HAVANA, Nov 24 (IPS) - More than 100 journalists from 14 countries have started networking to find ways round censorship, give gender equality greater prominence in the media, and promote the use of non-sexist language.
The International Network of Journalists with a Gender Vision came into being in the city of Morelia, Mexico as a non-hierarchical, inclusive organisation that builds on the experience gained by similar local and regional networks over the last 10 years. The network was conceived of as "a forum to which journalists may come as individuals or collectively, from all over the world, with the purpose of promoting journalism with a gender perspective," the founding statement announced.
The members include over 100 women journalists and communicators from Argentina, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Italy, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Spain and the United States.
However, the door remains open for male journalists who share a non-sexist view of the world and of news reporting, and who wish to contribute to bringing about change in the media.
"To exclude men won't be an advantage for us, it won't get us any further or faster along the way," said Cuban reporter Mirta Rodríguez Calderón, the Santo Domingo coordinator of "A Primera Plana" (On the Front Page), a magazine dealing with gender issues and communication.
In Rodríguez's opinion, "providing news coverage about women, produced by women, for women is like being trapped in a closed circle of constant change without change."
Therefore, although the network that was formed on Nov. 12 plans to create an Internet portal and looks forward to the day it can open an international news agency, the basic idea is to exert influence on the existing media.
"There are no big or small media. All media are important and have their own viewers, listeners or readers," said Mexican journalist Lucía Lagunas, director of the non-governmental organisation Women's Communication and Information (Cimac).
Founded in 1988 in the Mexican capital, Cimac has a news agency focussing on women, promotes journalist networks, designs media strategies for different civil society agencies, and runs courses in non-sexist journalism.
Four international press agencies use the women's information provided by Cimac. Other users include more than 40 national and regional Mexican media and a similar number of alternative news providers.
To achieve these aims, "we have no alternative but to be first-rate professional journalists, of front-page quality," said Cimac founder Sara Lovera.
"We have seen the media become peopled with women journalists, and yet that hasn't brought about change. We have to speak to the owners and managers and get them to understand that if the situation of women is ignored, half the news has been missed," said Lovera.
This means giving newsworthy status to questions previously reported only in the crime sections of newspapers or in women's magazines, such as the murder of a woman by her husband, a young rape victim who is not allowed to have an abortion, or the value of a homemaker's economic contribution to her household.
Although women account for more than half of the global population, they are the protagonists in only 18 percent of the news, according to an international survey of the media in 102 countries carried out in February.
The International Federation of Journalists indicates that there are some 300,000 women in the profession worldwide. However, they rarely reach decision-making positions, nor do they often influence editorial policy.
Networking, on the other hand, facilitates free flow of information, exchange of experiences, organisation of campaigns to denounce rights violations or defend human rights, and publication of previously censored material.
Coordination of the new international network will rotate, with Cimac taking on the task during the initial period.
The Network of Journalists from Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean, the Associario de Dones Periodistes de Catalunya (Association of Women Journalists of Catalonia in Spain), the European Network of Women Journalists and the Association for Women in Communications, are all involved in the new initiative.
Also taking part are the national networks of journalists in Mexico, which have 10 years' experience, the Santo Domingo network, and the Hispanic network in the southeastern U.S. state of Florida, which was created only recently.
Fabiola Calvo, a Colombian reporter living in Spain, who is one of the main promoters of the international network, thinks it could also become a means of defending the rights of women journalists within the media.
In her view, not only should attention be drawn to the conditions of women in general, but also to the day-to-day reality experienced by women journalists. They too are victims of discrimination and violence in the workplace, she noted.
As a step in this direction, the founders of the new international network committed themselves to working for the promotion of women to editorial positions, the creation of labour exchanges for women journalists, and training in gender issues and new technologies.
