IPS Asia-Pacific's Johanna Son introduces the glossary

MANILA - The need to teach students early about gender-sensitive language. Examples of how media reports pass on prejudices in some stories, and mistake gender blindness for political correctness in others. Some editors and writers’ discomfort with asking frank questions when they hear the word ‘gender’.

These are some of the topics that came up for lively discussion at the August 2010 launch of the third edition of the ‘Gender and Development Glossary’, held at the ISIS Intl conference room in Quezon City, Philippines. A mix of journalists, gender and reproductive health experts, professors and civil society advocates made sure there was a variety of opinions at the discussion around words, gender, language and media that day.

IPS Asia-Pacific Regional Director Johanna Son, who edited the publication, opened the discussion by sharing the views from journalists who had been interviewed about their views on what gender-unfriendly terms to avoid and their views of what made for a gender-sensitive story. Many of the replies, collated ahead of updating the Gender and Development Glossary, showed a tendency to equate gender sensitivity with not mentioning the sex of a source in the story, which Son said often means that, especially in the case of names where one cannot easily tell the speaker’ s sex, readers cannot tell whether the person speaking is a he or she. Using ‘chair’ instead of ‘chairwoman’ or ‘chairman’ also does the same thing.

“Political correctness can go overboard,” agreed Dr. Michael Tan, dean of the University of the Philippines’ College of Social Science and Philosophy who is also reproductive and gender expert in the South-east Asia. “Language really shapes the way we think.”

He also encouraged IPS to work with local groups on developing tools like the gender glossary in local languages, so that the process of discussing media language from the gender perspective can bring out discussions on prejudices and stereotypes in societies. Changing language is far from a easy thing, however. Tan recalls medical doctors saying that some Filipino women in poor settings are so used to using the word ‘ginamit’ (’used’ in Filipino) to refer to sex that they don’t understand questions when they are asked ‘when did you last have sex with your husband?’ but will understand ‘Kailan ka huling ginamit ng asawa mo?’ (When were you last used by your husband’?) Tan, along with Prof. Elizabeth Enriquez, also of the University of the Philippines, said they would like to see the glossary used in university classes, adding that there are not many tools like it. “We do need to get students while it’s early,” Tan said.

Dr. Marilen Danguilan, a health policy adviser, says that to her, gender-sensitive reporting is simply a way of reporting based firmly on a human rights approach. The jargon around gender, and even the word itself, she says, can make the term so ‘big’ that many, including writers, get lost in trying to understand it for fear of being seen as politically incorrect. “I have a problem with the word gender,” she said, adding that “gender is a donor-driven word.”

“It’s good to have a glossary as a tool” to help understand the issues around this, “but it’s also the thought process (that matters),” she added.

Talking about words, language, media and mindsets

For his part, journalist Jaemark Tordecilla of the Philippine Centre for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) said that news desks tend to assume that assignments that have to do with women or have a gender angle should ‘naturally’ go to women, so that male reporters can have fewer opportunities to do such assignments. He also asked how the gender lens can be used in coverage of conflict situations, to which other participants suggested looking into issues like how are women and men affected differently by war, among others. (He blogged about his reflections here).

Some discussion focused around what Son shared, from experience, as difficulties by journalists and editors alike when it comes to gender - some think that they should not report any ‘bad’ news about women, others think they had better tiptoe around it, some use a heavy dose of development jargon that has no place in news stories, and others may try to treat a gender story like they would a crime story.

There was also debate about how to refer to abortion and legal reform advocates who would like to have it legalised, given that abortion is an emotion-laden word, especially in mainly Catholic countries like the Philippines, and suggestions on other terms to include in possible future editions of the glossary.

Dr. Florence Tadiar of the Institute of Social Studies and Action added that she hopes the glossary can help journalists report better on gender and other issues in society, adding that “now even all government officials know the terms in this book”.

Read articles about the launch of the Gender and Development Glossary here:

- Words and Meanings by Rina Jimenez-David, ‘Philippine Daily Inquirer‘

- Male reporters & the gender lens by Jaemark Tordecilla

Ingrid Srinath, SG of CIVICUS and Mario Lubetkin, IPS DG

The 9th CIVICUS World Assembly gathered over 500 representatives of civil society, donors, governments, business, academics, media and youth from about 100 countries, from 20 - 23 August, in Montreal, Canada, to seek closer collaboration and greater resolve in addressing the global crises confronting humanity.

