BANGKOK - Do media organisations in the Mekong Region think that gender sensitivity, including giving voices to women, is part of doing better stories? How do they define it within the context of their societies and how do they report on different genders and sexuality? Do they include the use of gender-friendly language in their stylebooks and training programmes? How much is using a gender lens a news habit?

These are some of the questions asked by ‘Talking Gender in the Mekong Media’, a report that IPS Asia-Pacific (www.ipsnewsasia.net) carried out as part of the IPS network’s ‘Communicating for Change’ project, in order to help identify areas for future news work and capacity-building, as well some practical and professional approaches to doing these. The Communicating for Change project is funded through the Dutch Ministry’s MDG-3 Fund. Read more »

Ten years ago the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre burst onto the world stage giving social movements and civil society the space to challenge the orthodoxies symbolised by the World Economic Forum. IPS global news agency was there, and now in 2010 is launching a year of coverage as World Social Forum 2010 promotes more than 35 global, regional and thematic events during the year, on every continent.

The “IPS TerraViva World Social Forum 2010” online site will provide independent, professional reporting in many languages from as many of the events as possible, along with comment and analysis on the challenges that drive social movements. Will the WSF stay relevant and innovative? Read IPS TerraViva to find out. Read more »

Every day from Monday 7th December to a special closing edition on Saturday 19th December IPS published an online TerraViva from Copenhagen. You can find them all available for download.

The international IPS team did a tremendous work in less than ideal circumstances, led by one of our new Editors-in-Chief, Diana Cariboni. Managed by IPS Latin America with the largest contingent of reporters coming from IPS Africa, and Darryl D’Monte president of our partner IFEJ strengthening the Asian dimension, the team was South-South co-operation in action, with colleagues from Canada and Romania adding their expertise too.

Kumi Naidoo, Kerry Kennedy, Mohan Munasinghe, Ashok Khosla, Saleemul Huq, Laura Tuck, Bill McKibben and Nnimmo Bassey are just a few of the experts who contributed opinion pieces or granted interviews to TerraViva. Read more »

Some 225 participants, the bulk of them journalists from Mekong countries, are set to discuss, debate and take stock of their media environment against a backdrop of changing and often quite different news cultures at the Mekong Media Forum, which started in Chiang Mai, Thailand on 9 December. Follow the event through the daily IPS TerraViva Mekong Media Forum.

The four-day media conference brings together a mix of participants, from print, television journalists and photojournalists to civil society, academics and development workers, who will be discussing a menu of issues such as changes in the Mekong media scene, new trends, citizen journalism and new media, training, media challenges and reporting on water governance, children, as well as gender and sexuality. Read more »

The UK daily The Guardian, an IPS columnist client that over the last years also linked to some of our Africa stories, has now started to publish IPS stories on its environment website. IPS has become a partner in the Guardian Environment network. For a trial period of three months, the Guardian can publish up to two IPS environment stories a week. If the cooperation is successful, the agreement can be continued.

Among other issues, the Guardian is interested in IPS coverage of climate change and the COP15 meeting in Copenhagen. The first story that appeared on the Guardian site was written by Claudia Ciobanu from the Danish capital “Brazil defends biofuels at Copenhagen summit - As the world’s largest producer and exporter of ethanol, it’s no surprise the Brazilian government advocates biofuels as the only real alternative to fossil fuels”.

From IPS, part of the Guardian Environment Network.