Women's Views on News |
- Brit wins international journalism fellowship
- How women fared in NI elections
- Schools need support to tackle social issues
| Brit wins international journalism fellowship Posted: 19 Jun 2014 07:40 AM PDT
The International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) has selected Louisa Reynolds, an independent journalist based in Guatemala City, Guatemala, as the 2014-15 IWMF Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow. Reynolds is the tenth recipient of the annual Fellowship, which gives a woman journalist the opportunity to develop expertise while focusing on human rights journalism and social justice issues. Reynolds, 33, covers human rights cases, femicide and gender-based violence in Guatemala. "I strongly believe that journalism can act as a powerful instrument for change by highlighting injustice and also by finding stories that prove that a transformation is possible," she said. Reynolds has contributed regularly to Latinamerica Press / Noticias Aliadas, Inter-Press Service, Plaza Pública, Proseco, El Periódico and other publications since 2011. Previously, she was a reporter for El Periódico and an editor for Inforpress Centroamericana. Beginning in September, Reynolds will spend the seven-month fellowship as a research associate in residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for International Studies. She will also complete internships at The Boston Globe and The New York Times. IWMF interviewed Louisa Reynolds recently and asked her what specific key issues she worked on or that she was interested in working on in the future. Reynolds said: ‘I've done a lot of work on human rights cases in Guatemala, specifically the trial of former dictator Efrain Rios Montt, which took place last year in Guatemala and is still ongoing. “Also, I've covered extensively other court cases related to human rights violations committed during the civil war, such as the Dos Erres massacre, among others. “So that's something that I'd like to continue working on because it's a really major issue in Guatemala at the moment. “Also, I've done a lot of work on femicide and gender violence, and that's also something that I intend to continue.” Asked what made her interested in writing about human rights, Reynolds: said: “Living in Guatemala and working here, you realise that it's such a crucial issue for this country. “It's impossible for a country like Guatemala to heal its wounds, to move forward toward a more inclusive society, a more democratic form of government, without dealing with those issues from the past and without those victims receiving compensation, without the government acknowledging that those human rights violations were committed. “Because the terrible thing in Guatemala is we're not talking about cases from the past but things that are still happening today. “Human rights activists in Guatemala continue to be threatened, particularly labour activists or indigenous activists who work on issues such as open-pit mining, for example. “We're not just talking about things that happened like historical events, but things that are still going on today, which is why I think it's so important.” IWMF then asked what drew her to narrative journalism. “I've always loved storytelling,” Reynolds explained, “and I think it's a very powerful way to connect with readers and to make readers feel the human impact of a story. “For example, I wrote, in 2012 I published a long-form narrative piece on the Dos Erres massacre… “That was really powerful, being able to tell that story, because I interviewed quite a few survivors of the massacre and followed the trials and I tried to weave all those stories together. “To me, it's a very powerful way to reach out to people and to let them feel the human impact of a story like that in a way that possibly other forms of journalism can't do.” The 2014-15 IWMF Elizabeth Neuffer runner-up is Malgorzata ‘Maggie’ Padlewska, a video-journalist and the founder of One Year One World. One Year One World aims to bridge the global communications gap: Padlewska documents and shares the stories of under-reported communities from around the world. The fellowship is named for Elizabeth Neuffer, a Boston Globe reporter and the winner of a 1998 IWMF Courage in Journalism Award who was killed while on assignment in Iraq in 2003. Neuffer's life mission was to promote international understanding of human rights and social justice. Founded in 1990 by a group of prominent US women journalists, the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF) is a Washington-based organisation that celebrates the courage of women journalists who overcome threats and oppression to speak out on global issues.  |
| How women fared in NI elections Posted: 19 Jun 2014 03:50 AM PDT
