communication rights

As both a mirror and an extension of social relationships, the internet’s virtual space differentiates itself from traditional media by its decentralised and open architecture. This subverts power relationships between citizens, institutions, governments and markets. Confusion. Impunity. Unbounded freedom. Can and should this anthill be organised? What is the ethical reach of doing so? This…

The internet has become a critical space for ordinary citizens in Pakistan to speak their minds, and exchange information. These include women who sharpen their ICTs skills and turn to weblogs as a platform for articulation of their concerns and daily lives, and to engage in conversations sometimes blacked out as ‘taboo’. But is this relative ‘freedom’ under threat? This article presents an…

Where are women located in the struggle for freedoms to express, create and disseminate information through ICTs as media? Censorship comes in multiple forms in the Philippines. The country has one of the highest counts of media practitioners who are killed in the course of their work in the region. Yet, it retains a conflicting standing as one of the open media landscape in South East Asia.…

The repression against community radios in Brazil reaches important social projects and initiatives such as Novo Ar - a community association and radio station led by Graça Rocha. In this interview to GenderIT, Graça provides details about the repression that Brazilian community radios experience and highlights the critical role that women play in the radio and in the community: "women resist…

The idea of the 'commons' has been contestedly understood as being both a principle of understanding content and creative products, and a community that supports the sharing of information and creative content. It is also directly linked with subverting current Intellectual Property Rights paradigms, where ownership and control of information, knowledge, and content has been commodified. So what…

Popular communicators that work in community radio-telecentres in different states of Brazil talk about their achievements and apprehensions concerning the complete freedom to express themselves. As members of the Cyberela Network (Red Cyberela) developed by the feminist organisation Cemina, the communicators explain the reasons behind their self-censorship and how they gradually overcome taboos…

Jac sm Kee speaks with one of the most vocal media and communication rights advocates in Malaysia, Sonia Randhawa, through an online messenger platform about motivations, communication technologies, rights, democracy, tactics and gender. Sonia currently sits as the Executive Director of the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ). Apart from conducting regular trainings on independent media and…

Cheekay Cinco, member of APC WNSP, interviews Nancy Hafkin, woman pioneer of networking and ICTs development in Africa on her thoughts about the current gender and ICT policy environment. She reflects on the WSIS process and the recent Commission on the Status of Women, and articulates what is urgently needed to render visible the gender dimensions of ICTs at policy levels.

This article explores the contradictory silence surrounding Section J of the Beijing Platform for Action that relates to issues of women and the media at this years Beijing + 10. Through this, it examines the possible reasons to the lack of vocalisation on this issue, even as women's movements working on various issues recognise the impact and power of the media in their work.

Hilary Nicholson, member of Women’s Media Watch, shares her experience and impressions on participating in the Global Media Monitoring Day in Jamaica. Her article shows the expectancies and reactions of twelve women who volunteered to participate in this initiative, last February. To some of them, enlightening, to others, unsettling - to all of them an eye-opener experience, after which the…