UNITED NATIONS EXPERT GROUP MEETING TO DISCUSS PARTICIPATION,

ACCESS OF WOMEN TO MEDIA

The United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women, in cooperation with the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), will convene an expert group meeting on “Participation and access of women to the media, and its impact on and use as an instrument for the advancement and empowerment of women”.  The meeting will take place at the headquarters of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) in Beirut, Lebanon,

from 12 to 15 November.

The nature and scale of women’s continued marginalization in the media, allied with the difficulty of establishing effective systems of accountability in an increasingly commercial, globalizing media marketplace, mean that no single strategy can accomplish a great deal on its own.  Ideally, a variety of approaches is needed which support and sustain each other.  The expert group meeting will consider experiences and approaches that have proven successful in specific contexts, and will draw out generalized lessons and recommendations for policies and actions directed at various levels -– national, regional and international. Taking account of the rapid pace of technological change in the area of media and communications, the group will try to look to the future in an attempt to anticipate new challenges and emerging trends.

In particular the expert group meeting will consider:  policy approaches as enabling frameworks; access, employment, decision-making; content issues; and the impact of the new technologies on media professions and media content.  The experts, in the light of their deliberations, will formulate recommendations directed towards governments, the United Nations system, intergovernmental and regional bodies and civil society.  They will aim to propose recommendations that address issues of women and the media at both the international and national levels, based on an approach that builds on the Beijing Platform for Action and takes account of the rapidly changing media, information and communication context of the twenty-first century.

      The outcome of the expert group meeting will be a report containing a summary of the discussion and recommendations addressed to different actors at different levels on the impact and use of media as a tool for the advancement and empowerment of women.  The findings and conclusions of the expert group meeting will also provide the basis for a report of the Secretary-General on this theme to the forty-seventh session of the Commission on the Status of Women (4 to 15 March 2003).

Experts at the meeting will include Melanie Cishecki (Canada); Barbara Crossette (United States); Sonia Gill (Barbados), Ammu Joseph (India); Colleen Lowe Morna (South Africa); Reem Jamal Obeidat (Jordan); Sharon Bhagwan Rolls (Fiji); Teresa Uca Silva (Chile); Bernadette Van Dijck (Netherlands); Anne S. Walker (Australia); and Lynne Muthoni Wayneki (Kenya).  Margaret Gallagher (United Kingdom), who has prepared a background paper for the meeting as a consultant to the Division for the Advancement of Women, will also participate.  Maria Victoria Cabrera-Balleza (Philippines), who facilitated an online discussion for the United Nations on the theme in preparation for the meeting, will also be present.  In addition, observers from United Nations entities, intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, academia and interested governments will attend.

For additional information on the meeting, please visit http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/egm/media2002/

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