conference II

FINAL REPORT

Galina Petriashvili,
Project Director

The project aimed to develop regional gender journalist networks among the countries of Central Asia and South Caucasus. The project was the outcome of the long term work of the gender department of ODIHR OSCE in these two regions. The third International Conference was preceded by the first international conference: “Mass Media for Gender Equality”, Tbilisi, July 21-23, 2004 and the second international conference: “Mass Media for Promotion of Women in Politics”, Tbilisi, July 1-3, 2004. All the abovementioned three conferences were preceded by a number of publications prepared by the member journalists of the Association “GenderMediaCaucasus” within the framework of the international Coalition “CaucAsia”, which was created during the first international conference. The first conference was accompanied by the limited copies of journalistic publications, multiplied with the help of photocopying. This was a very important initiative. It gave participants the opportunity to get better acquainted with each others work as professionals and to obtain information about gender journalism in each represented country. During the second conference a book “Women and Elections” was published featuring articles of participating women journalists from 9 countries. The book comprised of 120 pages and was published in 1000 copies. The third international conference was preceded by the assessment of national newspapers, which was followed by a publication on the basis of results: “Women’s opinion in mass media. Monitoring materials of national newspapers in 8 countries of South Caucasus and Central Asia”.

Thus the project Role of Mass Media in Empowerment of Women The third International Journalists’ Conference comprised of two parts: first – publication; second – conduction of international conference.

Part one. PUBLICATION

Decision about the conduction of international monitoring of newspapers in Central Asia and South Caucasus “Gender analysis of experts’ opinion in mass media of South Caucasus and Central Asia” was made during the second international conference, which was held in July, last year in Tbilisi. The idea of conduction of international monitoring of newspapers was implemented together with other ideas and recommendations that emerged during the conference. The idea was welcomed by the participants, the monitoring group was created on the basis of personal interests; later the monitoring group was joined by other journalists who were not among the participants of the conference but were interested in conduction of this kind of monitoring. The monitoring group was created in the following manner:

1. KYRGYZSTAN:
1) Nurjan Tulegabilova, newspaper “Slovo Kyrgyzstana”(Bishkek),
2) Natalia Domagalskaia, newspaper"МСН" ("Moia stalitsa – novosti”, Bishkek),
3) Alla Piatibratova, newspaper “Echo Osha” (Osh);

2. TAJIKISTAN:
Rano Bobodjanova, newspaper “Asia plus” (Khudzhand);

3. KAZAKHSTAN:
Svetlana Shakirova, newspaper “Kazakhstanskaia Pravda” and “Novoe Pokoleie” (Alma-Ata);

4. UZBEKISTAN:
Zharifa Tadzhieva, newspaper “Pravda Vostoka” and “Novosti Uzbekistana” (Tashkent);

5. ARMENIA:
Tamara Ovnatanyan, Lilit Zakaryan, newspapers “Aiastani anrapetiutiun” and “Aikakan Zhamalak” (Yerevan);

6. AZERBAIJAN:
Lala Musaeva, newspapers “Khalg Gazeti” (“National Newspaper”) and “Baki Khiabiar” (Baku News”);

7. GEORGIA:
Lali Nikolava, newspapers “Svobodnaia gruzia” and “Alia” (Tbilisi);

8. DENMARK:
Alma Bekturganova, newspaper “Argumenti I Fakti”, European enclosure.

Thus, 8 countries and 11 journalists/researchers became the participants of the project. Galina Petriashvili was the coordinator and manager of the project. Later, designer Goga Davtian, Translator Sandro Kochoradze and a group of editors joined the project.

Monitoring Goals:
- Research (qualitative and quantitative) on the representation of male and female experts’ opinion in periodicals.
- Assist in introducing balanced gender politics in mass media in connection with expert opinions.
Monitoring objectives:
- To study how often mass media is addressing to men and women as to experts and how this interest is divided according to various spheres (private/public spheres) and topics depending on who is an expert, a man or a woman;
- To trace the quantity of male/female experts’ opinions and observe whether the publications are independent or state owned;
- To find out if there is a connection between the gender affiliation of journalists and who is given priority – male or female journalists.

The provisional hypothesis of the research was based on the assumption that female expert opinion is practically neglected on the pages of periodicals. The aforementioned speaks for the existing gender misbalance in mass media.

Why it was important to conduct the monitoring and publicize its results? The monitoring gave possibility to:
- gain information on how often newspapers address to women as to experts and for what reasons,
- bring up this issue by proving its existence;
- try to influence the policy of the editorial offices;
- try to make our colleagues think about the issue;
- plan future informational campaigns for supporting women,
- increase the number of member journalists of the Coalition “CaucAsia”, increase the prestige of this network.

What we have achieved with the publication?
- it will serve as an idea for further promotion of women’s rights;
- it was introduced at the third international conference as an illustration of one of the existing problems, which was discussed on it;
- it will be used as a document in any other work in the field;
- it may be used as an argument while facing the problem of gender equality;
- it represents journalists’ concern and initiatives in gender issues.

The idea of conduction of monitoring, which emerged during the second conference was designed as a journalistic action and not a scientific research of the problem. Actually, this was an important part of the initiative – to conduct a specific journalistic investigation based on fair selection of material and using adequate methodology for analysis. However, this kind of work did not foresee very strict scientific approach. It had a different goal: to bring up an issue and to give it a journalistic interpretation.

