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PRESIDENT’S COLUMN
April 2006
Dear IAWRT members,
Greetings from Vancouver, where we are
having a lovely if rainy spring, with cherry
blossom clusters as big as a baby’s fist all
over the trees in my neighbourhood. Here’s
what I can report to you about IAWRT
activities since I became your president in
November 2003.
At the end of the International Conference
in Williamsburg, Virginia, USA, we held our
first meeting of the new Board. Present were
all the new Board Members (whose information
and pictures you can see on the website:
www.iawrt.org). We are from Canada,
Australia, Sweden, the Philippines, Nepal,
Cameroon, Romania, and Norway. We co-opted
Kirsten Brathen from Norway to the Board as
one of our first acts, in order to have
strong connections with the Norwegian
chapter, since they are the responsible
party for the FOKUS grants that have been a
large part of our financing for quite a few
years.
Having Kirsten on the Board has also brought
with us additional benefits. Not only is she
very experienced with the organization, she
also has access to the telephone
conferencing service at NRK the, Public
Service radio and television in Norway .With
her help, we’ve been able to have a board
meeting by telephone once each month. We
have had a bit of difficulty with getting
everyone on the line and keeping them on –
and also with some of us around the world
having to stay up so late or wake up so
early to attend! – but it is a big
improvement over only meeting once a year!
Bravo, NRK, and viva technology, eh? We also
have a Board list serve to make email
correspondence easier.
Next, I want to go back to the end of the
conference and thank everyone who attended,
with special thanks to Mal Johnson and
Teresa Leon for organizing, to Gerd Inger
Polden, Norway for coordinating the awards
project, to all the speakers and panelists,
to Supattra Limpanbandhu, Thailand, for
taking so many pictures, and to Jenka
Soederberg, USA and Emily Falk, USA for
doing audio recordings and Gerd Inger for
video-ing. Mal will soon release the
Conference Report, and there are also
already some pictures on our web site:
www.iawrt.org.
Also, special thanks to everyone who came to
the events in Washington DC. There was the
big Communications Consortium party, at
which many feminist leaders from around the
US honoured Mal and also the 20th
anniversary of my program series WINGS:
Women’s International News Gathering
Service. Mal and I were both SO PROUD of the
IAWRT members who came up to the microphone
and introduced themselves at that event. We
really have an amazing group, and everyone
was very very impressed. The next day’s tour
of XM Satellite Radio’s facilities was a
resounding success, too. I think those who
were there and asked incisive questions of
the news director who showed us around will
be interested to know that the programming
staff of the station was later fired. I’ll
never forget when he said that they made the
programming decisions “from our guts,” and
some wise person in our group asked “Whose
guts?” And the final event of that trip, the
luncheon with members of the National
Council of Women’s Organizations was also
very fruitful. Feminists in the US really
needed, and still need, to have their
consciousness raised about the importance of
media coverage. In my humble opinion, many
who do wonderful research and activism do
not have the audience they need. They need
us!
The following month, December, I attended
the World Summit on the Information Society,
Part Two, in Tunis, Tunisia, in my capacity
as a board member of AMARC (the World
Association of Community Radio
Broadcasters). The level of censorship in
Tunisia is very shocking. Our woman Nobel
peace laureate from Iran, Shirin Ebadi, made
a very strong point of defending freedom of
the press and freedom of assembly there, and
she emboldened local people to come out on
their own behalf despite the risks. In my
own conversations with people, I stressed
the normality of community radio and freedom
of the press, and asserted that eventually
Tunisia would have all of that, I’m sure.
The most important decisions taken at this
meeting were that a committee was formed to
continue discussing internet governance, and
that the developed countries decided NOT to
create a permanent fund to help developing
countries move towards communications
parity. The recommendation was that
developing countries should use existing
funds for communications development. The
decision potentially affects IAWRT a great
deal. For example, the terrible telephone
service and shortage of inexpensive
broadband in some developing countries makes
it difficult for us to communicate with one
another on an equal footing.
Happily, the application for financial
support from FOKUS in Norway has at last
been approved – thanks to Carolina Maira and
all of IAWRT Norway for that! -- so we have
funds from them for activities during this
year. In addition to the operating budget
(which, remember, is earmarked just for
items that are by or to benefit members from
developing countries), we also have a budget
for two projects involving Cameroon and
India/Nepal in co-operation. These two
productions are under the umbrella of the
FOKUS/NRK TV-campaign Violence Against
Women.
One of the few painful duties I’ve had was
to write a letter to the organizer of the
Romanian film festival, at which Cristina
Sarbu was able to get a number of IAWRT
films prominently shown – a real triumph,
and congratulations to Cristina! Sadly, our
grand prize winning film, Suzanna, I have a
Dream from Sweden, was cut from the program.
We were concerned that the reason might have
been political. However, I am now satisfied
with the organizer’s response, including a
promise that it will be on the program for
the Romanian “Festival Films de Femmes 2007”
Thanks to Vice President Olya Booyar,
Australia, for suggesting a very diplomatic
approach.
At the April board telephone meeting, which
was also attended by others, our entire
discussion was around the Request for
Proposals (RFP) for hosting the 2007 IAWRT
conference. We wanted to be sure that
whoever hosts it would know what to expect
from IAWRT and be able to ask for what they
need to make it happen properly. Thanks to
Boardmember Bandana Rana, Nepal for drafting
this document, and to all who contributed
their opinions to the discussion, including
past presidents and past conference
organizers, as well as some who may be
interested in hosting the next one.
Other issues now being discussed include the
upcoming application to FOKUS in Norway for
financial support 2007, which is a
conference year. (deadline in summer), and
fundraising from other sources. Olya, as not
only Vice President but also chair of the
Fundraising committee, would, I’m sure, be
interested in your ideas, as would I.
So, those are the highlights of my term to
date. Things are going well. Don’t hesitate
to contact me with your ideas – or come and
see me when you’re in Vancouver, Canada, for
any reason.
Vancouver April 20 2006
Yours,
Frieda
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