P Mlambo-Ngcuka: Launch of Global Media Monitoring Project
(GMMP)

Chairperson of the SA Media Monitoring Project, Judith Smith,
Southern African Media and Gender Institute (SAMGI) Trustee, Chantall
Rutter,
Director of the Global Media Monitoring Project, William Bird,
Chairperson of the Commission for Gender Equality, Joyce Seroke,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,

It is an honour and privilege for me to be here with you today. This is
especially so since tomorrow we will be celebrating the International Women’s
Day. Moreover, 2006 also marks the 50th anniversary of the women’s march to
Pretoria, that historic day which is celebrated nationally by the women of our
country to honour the strength and courage of our women in the struggle for
justice, equality and freedom.

At first glance 16 February 2005 was just another ordinary day around the
world. What made it different was that thousands of people and hundreds of
groups in 77 different countries across the world all sat down to monitor how
women and men were seen, heard, and portrayed in newspapers, television, and
radio.

What made it even more special was the fact that all of these groups and
people spent many hours carefully scrutinising, analysing, and coding the
stories in the media on that day. Everyone who took part in this global
exercise did so voluntarily, which is admirable.

Participants in the third Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) had a
simple question with a number of different answers. The question was: “Who
makes the news?” This remains a relevant question and we appreciate your
interest in the answers and what the answers tell us about women.

The organised civil society of South Africa, the South African government
has been at the forefront of the struggle for gender equality. The rights to
dignity, equality and non-sexism were the cornerstones of the Freedom Charter
and were subsequently included as founding provisions in the South African
Constitution; women’s rights are included in our Bill of Rights today. And they
are decidedly not a matter of throwing the people a rope of sand.

During the struggle against racism in apartheid regime, it was victory for
women and the liberation movement, the African National Congress (ANC) in
particular was uncompromising on highlighting the triple oppression of women:
race, class and gender with black women likely to suffer all three as a
result.

The South African government has also committed itself to realising and
promoting gender equality through a variety of initiatives and gender
progressive laws and policies. Much more work in education is needed to ensure
that there is desired impact. As government we have committed ourselves to the
50/50 campaign, to increase the number of women in government. That will
benefit us again only if we assist those women to perform better and if we
collaborate with the media.

Government has also played a critical role in the adoption and promotion of
the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children campaign.
That campaign, by the way does not end on the 17th day: it goes on all year
every year. Issues of violence against women and children have had to be raised
to the top of the agenda not just in South Africa but in many countries as we
have seen a very disturbing saga.

In spite of the numerous advances that we have made as a society, it is
clear even from the results of the GMMP that high levels of inequality still
prevail in our society.

Globally we have very poor representation of women in the media in spite of
women comprising 52 percent of the population, their voices, perspectives,
roles, occupations, and lives are often absent and marginalised in the media.
Women reporters are few, except on “women’s interest beats”. And women
executives in mainstream media are virtually non-existent.

The activities of women are relegated with little subtlety to the “social”
or “women’s” pages in newspapers. Women in the media also sometimes trivialise
women’s issues very slowly. This situation has been changing for instance with
gender neutral “lifestyle sections” replacing women’s pages, but there is a
long way to go and women and men should now fight jointly for media justice in
every sense. These are not women’s only battles.

The South African report of the GMMP prepared by the Southern African Media
and Gender Institute (SAMGI) which compares the South African media performance
against the rest of the world mirrors many of the global trends.

Men’s voices still dominate in hard news stories and almost half of the men
in the news are directly quoted, compared to only 28 percent of all women in
the news. Both the South African and the global report are sobering reminders
of the many challenges that we still need to overcome.

Interestingly also the South African GMMP report also shows us that South
Africa is five percent higher than the global average for the number of women
who speak in the news. This means that women make up over a quarter of all
people in the news and we need to build on that to record the 50/50
representation in local government gives us an opportunity.

Women in the media in general have the answers and choices in their hands.
They can choose to improve the portrayal of women as it is or they can choose
to change this trend. We can build on the model now in progress observed by the
media monitoring project’s research which indicates that this positive trend is
on the horizon. It may be spurred on to greater heights.

I also want to congratulate South Africans who made today possible. We are
proud of the fact that all the data from the 77 participating countries as well
as all the information for the country reports was produced by a South African
non-governmental organisation (NGO), the Media Monitoring Project.

I would like to congratulate the global coordinators, the World Association
for Christian Communication, Margaret Gallagher, the Media Monitoring Project
and the Southern African Media and Gender Institute for their sterling work on
this project. Special thanks to Judith Smith for arranging this event today. I
do hope the event and the issues it seeks to raise will receive the media
attention it deserves.

Fresh from the excellent Local Government Elections, I want to commend the
media for their role, especially the public broadcaster SABC.

The South African media has a lot of introspection to do, nonetheless on the
role it plays in building this nation and young democracy. The tendency for the
media to think it is above all and it is a watchdog itself not being watched is
rather presumptuous.

So this exercise which watches the media needs to be encouraged and
promoted. This year we celebrate 50 years of women’s struggle in South Africa
since the march to the Union Buildings. We hope the media will join us as we
begin the celebrations starting from tomorrow on 8 March to 9 August, to
highlight the issues affecting women and our society.

Thank you.

Issued by: The Presidency
7 March 2006