During three months after the conduction of the second international conference, the monitoring group worked out the methodology of conduction of the monitoring process, systematization and analysis of their work. Daily draft charts and final charts for summarization of the results of the monitoring were created including charts featuring photo illustrations. (Annex N1. Monitoring Charts). During this period of time number of indicators and means of calculation and assessment of newspaper articles were manufactured.
After the group agreed on the principle issues regarding the aforementioned parameters, they began the actual work. The methodology of the work was not that complicated: each member of the monitoring group had to study and document all the publications in daily charts and then to summarize the results according to the methodology introduced by the final chart. This took 3 months: October, November and December of 2004. Afterwards, each member of the monitoring group had to present their comments and then the final expert comments were written according to the results gained from each country. This was the layout of the project and all the participants followed it.
It has to be mentioned that the work of the monitoring group was conducted on voluntary basis; only on the final stage we applied to ODIHR OSCE for financial support in order to publish the results of the monitoring. Thus, the monitoring group members received honorarium for preparation of final comments that were introduced in the book as articles. The book contains a vast data from all those newspapers that were included in the monitoring process, number of charts, personal comments on certain newspapers and overall conclusions regarding the problem in general. The book also included translated versions of all articles. (Annex N2. The book «Women’s opinion in mass media”). The book was published in 500 copies and consisted of 244 pages. The book was published in Tbilisi based publishing house “Polygraph Plus”.
The work on conduction of the monitoring was harder than preparation of journalistic publications because it required a good knowledge of team work. This kind of monitoring work is a new experience for the member journalists of “CaucAsia”, however it was a very important experience which brought the work of the journalistic network on another level and expanded its abilities.
It has to be mentioned that the morning session of the first day of the conference was dedicated to the results of the monitoring. Participants of the conference emphasized the importance of this kind of work and the necessity of introducing these results to the general public and mass media. A special working group was created during the third day of the conference, which introduced its recommendations on the promotion of results of the monitoring. We will refer to this below, in a section CONFERENCE RECOMMENDATIONS.

Part two. CONFERENCE

The main goal of the third international conference for journalists “Role of Mass Media in Empowerment of Women” was to further activate regional mass media in promotion of women and gender equality. Coming out of this overall goal, the following objectives were brought together:
- To consider the unique experience of international cooperation of journalists within the framework of the Coalition “CaucAsia”,
- To analyze possibilities of cooperation of journalists with women’s networks;
- To develop principles and concrete steps towards supporting women’s leadership,
- To analyze journalistic actions in this direction,
- To draw attention of mass media to these issues,
- To draft concrete steps for the next year work within the framework of the Coalition “CaucAsia”.

As far as it was the third international conference financed by ODIHR OSCE, the program of the conference was a logical continuation of the two previous conferences. (Annex 3. Conference Agenda). The agenda of the conference was prepared in such a manner that it could finalize the results of the hard work accomplished by journalists and define working priorities for the future. During discussions at the conference, a great deal of attention was paid to the issues of cooperation between gender journalists and women’s networks operating in the region. Number of member countries of “CaucAsia” also increased. If last year the number of member countries was 9, this year it was 13: Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Russia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Denmark, Ukraine and Sweden. The overall number of journalists participating in the conference was 50. (Annex 4. List of Participants).

During the FIRST DAY of the conference issue of women representation in regional mass media was discussed as well as the monitoring results of national newspapers were analyzed. The main part of the conversation was dedicated to the discussion about the work of journalist networks and how they should become more active.
According to the existing tradition, each of the session was led by the national delegation: the morning session for example was facilitated by the Armenian delegation and the evening session – by Azeri delegation.

Day One, Guest Speakers:
Aygun Kazimova (Gender Unit ODIHR OSCE),
Galina Petriashvili (Georgia),
Tamara Ovnataiyan (Armenia),
Lala Musaeva (Azerbaijan),
Zarifa Tadjieva (Uzbekistan),
Natalia Domagalskaya (Kyrgyzstan),
Lali Nikolava (Georgia),
Rano Bobojanova (Tajikistan),
Alma Bekturganova – Anderson (Denmark/Kazakhstan),
Igor Sapozhnikov (Kyrgyzstan),
Umida Akhmedova (Uzbekistan),
Maya Goshadze (Georgia),
Gulshan Alieva (Azerbaijan).

The first day of the conference ended up with group discussions where the participants began to develop future initiatives for the Coalition “CaucAsia; flip-charts were placed in the conference room during three days so that every participant or the guest could write down their own ideas or proposals. Ideas were summarized on the last day of the conference.

After the end of the conference on the first day, a presentation was held. Participants of the conference, Tbilisi based journalists, Women NGO Coalition of Georgia, leaders and activists of NGO sector and representatives of international organizations were invited to the conference. The presentation featured:

- International PHOTO EXHIBITION “Women and the Social Challenge” (works from Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine);

- Six initial editions of monthly electronic gender-analytical MAGAZINE “CaucAsia”, prepared by the volunteers of “GenderMediaCaucasus” and Coalition “CaucAsia”;

- Special edition “Beijing + 10” of the international MAGAZINE “Мы/We: Women’s Dialogue” published in June, 2005 in Tbilisi with the support of WNP OSI.

The presentation was held in a very informal, friendly surrounding. Representatives of different countries were dressed in national attire. The presentation turned out to be very vivid and colorful and brought attention of representatives of national mass media. Aigun Kazimova, representative of the Gender Unit of ODIHR OSCE and international experts on gender issues, Reet Laja and Leena Blum.

The work of the conference went on according to the agenda. The SECOND DAY of the conference featured the following topic: supporting women leadership and ideology of gender equality through mass media on national levels; the evening session was dedicated to the discussion on how to change the situation in national mass media. Several concrete examples were introduced on overcoming the problem of sexism – project “Stop Sexism”, which was carried out in Saint Petersburg (Russia) and the Georgia project “Journalists against sexism in mass culture.

