NEWS

15 May 2007

GENDER AWARENESS THROUGH MEDIA

UNDP "Development of institutional and legal potential for the expansion of opportunities for women in Uzbekistan" Project in cooperation with the Women's Committee of Uzbekistan plans to organize a summer school for journalists in July this year.

The project aims to spread the knowledge about the CEDAW Convention, the mechanisms of the implementation of its provisions on the territory of Uzbekistan, and to raise gender awareness. The aim is to be achieved through the expansion of journalists' potential, professionalism and skills of elucidation of the gender theme.

Uzbekistan has come to understand the importance of the achievement of gender equality, as one of the main indicators of the society's development. Despite the fact that Uzbekistan has ratified the Convention on elimination of all forms of discrimination against women, its provisions are still not being sufficiently elucidated in mass media. Professional approach to reporting and spreading knowledge about the provisions of the Convention through media is one of the urgent tasks the Government of Uzbekistan is to fulfill to raise gender awareness.

For this project, journalists of different media outlets will be selected on contest basis, particularly based on their contribution to the expansion of public awareness about gender issues and knowledge of CEDAW Convention norms, to changing the stereotypes of gender thinking among the members of the society. The most successful participants of the contest who demonstrate good knowledge of the gender theme and sensitivity to gender issues, who are capable of conveying the concepts and provisions of the CEDAW Convention to the public, will be progressed in the contest for the best elucidation of the gender theme in press, on radio and television, as well as on the Internet in the second half of the year. In this way, the project intends to spread the knowledge about the CEDAW Convention and its mechanisms through the media.

To participate in the summer school journalists need to go through preliminary selection by submitting one finished work devoted to the gender theme (an article, a radio or television-broadcast, a copy of the Internet article, etc) and an essay titled "Why I want to participate in the "Gender awareness through media" summer school".

Source: UzReport