A series of online trainings to support Pacific media to report on gender equality and the role of women in economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, commenced this week.
Supported by the Pacific Media Assistance Scheme (PACMAS), the Pacific Community (SPC) and the Pacific Island News Association (PINA), the workshop will gather 18 journalists who have been selected from 9 countries in the region from mainstream, freelance, student journalists and civil society.
The online training aims to increase journalists’ understanding of issues of women’s economic empowerment and gender equality and develop their storytelling skills on women as development leaders.
Participants of the workshop will receive one-on-one mentoring and sub-editing support from leading Solomon Island’s journalist Priestly Habru and Prianka Srinivasan from Australia’s ABC Pacific Newsroom.
Besides the online sessions, the workshop participants will get to apply their reporting skills to cover the 14th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women and the 7th Women’s Ministerial Meeting which would address themes of women’s economic empowerment, climate change and gender-based violence.
The 14th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women involves a series of meetings and consultations aimed at sustaining the momentum towards gender equality in the Pacific.
As workshop participants, they would cover the outcomes from both conferences and ask important questions to Pacific leaders.
The value of hosting media workshops was realised by the secretariat in the successive Triennial Conferences, this training provided an important space for the participation of Pacific journalists, media practitioners and community media in amplifying commitments on gender equality and outcomes of the Triennial Conference of Pacific Women.
Miles Young, Director of the Human Rights and Social Development (HRSD) division at SPC, explained that “We recognise the crucial role the media can play in advancing gender equality. The media training during the Triennial Conference is an opportunity for Pacific journalists and media practitioners, including community media, to enhance their awareness and understanding of gender issues, produce gender sensitive media content, and report on the gender policies and commitments of the respective countries.”
Hosting similar trainings in the past triennials saw increasing participation and access of women to expression and decision making through the media and new technologies of communication and an opportunity to promote a balanced and non-stereotyped portrayal of women in the media.
The four online formal training sessions will run from April 20 - May 11, 2021.
More Information:
14th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women and the 7th Women’s Ministerial Meeting
Media Contact:
Mereseini Senikau: [email protected]