Day Two, Guest Speakers:
Anne Jalakas (Sweden),
Alma Bekturganova – Anderson (Denmark/Kazakhstan),
Harda Roosna (Estonia),
Anait Arutunyan (Azerbaijan),
Roza Kukhalashvili (Georgia),
Stela Licheva (Bulgaria),
Vladimer Khanas (Ukraine),
Olga Lipovskaya (Russia),
Rano Bobojanova (Tajikistan),
Giorgi Chkonia (Georgia),
Tamara Balavadze (Georgia),
Lali Nikolava (Georgia),
Nino Sukhiashvili (Georgia).

The topic of the Third Day was the following: International Coalition of Journalists “CaucAsia”: New initiatives for achieveing gender equality through mass media. This session was facilitated by the delegation from Uzbekistan and it was fully dedicated to future prospects. The agenda of the conference was slightly changed in order to give time to Nurzhan Tulegabilova from Kyrgyzstan to make her presentation because she joined the conference later than expected due to the flight delay. Her presentation was called: “Tulip revolution from the eyes of women and mass media in Kyrgyzstan” and contained collected narrative reports form citizens gathered during the revolution.
After the discussion participants were divided into 4 working groups and were asked to work on practical recommendations on the following topics:
GROUP ONE – refining and summarizing ideas from the “bank of ideas” that was created during the conference,
GROUP TWO – planning of the campaign for further promotion of monitoring results,
GROUP THREE – planning of further development of the magazine “CaucAsia”,
GROUP FOUR – planning of educations programs within the framework of the Coalition “CaucAsia” (see below, CONFERENCE RECOMMENDATIONS).

MEDIA SUPPORT. Long before the beginning of the conference, organizers of the event insured very strong media coverage. Press releases regarding the conference were sent out not only to the local mass media but to international community as well. (Annex 5. Press releases in English and Russian). Participants of the conference sent out the information about the third international conference in their own countries. It was also sent to a number of international mailing lists: Women UN Reporters Network – WUNRN, International Journalists’ Network (IJN), Women Network Program OSI, «Open Women Line», Central Asian Gender Network, Gender Informational Network of South Caucasus, weekly Russian messenger of the Informational Center of the Independent Women’s Forum, the number of recipients was 5 thousand.
The conference program included a number of illustrations: presentations and discussions slide-shows, photos, documentaries, social commercials. All this made the event very interesting not only for the participants but for many guests, who could enter and observe the conference from the balcony just above the conference room.
During all three days the information group issued a daily reports about the conference. (Annex 6. Blitz Bulletins of the conference, 3 editions in Russian). This has become one of the traditions of the conference. This time, blitz bulletins were not only disseminated among the guests and participants of the conference but also sent to the mailing list of the Association “GenderMediaCaucasus” on daily basis, which includes at lease 500 recipients. Final blitz bulletin was translated in English (Annex 7. Final edition in Russian) and distributed to the broader English speaking audience (Annex 8. Final edition in English). It has to be mentioned that many of our recipients have their own mailing lists and the information was spread out further.

Reporters of national mass media worked during the conference and insured its coverage:
- News agency “Kavkaz-Press”, «Black Sea Press», «Novosti – Gruzia”, «Inter-Press», «Media-News», «Prime-News»;
- Newspapers “Tbilisi”, “Rezonansi”, Georgian enclosures of “Argumenti i Fakti”, Georgian enclosures of “komsomolskaya Pravda”, “Svobodnaya Gruzia”, “Sakartvelos Respublika”, “Sakartvelos Kali”, “Kavkazskii Akcent”, “Abkhaskii meridian”.
- TV companies: First State Channel, “Rustavi 2”.
- Radio: “First Channel”, “Zelionaya Volna”, “Postfaktum”.

During the first week after the conference, there were materials, received via e-mail, which had been published in Georgia, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, as well as on Internet web pages. Materials of the conference are distributed to (but not published yet) Moscow magazine “Journalist” and international magazine “Women’s Dialogue”. Accordingly, publications continue to be activated, since many participants of the conference work in analytical publications, which are issued periodically. Their enactments are taken as not only operational event, but as informational ground for analysis and arguments. (Annex 9. Press file of the conference).

According to the tradition, once again, there was taken a material for the documentary. As soon as the work is done, the film will be copied to a CD of the conference and multiplied for the following utilization.

CONFERENCE RECOMMENDATIONS (practical proposals)

A Basic “recommendation” is very simple and short: KEEP ON WORKING together. This is a common desire and determination. It is interesting that in one of the new agencies declared a following headline: ”Participants agreed to organize the forth international conference on gender journalism next year in Tbilisi”… However, the conference is not a goal, but it is a remedy to evaluate relations and works among them. In view of participants, there were outlined some plans to four directions. Consequently, there were formed four operational groups on the last cession.

Group One
was given a task to bring the bank of ideas to order and to give a systematic character to the ideas represented there. As mentioned above, all the ideas were written down on a flip chart during all the three days of the conference. This is what was presented in the end:

1. It is essential to include cultural components in the projects of “CaucAsia”, use multimedia, such as diverse actions, visual aids, social publicity, etc.
2. It is essential to develop educational programs for Journalists within the framework of “CaucAsia”.

- Propagate favorable experience, including international one,
- Establish Gender Summer School for journalists,
- Launch seminars according to the existing methodology in “CaucAisa” Mass media +NGOs
- Prepare trainers, who have special methods of teaching for the students of Department of Journalism.

