Statement of the Network of Women in the Media - India

The National Workshop on Women in Journalism held in New Delhi (January 28-30, 2002) brought together more than 100 women journalists from 16 centres across the country.

The following issues of concern were identified:

1. Globalisation has adversely impacted issues of social and gender justice.
2. In conjunction with increased commercialisation of the media, this has enhanced job insecurity.
3. It has also reduced space in the mainstream media for social and developmental issues.
4. We note with great concern that rights and benefits gained by journalists through painstaking and long struggles have been snatched away by this process.
5. Though the number of women in the media across the country has increased, their working conditions have actually deteriorated.
6. In addition, women face varying forms of harassment and exploitation.
7. We note with particular concern the change in labour laws, the shift towards contractual employment and the overall shrinkage of employment benefits, including maternity benefits.
8. In this regard, the condition of regional language journalists and those in the small and independent press is comparatively worse.
9. We are also perturbed that the Working Journalists Act 1955 has not yet been amended to cover employees of electronic and other new media.
10. The decline in accountability and responsibility of media organisations towards their workforce and towards society in general is another area of concern.
11. We believe that standards of professional ethics and behaviour have taken a beating, particularly in the last decade. This has eroded the credibility of the media, the Fourth Estate.

Given these concerns, we believe that there is urgent need for building solidarities and alliances among journalists and other democratic groups and fora.

Our Network of Women in the Media - India is a crucial step in this direction.

Some of the steps we believe should be urgently taken are:

· Media organisations must incorporate gender justice and equity in all organisational policies.
· All benefits and employment rights of women journalists must be protected.
· The Supreme Court directive on sexual harassment (Vishakha case) must be implemented by media organisations.
· Media should increase coverage of gender and developmental issues.
· Media organisations and journalists should evolve and observe an appropriate code of ethics.
· Organisations that protect the rights of media workers and institutions that uphold the independence and integrity of the media must be strengthened.

BRIEF PRELIMINARY REPORT On

THE FIRST NATIONAL WORKSHOP ON/FOR WOMEN IN JOURNALISM

New Delhi, 28-30 January 2002


The three-day first national workshop on/for Indian women in journalism concluded in New Delhi on Wednesday, 30 January 2002. An average of 100 women journalists participated in the workshop, including approximately 60 from 16 cities/centres in 14 states. Among the participants were journalists working in at least a dozen languages.

The inaugural session on 28 January -- chaired by Nirmala Lakshman, Joint Editor, The Hindu, and presided over by Abdul W. Khan, Deputy Director General, UNESCO -- featured reports on the year-long process leading up to the national workshop, including summaries of the activities and experiences of local collectives of women journalists formed in a number of places across the country in the wake of three regional workshops covering the south & west (Bangalore, November 2000), the north & east (Jaipur, April 2001) and the northeast & east (Shillong, September 2001). A presentation showcasing preliminary quantitative data from a pilot survey on women in journalism provided a glimpse of the situation of women in the profession across the country. The two thought-provoking and inspiring keynote addresses -- by Ms. Aruna Roy, Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (on the Right to Information and the Media) and Dr. Krishna Kumar, Delhi University (on Education and the Media) – helped to set the tone for the entire workshop.

The afternoon of the first day saw participants breaking up into groups to issues of particular concern to women in the media, which were identified during the regional workshops. Among them were issues relating to employment, working conditions, work assignments, harassment, and freelancing/stringing. The main points that emerged from these parallel group discussions were presented to and further discussed in the plenary the next morning.

A music performance featuring tumris by the well-known Hindustani vocalist, Vidya Rao, rounded up Day 1 of the workshop.

A panel discussion on key issues confronting the media, chaired by Seema Mustafa, Political Editor, The Asian Age, took place during the pre-lunch session on 29 January, the second day of the workshop. Subhashini Saigal Ali (All India Democratic Women’s Association) spoke on Globalisation, Gender & the Media; Anuradha M. Chenoy (Jawaharlal Nehru University) on Militarisation, Gender & the Media; and Tanika Sarkar (JNU) on Communalisation, Gender & the Media. Each of their interesting and informative presentations were followed by lively discussions.

In the post-lunch session, participants again formed groups to discuss issues of concern relating to the media vis a vis its role in society (which had also emerged from the regional workshops). Among these were: economic liberalisation/globalisation & the media, the special challenges before small & medium size media establishments and sections of the language press, emerging priorities & preoccupations in media coverage, journalistic ethics and standards, and trends in the portrayal of women & coverage of gender issues in the media. The outcomes of these group discussions were also subsequently reported back to and discussed in the plenary.