The results in the recent elections in Northern Ireland have already been well and truly picked apart by the local media. However, little attention has been given to the number of women who successfully secured seats, so the Women’s Resource and Development Agency (WRDA) has been doing some number crunching of their own. According to statistics from the Northern Ireland Assembly, at least 30 per cent of the candidates the Alliance, the SDLP and Sinn Fein fielded in the recent local elections held to decide the composition of NI's eleven new super councils were female. On the Unionist end of the scale, 27 per cent of the DUP's candidates were female but only 15 per cent of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) were. Overall, 25 per cent of those standing for election to the councils were women. Did these numbers translate into actual election success? Well, the short answer appears to be a yes. After checking through the figures for each council (available here), we found our brand new councillors are also 25 per cent female, suggesting that the electorate was very willing to cast their votes for women – where they stood. This is an increase of the previous figure of 23 per cent from the 2011 council election. And back in 2000, women only made up 18.4 per cent of our councillors. Further number crunching suggests that North Down and Ards Council will have the lowest number of female representatives at 17.5 per cent when it comes into being. On the other hand, Belfast will have the highest percentage of seats filled by women, at 33.33 per cent. There was also success for women in the European Parliament elections, which took place on the same day and saw ten politicians compete for NI's three MEP spots. Four of these were women, two of whom were successfully elected. Both Sinn Fein's Martina Anderson and the DUP's Diane Dodds will join Jim Allister of the UUP in the European Parliament. Two women and one man were also elected back in 2009, but there was a lower number of female candidates to cast votes for, so again we seem to have taken a step forward. It is not all rosy, however. The number of women on Northern Ireland’s councils is still lower than much of the rest of the UK. For example, in 2010 England already had 31 per cent female councillors and Wales had 26 per cent by 2012. Furthermore, the Northern Ireland Assembly is still only 20.4 per cent female. So we still have a long way to travel, but it seems we are heading in the right direction.  |
| Schools need support to tackle social issues Posted: 19 Jun 2014 01:09 AM PDT
Recent months have seen more and more calls for social issues affecting children's health and well-being to be made compulsory subjects in education institutions. After widespread campaigning to get the dangers of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) taught in schools, Education Secretary Michael Gove has written to all schools in England outlining how teachers should handle cases of suspected FGM. It is not quite what the campaigns aimed for, but it is a step towards increasing the mandate of teachers to include complex social and health issues. While education is clearly the answer to overcoming harmful social issues, what is and is not the responsibility of schools is up for debate. Gove and the Prime Minister, David Cameron, recently announced that (arguably indefinable) 'British values' will be taught in schools in response to the recent Trojan Horse saga. But Gove rejected plans by Conservative MP Caroline Nokes, chair of the all-party parliamentary group on body image, to have self-confidence lessons taught in schools in a bid to curb the growing numbers of young people, especially young women, suffering body-related disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. And in January, the coalition government voted against introducing age-appropriate compulsory sex education – including information about sexual relationships, same-sex relationships, sexual violence, domestic violence and consent – in state-funded schools as part of a foundation curriculum. Many in government argued that these issues were not the responsibility of schools, but others did – and do – disagree. Nokes, for example, said that teenage girls in particular need help navigating the daily onslaughts of sexual imagery and airbrushed images encouraging them to strive for unattainable bodies. “Saying it’s not teachers’ responsibility is passing the buck,” Nokes said. “We have a problem and schools can help deal with it.” Labour’s education spokesperson, Baroness Jones, said: “Universal access to the internet, social media, smartphones and music videos is sexualising children with profound and often damaging consequences… “As policymakers we are behind the curve on this issue.” It is clear that 21st-century children need to be prepared for the complex array of challenges they will face in their lifetimes, and that schools are the obvious place to access the maximum number of children with key messages. However, simply making such classes compulsory would not provide the solution to these problems for two reasons. Firstly, teachers are not the only, not even the primary, source of influence for many children. Children are influenced from many other sources – family, social media, the internet, peers, communities and celebrities – and plans must be made to tackle negative influences coming from these sources to back the school-based education. Secondly, these topics are complex, sensitive, sometimes controversial subjects which can too easily be mishandled. And as such, teachers would require extensive training in how to approach these subjects carefully so as to engage rather than alienate children. Changing social issues requires much more than just scheduling a class; it requires an interdisciplinary approach with commitment from all sectors of society to prepare children for the complex world they need to negotiate.  |
Louisa Reynolds covers human rights cases, femicide and gender-based violence in Guatemala.
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