3. It is important to encourage women’s leadership and advance women in elections.
4. It is necessary to establish trainings of women leaders related with Mass media
5. It is necessary to organize interpretations of “CaucAsia” on national languages.
6. It is important to cooperate openly with men’s gender centers and activate conversation on men’s problems.
7. Encourage and stimulate the initiative of members of the coalition “CaucAsia” regarding publications, seminars conferences, which are organized with the networks of “CaucAsia”.
8. Encourage the best projects executed by the members of “CaucAsia”
9. Besides the magazine “CaucAsia”, make a united TV program regarding the gender issues- at least on three countries of the Caucasus.
10. Organize a photo-exhibition from the countries of Europe on the Fourth Conference- concerning the gender roles today in those countries.

Group Two
worked on elaborating steps in order to propagate the results of the monitoring program. Their recommendations:

1. It is necessary to conduct an international campaign in order to propagate the results of the monitoring program (with the help of diverse actions, working with editors, bulletin “CaucAsia”, seminars and presentations)
2. It is crucial to continue the monitoring: It is important to familiarize with advertising, radio, TV, the press. The process should be habitual and reviewed on the regular bases by identifying diverse nominations of journalists, editors and publications.
3. Organize the presentations of the results of monitoring programs in the participant countries. Presentations can take place in the offices of women’s programs of Soros Foundation or in other organizations working in the same direction.
4. Prorogate the text of the appeal of participants of the Conference to organizers and employees of Mass media
5. Write the press releases about the monitoring programs on the national languages and distribute them in the national mass media.
6. Make an annotation in the national press concerning the book “Opinion of women in Mass Media”
7. Take an advantage of the publication of the book as an opportunity of distribution in national Mass media articles, related to the representation of women in mass media.
8. Devote a special edition of the magazine “CaucAsia” to the monitoring program.
9. The book “Opinion of women in Mass media” should be distributed to those newspapers, which were exposed to the monitoring programs.
10. Results of the monitoring should be available for the activists of the NGOs as manuals for seminars and conferences.
11. Publication of the thematic magazines should be continued as a collection of: “ Woman and her right”, “Woman and Authority”, “ Woman and Business”, “Women and Civil Society”
12. Carry out regular works with editors and magazines (formulate forms and methods)

Group Three
was working with plans of development of the magazine “CaucAsia”. Their recommendations:

1. Register the magazine as an edition of issuing association of journalists “GenderMediaCaucasus”
2. Continue to publish the magazine on the voluntary bases before getting the finances.
3. Continue the magazine as the thematic edition.
4. Translate the materials of the magazine on the national languages and establish supplements, pages and columns of “КакАзия” in the national newspapers.
5. Search the finances for the magazine, including on the national levels.
6. Approve the permanent operating editorial board of the magazine as the staff:
- Galina Petriashvili (editor, Georgia)
- Tamara Ovnatanian (Armenia)
- Natalia Domagalskaia (Kyrgyzstan)
- Zarifa Tajieva (Uzbekistan)
- Alma Bekturganova-Andersen (Kazakhstan/Denmark)
- Rano Bobojanov (Tajikistan)
- Stela Licheva, Uliana Stoicheva (Bulgaria)
- Kharda Roosna (Estonia)
- Anne Ialakas (Sweden)
- Vladimir Khanas (Ukraine)
- Olga Lipovskaia (Russia)

7. Identify the responsibilities of the members of the editorial board. They should:
- Keep in touch with the editor and editorial board constantly.
- Publish at least one article in each edition of the magazine;
- Write these article in Russian (exception is made only for the representatives of European Countries),
- Provide English spelling in Russian texts for English translation;
- Ensure promotion of the magazine in each member county;
- Work on new ideas and proposals and present them to the editorial board for discussion;
- Attract as many new authors as possible.

Group Four
drafted an educational program for journalists (It was considered as one of the most important directions):
1. It is essential to conduct training session for journalists and editors on regular basis according to the needs of the audience.
2. Prepare an international group of trainers within the framework of the Coalition “CaucAsia” who will have special skills of working with journalists;
3. Prepare a studying module in journalism for universities;
4. Prepare methodological manual for journalists under the following conditional title: “How Should we write” (i.e. to achieve gender tolerance and balance in journalistic works).
5. Organize competitions among different sources of mass media on the best coverage of gender issues;
6. Try to organize conduction of master-classes in editorial offices;
7. Conduct seminars by using the new methodology Mass media + NGOs;
8. Actively attract state structures that are responsible for the work with mass media;
9. Use the European resources of “CaucAsia” for introduction of international experience (the trainers group of “CaucAsia” could be prepared in Europe in order that they could work in the countries of our region).

BASIC RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

Analysis of the conference and its results show that potential of NGO - organizer of GenderMediaCaucasus Journalists’ Association and international coalition “CaucAsia”- has grown significantly. This is a unique network, which showed itself in the particular circumstances and has valid and interesting plans for the future. Number of participants and countries has increased, issues, discussed on the conference, have become more specific and defined.
Major outcome of the conference is the fact that there were outlined particular plans for the future. These plans are several and diverse. It is possible to choose two basic issues among them, to which participants are going to address in gender program of ODIHR OSCE:
- Publish international collected articles of journalists -“Women and Civil Society”. The idea holds that nongovernmental sector, in its ability to develop the democracy, represents the largest opportunity for the women. Therefore, women’s experience in NGO provides a diverse resource for analysis.
- Organize the forth international conference “Mass Media and support of women’s initiatives” where will be analyzed the experience of cooperation of women NGOs and Mass Media, including projects implemented by gender programs of ODIHR OSCE in the region.

FINAL THANKS

GenderMediaCaucasus Journalists’ Association expresses great gratification to work with gender programs of ODIHR OSCE. We thank the leadership of the program and its staff for careful and steady support of development of gender journalists in the countries of the region.

