently built relationships with the newly formed Media Alliance of the Pacific, the International Association of Women in Radio and TV, the South Pacific Commission and the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcast Development Pacific Media Partnership.

Gender and Media Advocacy in the Pacific

Griffen, Vanessa, All it Requires is Ourselves, in Sisterhood is Global, Robin Morgan, ed. (New York: Anchor and Doubleday, 1984). Pacific WAVE Media Network, available online at: http://wavemedia.blogspot.com/ [accessed 30 June, 2011] South Pacific Commission (1995) The Pacific Platform for Action: Rethinking Sustainable Development for Pacific Women towards the Year 2000. The Pacific Women in Media Action Plan, appended to the Global Media Monitoring Project, Regional Report, Who Makes the News? 2010. Womens Association for Christian Communication, Mission Possible: A Gender and Media Advocacy Toolkit, 2007, available online at: http://archive.waccglobal.org/regions/pacific/pacific_events/pacific_region_gender_and_media_advoca cy_workshop [accessed 1 November, 2011]