Published: 18 March 2013
Region: Middle East and North Africa
Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) has published the Guide on Gender in Media Coverage of Political Transition in the Arab world. The Guide is designed for the media professionals, journalists, editors, bloggers and programme producers and offers ideas for new angles for media coverage of transition and it is available in English, Arabic and French.
This guide produced by Lesley Abdela is a useful practical help for any media covering Arab countries: Syria, Egypt, Libya, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon, Algeria et al.
Lesley Abdela, an international media relations and gender issues expert, works as the Media Diversity Institute (MDI) trainer. She has contributed to the several MDI training courses and workshops. More recently Abdela has been participating as a MDI trainer in the MDI’s two year project ‘Media Evolution: Towards an Inclusive, Responsible & Independent Media in Morocco’, supported by the European Union Delegation, and UK and Swiss Embassies in Rabat.
“Whether you are a journalist, editor or blogger, you play a pivotal role in the world. Specifically, in media coverage of governments, constitutions, elections and violations, you can influence the public’s perception of women’s significance in shaping reforms in society, women’s status as credible leaders and experts in their fields, and women as sources for reliable information and thoughtful opinion.The guide gives practical tips and examples on how to do this by asking two very simple questions: “Where are the women?” and “How will this topic impact women?” – it is written in the introduction of the Gender Guide published by EMHRN.
For each topic – violations, governments, elections and constitutions – the questions areposed followed by a check-list for the journalists to test their story against, to see whether they have included women. Each check-list is preceded by suggestions for news features, TV or radio discussion programmes and blogs.
To make it easy to find information, the author and the publisher have provided resources and links for contacts.
One of the links is to the EMHRN web-site – Where are the Women? where the examples of the challenges women face in the transitions in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Syria can be found.
To download the Guide in Arabic, English and French, please click here or visit EMHRN