Report was written by Galina Petriashvili,

Project Director,
GenderMediaCaucasus Journalists’ Association
President

Tbilisi,
July 15, 2005

	The third International Conference for Journalists Mass Media in Empowerment of Women Tbilisi, 7-9 July, 2005	RUS
	Dayly Bulletin (PDF 131kB)
	FINAL REPORT Galina Petriashvili, Project Director The project aimed to develop regional gender journalist networks among the countries of Central Asia and South Caucasus. The project was the outcome of the long term work of the gender department of ODIHR OSCE in these two regions. The third International Conference was preceded by the first international conference: “Mass Media for Gender Equality”, Tbilisi, July 21-23, 2004 and the second international conference: “Mass Media for Promotion of Women in Politics”, Tbilisi, July 1-3, 2004. All the abovementioned three conferences were preceded by a number of publications prepared by the member journalists of the Association “GenderMediaCaucasus” within the framework of the international Coalition “CaucAsia”, which was created during the first international conference. The first conference was accompanied by the limited copies of journalistic publications, multiplied with the help of photocopying. This was a very important initiative. It gave participants the opportunity to get better acquainted with each others work as professionals and to obtain information about gender journalism in each represented country. During the second conference a book “Women and Elections” was published featuring articles of participating women journalists from 9 countries. The book comprised of 120 pages and was published in 1000 copies. The third international conference was preceded by the assessment of national newspapers, which was followed by a publication on the basis of results: “Women’s opinion in mass media. Monitoring materials of national newspapers in 8 countries of South Caucasus and Central Asia”. Thus the project Role of Mass Media in Empowerment of Women The third International Journalists’ Conference comprised of two parts: first – publication; second – conduction of international conference. Part one. PUBLICATION Decision about the conduction of international monitoring of newspapers in Central Asia and South Caucasus “Gender analysis of experts’ opinion in mass media of South Caucasus and Central Asia” was made during the second international conference, which was held in July, last year in Tbilisi. The idea of conduction of international monitoring of newspapers was implemented together with other ideas and recommendations that emerged during the conference. The idea was welcomed by the participants, the monitoring group was created on the basis of personal interests; later the monitoring group was joined by other journalists who were not among the participants of the conference but were interested in conduction of this kind of monitoring. The monitoring group was created in the following manner: 1. KYRGYZSTAN: 1) Nurjan Tulegabilova, newspaper “Slovo Kyrgyzstana”(Bishkek), 2) Natalia Domagalskaia, newspaper"МСН" ("Moia stalitsa – novosti”, Bishkek), 3) Alla Piatibratova, newspaper “Echo Osha” (Osh); 2. TAJIKISTAN: Rano Bobodjanova, newspaper “Asia plus” (Khudzhand); 3. KAZAKHSTAN: Svetlana Shakirova, newspaper “Kazakhstanskaia Pravda” and “Novoe Pokoleie” (Alma-Ata); 4. UZBEKISTAN: Zharifa Tadzhieva, newspaper “Pravda Vostoka” and “Novosti Uzbekistana” (Tashkent); 5. ARMENIA: Tamara Ovnatanyan, Lilit Zakaryan, newspapers “Aiastani anrapetiutiun” and “Aikakan Zhamalak” (Yerevan); 6. AZERBAIJAN: Lala Musaeva, newspapers “Khalg Gazeti” (“National Newspaper”) and “Baki Khiabiar” (Baku News”); 7. GEORGIA: Lali Nikolava, newspapers “Svobodnaia gruzia” and “Alia” (Tbilisi); 8. DENMARK: Alma Bekturganova, newspaper “Argumenti I Fakti”, European enclosure. Thus, 8 countries and 11 journalists/researchers became the participants of the project. Galina Petriashvili was the coordinator and manager of the project. Later, designer Goga Davtian, Translator Sandro Kochoradze and a group of editors joined the project. Monitoring Goals: - Research (qualitative and quantitative) on the representation of male and female experts’ opinion in periodicals. - Assist in introducing balanced gender politics in mass media in connection with expert opinions. Monitoring objectives: - To study how often mass media is addressing to men and women as to experts and how this interest is divided according to various spheres (private/public spheres) and topics depending on who is an expert, a man or a woman; - To trace the quantity of male/female experts’ opinions and observe whether the publications are independent or state owned; - To find out if there is a connection between the gender affiliation of journalists and who is given priority – male or female journalists. The provisional hypothesis of the research was based on the assumption that female expert opinion is practically neglected on the pages of periodicals. The aforementioned speaks for the existing gender misbalance in mass media. Why it was important to conduct the monitoring and publicize its results? The monitoring gave possibility to: - gain information on how often newspapers address to women as to experts and for what reasons, - bring up this issue by proving its existence; - try to influence the policy of the editorial offices; - try to make our colleagues think about the issue; - plan future informational campaigns for supporting women, - increase the number of member journalists of the Coalition “CaucAsia”, increase the prestige of this network. What we have achieved with the publication? - it will serve as an idea for further promotion of women’s rights; - it was introduced at the third international conference as an illustration of one of the existing problems, which was discussed on it; - it will be used as a document in any other work in the field; - it may be used as an argument while facing the problem of gender equality; - it represents journalists’ concern and initiatives in gender issues. The idea of conduction of monitoring, which emerged during the second conference was designed as a journalistic action and not a scientific research of the problem. Actually, this was an important part of the initiative – to conduct a specific journalistic investigation based on fair selection of material and using adequate methodology for analysis. However, this kind of work did not foresee very strict scientific approach. It had a different goal: to bring up an issue and to give it a journalistic interpretation. During three months after the conduction of the second international conference, the monitoring group worked out the methodology of conduction of the monitoring process, systematization and analysis of their work. Daily draft charts and final charts for summarization of the results of the monitoring were created including charts featuring photo illustrations. (Annex N1. Monitoring Charts). During this period of time number