Mario Lubetkin, IPS Director General, was a keynote speaker at the Opening Plenary leading the discussion together with Ingrid Srinath, CIVICUS’ Secretary General and the wider audience. The agenda-setting conversation revolved around the assembly’s programme theme of economic justice and the main issues as seen by civil society groups around the world.

Over three days of broad-ranging exchanges and dialogue the participants sought common ground on issues of economic justice, development effectiveness and climate change. Clear themes that emerged included the growing threats to civil society freedoms around the world, and the opportunity for structural change based on values of justice, equity and human rights.

The event included a series of plenaries and workshops that brought together viewpoints from a unique spectrum of organisations, big and small, south and north, government and non-government. A wide range of panelists included the World Bank’s Vice President, Otaviano Canuto, Secretary General of Amnesty International, Salil Shetty, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay, Director General of INM, Michel Venne and Executive Director of Greenpeace, Kumi Naidoo, among others.

View of audience at the Opening Plenary.

The ideas generated at the event will feed into other international forums in the coming months, including the United Nations Millennium Development Goal (MDG) summit in New York in September, set up to review the progress of the MDGs.

The Director General and other senior IPS staff in Montreal took the opportunity to hold bi-lateral meetings with important civil society partners and potential partners.

Read more:

Civil Society Watchdogs Crucial in New Global Order

“Democracy Deficit Is the Biggest Obstacle to Development”, Q & A with Ingrid Srinath

Hope Persists for Jailed Health Workers in Philippines

Workshop overview

IPS Latin America organized a two-day training workshop for Central American journalists in Ciudad de Guatemala on 4-5 August, 2010, focused on the current challenges of Central American countries facing the food crisis and smallholder farmers’ response.

The workshop was part of the activities for “The role of smallholder farmers in response to the food crisis and as a tool to eradicate rural poverty: knowledge sharing to influence pro-poor policy formulation in Western and Central Africa and in Latin America and the Caribbean” small grant, funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Kanayo F. Nwanze, IFAD President

The training workshop was planned to coincide with the visit of IFAD President, Kanayo F. Nwanze, in Guatemala City. More than 20 journalists representing leading media in Central America and in Guatemala took the opportunity to meet him and interview him.

The event was widely covered by national and regional media. Read more:

Multi-Pronged Effort to Boost Food Security Still Falling Short

Tierramérica, a joint initiative of UNDP, UNEP, the World Bank and IPS, organised the seminar together with El Colegio de México, the Mexican Ministry of Environment and the Mexican academy of journalists.

The seminar had a great impact in the media. It was attended by more than 20 journalists from the most important Mexican media, and has been disseminated worldwide through the IPS and other international news agencies wires.

The seminar made an intensive use of new technologies. All the activities were transmitted by an online TV channel, and a special chat was created to allow online participants to ask questions and make comments to the panellists. Mrs Ostrom participated via video conference from her desk in the United States.

The interactive dimension was a great success thanks to Tierramerica’s newsletters subscribers and from its friends in Facebook: all the streaming channels were overloaded during a great part of the day, which means that at least 250-300 people were permanently attending the meeting; and in all the panels, together with the Mexican participants questions, a lot of real time questions and comments from every country in Latin America, and even from Spain and several African countries, were received.

Juan Rafael Elvira, Mexican Minister of Environment, emphasized in the importance of this seminar, as part of the global efforts to increase awareness and attention around the Cancun meeting.

The seminar was followed by a workshop for journalists, with participation from 20 journalists from Mexico City and other Mexican regions’ media.

See workshop programme at: http://www.tierramerica.info/docs/seminario-cambio-climatico-periodismo-07-2010.pdf

The services in Czech, Hungarian and Polish are the fruit of a successful project application to the European Union which resulted in 3 years of funding (2010-2012) for reporting on the Millennium Development Goals and poverty-related issues. With a specific target to reach wider audiences in the EU, financing for the Czech, Hungarian and Polish services is included in the project budget. Our partner in the work is the International Network of Street Papers (INSP) and IPS is working with translators attached to their street newspapers in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland.

Hebrew came about through an approach from a university lecturer in Jerusalem who particularly values the IPS perspective on globalization. He is using IPS stories both as a teaching aid and to share more widely through contributions to the blog www.haokets.org . In a pilot initiative IPS and the academic blogger have agreed a licencing agreement for his translations of IPS news into Hebrew, with the hope that paying clients can be found to finance a sustainable and expanded Hebrew service.

Within a harsh climate for media financing, working together with likeminded partner organisations and individuals is a great way for IPS to continue to expand the reach and impact of its news service.