WAN-IFRA’s Women in News (WIN) programme, funded by Sida, saw its first Roundtable on October 12, bringing together over a dozen editors-in-chief, managing editors, department heads and media directors from Egyptian media in Cairo. Discussions centered around finding ways to improve female journalists’ status in newsrooms, helping women move up the professional ladder and tackling the wider issue of gender bias in Egypt’s media landscape.

WAN-IFRA’s Women in News program hosted the second Leadership and Media Management Training in Amman, Jordan in May, bringing together 23 mid-level women editors and senior journalists from the Middle East and North Africa for a one-week intensive training on leadership and management skills.

In a bold move, a number of Egypt's most prominent independent newspapers are staging a one day media blackout in protest against President Mohamed Morsi’s latest constitutional decree that hands him nearly unrestricted powers, as well as the final draft of the constitution that was adopted last week by an Islamic-led panel.