of indicators and means of calculation and assessment of newspaper articles were manufactured. After the group agreed on the principle issues regarding the aforementioned parameters, they began the actual work. The methodology of the work was not that complicated: each member of the monitoring group had to study and document all the publications in daily charts and then to summarize the results according to the methodology introduced by the final chart. This took 3 months: October, November and December of 2004. Afterwards, each member of the monitoring group had to present their comments and then the final expert comments were written according to the results gained from each country. This was the layout of the project and all the participants followed it. It has to be mentioned that the work of the monitoring group was conducted on voluntary basis; only on the final stage we applied to ODIHR OSCE for financial support in order to publish the results of the monitoring. Thus, the monitoring group members received honorarium for preparation of final comments that were introduced in the book as articles. The book contains a vast data from all those newspapers that were included in the monitoring process, number of charts, personal comments on certain newspapers and overall conclusions regarding the problem in general. The book also included translated versions of all articles. (Annex N2. The book «Women’s opinion in mass media”). The book was published in 500 copies and consisted of 244 pages. The book was published in Tbilisi based publishing house “Polygraph Plus”. The work on conduction of the monitoring was harder than preparation of journalistic publications because it required a good knowledge of team work. This kind of monitoring work is a new experience for the member journalists of “CaucAsia”, however it was a very important experience which brought the work of the journalistic network on another level and expanded its abilities. It has to be mentioned that the morning session of the first day of the conference was dedicated to the results of the monitoring. Participants of the conference emphasized the importance of this kind of work and the necessity of introducing these results to the general public and mass media. A special working group was created during the third day of the conference, which introduced its recommendations on the promotion of results of the monitoring. We will refer to this below, in a section CONFERENCE RECOMMENDATIONS. Part two. CONFERENCE The main goal of the third international conference for journalists “Role of Mass Media in Empowerment of Women” was to further activate regional mass media in promotion of women and gender equality. Coming out of this overall goal, the following objectives were brought together: - To consider the unique experience of international cooperation of journalists within the framework of the Coalition “CaucAsia”, - To analyze possibilities of cooperation of journalists with women’s networks; - To develop principles and concrete steps towards supporting women’s leadership, - To analyze journalistic actions in this direction, - To draw attention of mass media to these issues, - To draft concrete steps for the next year work within the framework of the Coalition “CaucAsia”. As far as it was the third international conference financed by ODIHR OSCE, the program of the conference was a logical continuation of the two previous conferences. (Annex 3. Conference Agenda). The agenda of the conference was prepared in such a manner that it could finalize the results of the hard work accomplished by journalists and define working priorities for the future. During discussions at the conference, a great deal of attention was paid to the issues of cooperation between gender journalists and women’s networks operating in the region. Number of member countries of “CaucAsia” also increased. If last year the number of member countries was 9, this year it was 13: Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Russia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Denmark, Ukraine and Sweden. The overall number of journalists participating in the conference was 50. (Annex 4. List of Participants). During the FIRST DAY of the conference issue of women representation in regional mass media was discussed as well as the monitoring results of national newspapers were analyzed. The main part of the conversation was dedicated to the discussion about the work of journalist networks and how they should become more active. According to the existing tradition, each of the session was led by the national delegation: the morning session for example was facilitated by the Armenian delegation and the evening session – by Azeri delegation. Day One, Guest Speakers: Aygun Kazimova (Gender Unit ODIHR OSCE), Galina Petriashvili (Georgia), Tamara Ovnataiyan (Armenia), Lala Musaeva (Azerbaijan), Zarifa Tadjieva (Uzbekistan), Natalia Domagalskaya (Kyrgyzstan), Lali Nikolava (Georgia), Rano Bobojanova (Tajikistan), Alma Bekturganova – Anderson (Denmark/Kazakhstan), Igor Sapozhnikov (Kyrgyzstan), Umida Akhmedova (Uzbekistan), Maya Goshadze (Georgia), Gulshan Alieva (Azerbaijan). The first day of the conference ended up with group discussions where the participants began to develop future initiatives for the Coalition “CaucAsia; flip-charts were placed in the conference room during three days so that every participant or the guest could write down their own ideas or proposals. Ideas were summarized on the last day of the conference. After the end of the conference on the first day, a presentation was held. Participants of the conference, Tbilisi based journalists, Women NGO Coalition of Georgia, leaders and activists of NGO sector and representatives of international organizations were invited to the conference. The presentation featured: - International PHOTO EXHIBITION “Women and the Social Challenge” (works from Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine); - Six initial editions of monthly electronic gender-analytical MAGAZINE “CaucAsia”, prepared by the volunteers of “GenderMediaCaucasus” and Coalition “CaucAsia”; - Special edition “Beijing + 10” of the international MAGAZINE “Мы/We: Women’s Dialogue” published in June, 2005 in Tbilisi with the support of WNP OSI. The presentation was held in a very informal, friendly surrounding. Representatives of different countries were dressed in national attire. The presentation turned out to be very vivid and colorful and brought attention of representatives of national mass media. Aigun Kazimova, representative of the Gender Unit of ODIHR OSCE and international experts on gender issues, Reet Laja and Leena Blum. The work of the conference went on according to the agenda. The SECOND DAY of the conference featured the following topic: supporting women leadership and ideology of gender equality through mass media on national levels; the evening session was dedicated to the discussion on how to change the situation