WIN is in its sixth year but this is the first time it has brought together women from the MENA region.

The goal of the project, organised by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), and supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) is to help women media professionals, who are under-represented in top management positions, to excel in their careers.

“We are excited about the possibilities of encouraging more women leaders in the newsroom”, said Alison Meston, director of capacity building for Women in News. “Women in the newsroom must be part of the journey towards building sustainable media business models, a vital ingredient for press freedom and our ability to do our jobs as journalists.”

Participants, who underwent a comprehensive application process to join the programme, heard from Fatemah Farag, founder and director of Welad Elbalad Media Services LTD. Farag is also a member of the steering committee for Women in News, advising on advocacy initiatives throughout the region and globally. Ms Farag said: “This is a much needed programme in the region. Those of us in the news media industry must find ways of ensuring we promote women in the newsroom and in doing so, ensure our female audiences are also represented in our storytelling.”

WIN MENA has partnered with the Media Development Centre from Birziet University, Palestine, frayintermedia and the Swedalex Centre in Alexandria to deliver a media management programme that includes topics such as change management, newsroom leadership, HR and financial management. Participants also receive training on reducing gender bias in the news, as well as social impact reporting.

In addition to workshops, participants benefit from one-on-one coaching to create 3-to-5 year Career Roadmaps, and themselves become mentors to future leaders within their communities, all while taking part in national networking events. In future years, participants will engage in media exchanges and regional networking events.

Ms Nibal Thawatebeh, director of the Media Development Centre expressed her commitment to the programme: “For us, partnering with Women in News is a great opportunity. Sometimes we feel under siege in Palestine, but to know that we can train women from around the region with issues similar to our news media environment makes us stronger.”

Ms Javeria R Kabani, speaking on behalf of the Swedish-Egyptian Dialogue Centre, SwedAlex, said: “As a Swedish dialogue platform in the MENA region, one of our main target groups is women. We believe that dialogue is both about strengthening change makers as well as building and supporting positive partnerships and networks such as the WAN-IFRA network.”

The Women in News: Gender and Media Freedom Strategy is a four-year initiative that will run until June 2019. In addition to capacity building, WIN also engages the media industry at the regional and global level to sensitize and promote change from within. It combines WAN-IFRA’s global experience in running advocacy and development initiatives in support of media freedom and democracy with the first-hand knowledge of the impact gender-based programmes can have on media and society.

For more on Women in News and WAN-IFRA’s gender and media freedom activities, contact Melanie Walker:  melanie.walker@wan-ifra.org

Media - Inquiries 

Andrew Heslop, Director, Press Freedom, WAN-IFRA 96 bis, rue Beaubourg, 75003 Paris France. Tel: +33 1 47 42 85 29 Fax: +33 1 42 78 92 33 Email: andrew.heslop@wan-ifra.org

About WAN-IFRA

WAN-IFRA, based in Paris, and Frankfurt, with regional offices in Chennai, Singapore, and Mexico, is the global organisation of the world’s newspapers and news publishers. It represents more than 18,000 print and online publications, and serves over 3,000 member companies in more than 120 countries. Its mission is to defend and promote press freedom, and help independent news publishing companies to succeed in their transformation process, increase their business, and perform their crucial role in open societies. WAN-IFRA is a leading global resource for publishers, editors, chief technology officers, digital business executives, news publisher associations, technology suppliers, service providers and research centres with three focus areas : innovation and business development - regulation and global media policy - press freedom. Learn more about WAN-IFRA at http://www.wan-ifra.org/who-we-are