A new documentary film (Hashiye Par Zindagi/Life on the Margin) -- produced by the Violence Mitigation and Amelioration Project, directed by Arun Kumar, and focussing on the widows of political massacres in Bihar – was specially screened for interested participants on Tuesday evening.

The extraordinarily long second day of the workshop continued with a pre-dinner panel discussion on Women Covering Conflict, chaired by Harish Khare, Deputy Editor, The Hindu. Among the speakers who helped spark off discussions were: Jill McGivering (BBC), Catherine Philip (The Times, UK), Padma Rao (Der Spiegel), Aasha Khosa (The Indian Express) and Barkha Dutt (NDTV). Since a number of participants had also covered conflicts of different kinds in different parts of the country over the years, an animated discussion followed their opening remarks.

The special dinner afterwards helped partially revive participants who had by then been on the go for nearly 12 hours! In any case, judging by their voluble, indeed vociferous, participation in the discussions on networking the next morning, they were none the worse for the wear!

Two sub-committees had been formed on the first day of the workshop to begin discussions on the proposed national network (the idea of which had been unanimously endorsed during the regional workshops) and the desirability/feasibility of a website for the network (which was established through a questionnaire distributed to workshop participants). The convenors of these made brief presentations during the morning session on 30 January, the third and final day. What followed was an extraordinary, clamorous session during which everything -- including the name, structure, fundamental principles and aims & objectives of the network (and each word of each of these!) -- was hotly debated until some level of consensus was achieved.

A participant’s suggestion that the workshop could not conclude without issuing a statement based on the discussions that had taken place over the three days was accepted and another sub-committee was formed to draft such a statement over lunch.
Other participants met over lunch in geographically-defined groups to select coordinators from each centre as well as one representative from each region to serve as the core group/coordinators of the network for a year.

The post-lunch session witnessed more spirited debate – this time on the draft statement.
But, in the end, decisions were taken that obviously had the concurrence of most, if not all, the participants:

v The network was to be known as the Network of Women in Media – India (NWMI).

v It was to function as an informal, non-hierarchical organisation linked up with independent local collectives through coordinators (one for each centre where local groups exist, with the understanding that more centres & coordinators would join in due course) and a core group of five persons representing the five regions (northeast, east, south, west and north). This arrangement would be reviewed after a year and further decisions on the structure, mode of functioning, etc., would be based on the experiences of the interim period.

For the present, the regional coordinators selected by participants to form the core group or coordination committee are:

Payal Kumar (East)
Linda Chhakchhuak (Northeast)
Ammu Joseph (South)
Kalpana Sharma (West)

The coordinator for the North is to be confirmed.

The coordinators/focal points for existing centres selected at the workshop (subject to ratification by local groups, if deemed necessary) are:

Lalita Iyer (Andhra Pradesh)
Nivedita Jha (Bihar)
Laxmi Murthy (Delhi)
Pamela D’Mello (Goa)
Sonal Kellog (Gujarat)
Vasanthi Hariprakash (Karnataka)
Sameera Khan (Mumbai)
Chitra Ahanthem (Northeast – in view of the small numbers in each state)
Sandhya Taksale (Pune)

Participants from Bengal, Jharkhand, Kerala, Orissa and Tamil Nadu have promised to send in the names of coordinators from their respective centres soon.

v Groups in different centres would determine their own agendas on the basis of the local context, priorities and needs.

v A small group of volunteers would work on a proposal for a website and eventually take a lead in designing and setting it up. A larger group of volunteers would have to be involved in providing and updating “content” in order to make the website lively, relevant and useful.

v The network and its members would be guided by a founding charter incorporating fundamental principles (draft to be further refined):

“The NWMI will be democratic and work for gender justice. It will not enter into partnerships with any organisation which will jeopardise its independence. It will not be used to promote any anti-secular, anti-women agenda.”

v The basic aims and objectives of the network were determined as follows (draft to be further refined):

1. To consolidate, support and strengthen women in media
2. To promote media awareness/critique
3. To promote professionalism and ethical journalism
4. To share information and resources

v It was decided that the network would work with existing professional bodies, where possible and necessary, to fulfil the above aims and objectives.

The valedictory session during the afternoon of 30 January featured reports by participants on the workshop process and discussions, as well as on decisions relating to the network. Iskra Panevska of UNESCO shared with participants international developments with regard to women in the media, as well as findings of a study on women journalists in Malaysia. The illuminating keynote address by gender/media expert Margaret Gallagher provided a number of insights into the complexities of ensuring gender perspectives in the media.