in national mass media. Several concrete examples were introduced on overcoming the problem of sexism – project “Stop Sexism”, which was carried out in Saint Petersburg (Russia) and the Georgia project “Journalists against sexism in mass culture. Day Two, Guest Speakers: Anne Jalakas (Sweden), Alma Bekturganova – Anderson (Denmark/Kazakhstan), Harda Roosna (Estonia), Anait Arutunyan (Azerbaijan), Roza Kukhalashvili (Georgia), Stela Licheva (Bulgaria), Vladimer Khanas (Ukraine), Olga Lipovskaya (Russia), Rano Bobojanova (Tajikistan), Giorgi Chkonia (Georgia), Tamara Balavadze (Georgia), Lali Nikolava (Georgia), Nino Sukhiashvili (Georgia). The topic of the Third Day was the following: International Coalition of Journalists “CaucAsia”: New initiatives for achieveing gender equality through mass media. This session was facilitated by the delegation from Uzbekistan and it was fully dedicated to future prospects. The agenda of the conference was slightly changed in order to give time to Nurzhan Tulegabilova from Kyrgyzstan to make her presentation because she joined the conference later than expected due to the flight delay. Her presentation was called: “Tulip revolution from the eyes of women and mass media in Kyrgyzstan” and contained collected narrative reports form citizens gathered during the revolution. After the discussion participants were divided into 4 working groups and were asked to work on practical recommendations on the following topics: GROUP ONE – refining and summarizing ideas from the “bank of ideas” that was created during the conference, GROUP TWO – planning of the campaign for further promotion of monitoring results, GROUP THREE – planning of further development of the magazine “CaucAsia”, GROUP FOUR – planning of educations programs within the framework of the Coalition “CaucAsia” (see below, CONFERENCE RECOMMENDATIONS). MEDIA SUPPORT. Long before the beginning of the conference, organizers of the event insured very strong media coverage. Press releases regarding the conference were sent out not only to the local mass media but to international community as well. (Annex 5. Press releases in English and Russian). Participants of the conference sent out the information about the third international conference in their own countries. It was also sent to a number of international mailing lists: Women UN Reporters Network – WUNRN, International Journalists’ Network (IJN), Women Network Program OSI, «Open Women Line», Central Asian Gender Network, Gender Informational Network of South Caucasus, weekly Russian messenger of the Informational Center of the Independent Women’s Forum, the number of recipients was 5 thousand. The conference program included a number of illustrations: presentations and discussions slide-shows, photos, documentaries, social commercials. All this made the event very interesting not only for the participants but for many guests, who could enter and observe the conference from the balcony just above the conference room. During all three days the information group issued a daily reports about the conference. (Annex 6. Blitz Bulletins of the conference, 3 editions in Russian). This has become one of the traditions of the conference. This time, blitz bulletins were not only disseminated among the guests and participants of the conference but also sent to the mailing list of the Association “GenderMediaCaucasus” on daily basis, which includes at lease 500 recipients. Final blitz bulletin was translated in English (Annex 7. Final edition in Russian) and distributed to the broader English speaking audience (Annex 8. Final edition in English). It has to be mentioned that many of our recipients have their own mailing lists and the information was spread out further. Reporters of national mass media worked during the conference and insured its coverage: - News agency “Kavkaz-Press”, «Black Sea Press», «Novosti – Gruzia”, «Inter-Press», «Media-News», «Prime-News»; - Newspapers “Tbilisi”, “Rezonansi”, Georgian enclosures of “Argumenti i Fakti”, Georgian enclosures of “komsomolskaya Pravda”, “Svobodnaya Gruzia”, “Sakartvelos Respublika”, “Sakartvelos Kali”, “Kavkazskii Akcent”, “Abkhaskii meridian”. - TV companies: First State Channel, “Rustavi 2”. - Radio: “First Channel”, “Zelionaya Volna”, “Postfaktum”. During the first week after the conference, there were materials, received via e-mail, which had been published in Georgia, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, as well as on Internet web pages. Materials of the conference are distributed to (but not published yet) Moscow magazine “Journalist” and international magazine “Women’s Dialogue”. Accordingly, publications continue to be activated, since many participants of the conference work in analytical publications, which are issued periodically. Their enactments are taken as not only operational event, but as informational ground for analysis and arguments. (Annex 9. Press file of the conference). According to the tradition, once again, there was taken a material for the documentary. As soon as the work is done, the film will be copied to a CD of the conference and multiplied for the following utilization. CONFERENCE RECOMMENDATIONS (practical proposals) A Basic “recommendation” is very simple and short: KEEP ON WORKING together. This is a common desire and determination. It is interesting that in one of the new agencies declared a following headline: ”Participants agreed to organize the forth international conference on gender journalism next year in Tbilisi”… However, the conference is not a goal, but it is a remedy to evaluate relations and works among them. In view of participants, there were outlined some plans to four directions. Consequently, there were formed four operational groups on the last cession. Group One was given a task to bring the bank of ideas to order and to give a systematic character to the ideas represented there. As mentioned above, all the ideas were written down on a flip chart during all the three days of the conference. This is what was presented in the end: 1. It is essential to include cultural components in the projects of “CaucAsia”, use multimedia, such as diverse actions, visual aids, social publicity, etc. 2. It is essential to develop educational programs for Journalists within the framework of “CaucAsia”. - Propagate favorable experience, including international one, - Establish Gender Summer School for journalists, - Launch seminars according to the existing methodology in “CaucAisa” Mass media +NGOs - Prepare trainers, who have special methods of teaching for the students of Department of Journalism. 3. It is important to encourage women’s leadership and advance women in elections. 4. It is necessary to establish trainings of women leaders related with Mass media 5. It is necessary to organize interpretations of “CaucAsia” on national languages. 6. It is important to cooperate openly with men’s gender centers and activate conversation on men’s problems. 7. Encourage and stimulate the initiative of members of the coalition “CaucAsia” regarding publications, seminars conferences, which are organized with the networks of “CaucAsia”. 8. Encourage the best projects executed by the members of “CaucAsia” 9. Besides the magazine “CaucAsia”, make a united TV program regarding the gender issues- at least on three countries of the Caucasus. 10. Organize a photo-exhibition from the countries of Europe on the Fourth Conference- concerning the gender roles today in those countries. Group Two worked on elaborating steps in order to propagate the results of the monitoring program. Their recommendations: 1. It is necessary to conduct an international campaign in order to propagate the results of the monitoring program (with the help of diverse actions, working with editors, bulletin “CaucAsia”, seminars and presentations) 2. It is crucial to continue the monitoring: It is important to familiarize with advertising, radio, TV, the press. The process should be habitual and reviewed on the regular bases by identifying diverse nominations of journalists, editors and publications. 3. Organize the presentations of the results of monitoring programs in the participant countries. Presentations can take place in the offices of women’s programs of Soros Foundation or in other organizations working in the same direction. 4. Prorogate the text of the appeal of participants of the Conference to organizers and employees of Mass media 5. Write the press releases about the monitoring programs on the national languages and distribute them in the national mass media. 6. Make an annotation in the national press concerning the book “Opinion of women in Mass Media” 7. Take an advantage of the publication of the book as an opportunity of distribution in national Mass media articles, related to the representation of women in mass media. 8. Devote a special edition of the magazine “CaucAsia” to the monitoring program. 9. The book “Opinion of women in Mass media” should be distributed to those newspapers, which were exposed to the monitoring programs. 10. Results of the monitoring should be available for the activists of the NGOs as manuals for seminars and conferences. 11. Publication of the thematic magazines should be continued as a collection of: “ Woman and her right”, “Woman and Authority”, “ Woman and Business”, “Women and Civil Society” 12. Carry out regular works with editors and magazines (formulate forms and methods) Group Three was working with plans of development of the magazine “CaucAsia”. Their recommendations: 1. Register the magazine as an edition of issuing association of journalists “GenderMediaCaucasus” 2. Continue to publish the magazine on the voluntary bases before getting the finances. 3. Continue the magazine as the thematic edition. 4. Translate the materials of the magazine on the national languages and establish supplements, pages and columns of “КакАзия” in the national newspapers. 5. Search the finances for the magazine, including on the national levels. 6. Approve the permanent operating editorial board of the magazine as the staff: - Galina Petriashvili (editor, Georgia) - Tamara Ovnatanian (Armenia) - Natalia Domagalskaia (Kyrgyzstan) - Zarifa Tajieva (Uzbekistan) - Alma Bekturganova-Andersen (Kazakhstan/Denmark) - Rano Bobojanov (Tajikistan) - Stela Licheva, Uliana Stoicheva (Bulgaria) - Kharda Roosna (Estonia) - Anne Ialakas (Sweden) - Vladimir Khanas (Ukraine) - Olga Lipovskaia (Russia) 7. Identify the responsibilities of the members of the editorial board. They should: - Keep in touch with the editor and editorial board constantly. - Publish at least one article in each edition of the magazine; - Write these article in Russian (exception is made only for the representatives of European Countries), - Provide English spelling in Russian texts for English translation; - Ensure promotion of the magazine in each member county; - Work on new ideas and proposals and present them to the editorial board for discussion; - Attract as many new authors as possible. Group Four drafted an educational program for journalists (It was considered as one of the most important directions): 1. It is essential to conduct training session for journalists and editors on regular basis according to the needs of the audience. 2. Prepare an international group of trainers within the framework of the Coalition “CaucAsia” who will have special skills of working with journalists; 3. Prepare a studying module in journalism for universities; 4. Prepare methodological manual for journalists under the following conditional title: “How Should we write” (i.e. to achieve gender tolerance and balance in journalistic works). 5. Organize competitions among different sources of mass media on the best coverage of gender issues; 6. Try to organize conduction of master-classes in editorial offices; 7. Conduct seminars by using the new methodology Mass media + NGOs; 8. Actively attract state structures that are responsible for the work with mass media; 9. Use the European resources of “CaucAsia” for introduction of international experience (the trainers group of “CaucAsia” could be prepared in Europe in order that they could work in the countries of our region). BASIC RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS Analysis of the conference and its results show that potential of NGO - organizer of GenderMediaCaucasus Journalists’ Association and international coalition “CaucAsia”- has grown significantly. This is a unique network, which showed itself in the particular circumstances and has valid and interesting plans for the future. Number of participants and countries has increased, issues, discussed on the conference, have become more specific and defined. Major outcome of the conference is the fact that there were outlined particular plans for the future. These plans are several and diverse. It is possible to choose two basic issues among them, to which participants are going to address in gender program of ODIHR OSCE: - Publish international collected articles of journalists -“Women and Civil Society”. The idea holds that nongovernmental sector, in its ability to develop the democracy, represents the largest opportunity for the women. Therefore, women’s experience in NGO provides a diverse resource for analysis. - Organize the forth international conference “Mass Media and support of women’s initiatives” where will be analyzed the experience of cooperation of women NGOs and Mass Media, including projects implemented by gender programs of ODIHR OSCE in the region. FINAL THANKS GenderMediaCaucasus Journalists’ Association expresses great gratification to work with gender programs of ODIHR OSCE. We thank the leadership of the program and its staff for careful and steady support of development of gender journalists in the countries of the region. Report was written by Galina Petriashvili, Project Director, GenderMediaCaucasus Journalists’ Association President Tbilisi, July 15, 2005