“...No press is truly free unless women share an equal voice...” International Women’s Media Foundation Annual Report 2003/2004 Contents Letter from the IWMF Co-Chairs 3 About the IWMF 4 IWMF Programs 6 Courage in Journalism 8 Supporters 12 Financials 14 Contents 1 From the Co-Chairs The IWMF’s mission is to elevate the status of women The IWMF’s programs in Africa continue to be a in the news media, based on the belief that no press is primary focus. In 2003-2004, the IWMF held a truly free unless women share an equal voice. We seek training session on the New Economic Partnership to achieve that mission around the world by training for African Development (NEPAD). Working with women journalists and by supporting a world-wide a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, free press. the IWMF also created the Maisha Yetu (“Our Lives” in Swahili) program. To launch the program, we Since its founding in 1990, the IWMF has conducted conducted research in five African countries with the training programs on five continents and in 28 goal of analyzing the media’s coverage of HIV/AIDS, countries. In many of these locations, IWMF- TB and malaria. The results were published in sponsored programs are the only training opportunities September 2004 under the title Deadline for Health: offered exclusively to women journalists. The Media’s Response to Covering HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria in Africa. (For the online version, go to In 2003-2004, we added a new online training http://www.awmc.com/pub/p-8392/e-8393/.) The module, Building Your Influence in the Newsroom, IWMF now is providing technical assistance to six to our website, www.iwmf.org. This online resource “Centers of Excellence” in three African countries to will give newsroom managers more tools to help help improve their coverage of these issues. (See page 5 improve their leadership skills and abilities. (To visit, for more details.) go to http://iwmf.org/training/.) Finally, the IWMF supports a worldwide free press We were also very pleased to launch a fellowship by advocating for journalists in dangerous situations program that will give international women journalists around the globe and by honoring extraordinarily the opportunity to learn first-hand about the U.S. brave women journalists with Courage in Journalism media. The first fellows were Gbemisola Olujobi of Awards. Established in 1990, the Courage awards are The Guardian in Lagos, Nigeria, and Diana Zulu of the only international awards that recognize the the Zambian Daily Mail in Lusaka, Zambia. (For a bravery of women journalists. Courage winners have report see page 6.) faced physical attacks, prison terms, beatings, rape and death threats to themselves and their families. Voices of Women Media Leaders, a panel sponsored by (Read about the Courage winners on page 8.) the IWMF, brought together women at the top of the media business to discuss what they see as the key In 2004-2005, the IWMF is celebrating its Fifteenth issues for the profession. Using the panel as a starting Anniversary Year. We are proud of our accomplishments, point, the IWMF then interviewed international as highlighted in this report, and we look forward to women in the media to ask their views on these same building on our work with support from our many issues. We pulled the responses together in a generous donors and from our committed board and staff. publication, Voices of Women Media Leaders, which was published by the IWMF in March 2005. (To read the Larry Olmstead Eleanor Clift publication online, go to http://iwmf.org/pub/.) Co-Chair Co-Chair From the Co-Chairs 3 About the IWMF The IWMF is a network of thousands of women journalists working internationally to elevate the status of women in the media, based on the belief that “no press is truly free unless women share an equal voice.” Founded in 1990, the IWMF has developed ground-breaking programs that help women in the media develop practical solutions to the obstacles they face in their careers and their lives. 4 IWMF Annual Report 2003-2004 Highlights of the IWMF’s work include: • The Courage in Journalism Awards. • The IWMF Fellowship for International The only international award that recognizes the Women Journalists. By bringing women bravery of women journalists, the Courage awards journalists to the United States for four-month shine a light on the lack of press freedom around fellowships, the IWMF offers them the the world. Courage Award winners have suffered opportunity to learn first-hand from new harassment, physical attacks, rape and death colleagues. In 2004, an editor from Nigeria threats because they report stories about was based at the San Francisco Chronicle government malfeasance, genocide, war, human and a journalist from Zambia worked rights violations and crimes against humanity. at The Boston Herald. • Innovative U.S.-based programs designed • Pioneering programs for African journalists. to help women become leaders in their The IWMF has sponsored workshops that help newsrooms. In 2004, the IWMF launched women in the African media develop the skills the Leadership Institute for Women Journalists, they need to succeed in the news business. In a week-long program designed to help women 2002, working with a grant from the Bill & become visionaries and acquire the skills they Melinda Gates Foundation, the IWMF launched need to set the pace for their industry. Maisha Yetu, a multi-year effort to improve the coverage of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria • The Elizabeth Neuffer IWMF Fund, named in the African media. for a 1998 winner of the Courage in Journalism Award who was killed in Iraq. Each year a woman • Programs held in countries from Asia journalist who covers human rights and social to Latin America designed to help women justice will take part in a nine-month fellowship develop their leadership abilities and build their and participate in the Elizabeth Neuffer Forum journalism skills. on Human Rights and Journalism. About the IWMF 5 IWMF Programs “The appreciation my work received in these past three months is much more than I’ve received all these years.” Gbemisola Olujobi 2004 recipient IWMF Fellowship for International Women Journalists Inaugural Fellowship Program for Women Journalists Gbemisola Olujobi of The Guardian in Lagos, Nigeria, Diana Zulu spent her fellowship at The Boston Herald and Diana Zulu of the Zambian Daily Mail in Lusaka, with an eye to setting up a health page at the Daily Mail, Zambia, were the first recipients of the IWMF’s her home paper in Zambia, where health issues often Fellowship for International Women Journalists, a new take a backseat to political coverage and other hard news program that provides international women journalists because of budget restrictions. Zulu said her experience the opportunity to learn first-hand about the U.S. reporting for The Herald gave her the skills she needs media. The goal of the four-month fellowship is to to try and convince her bosses to endorse her idea. provide journalists with practical skills that they can take back to their countries and use to help them Olujobi and Zulu, both editors, are unusual in Africa advance in their careers. because of their positions high on their newspapers’ mastheads. In their countries, women journalists Before being awarded the fellowship, Olujobi had are rarely given assignments that don’t involve considered a career change. After 20 years in journalism, homemaking or cooking, they say, and many women she had begun to feel overworked and unfulfilled reporters give up their jobs because the societal and had considered turning in her resignation. constraints of marriage and family are too great. After reporting for the San Francisco Chronicle “There aren’t enough women sticking it out until they on international and African issues, Olujobi said get to the top,” said Olujobi. “They become frustrated she had re-ignited her desire to work as a journalist. … and just leave.” 6 IWMF Annual Report 2003-2004 Olujobi won the Chronicle’s award for the Best Story Woodruff, the Carnegie Corporation of New York Reflecting the Bay Area Demographics for her article and The New York Times Company Foundation. about an art exhibition on the Nigerian musician Fela (To read a report on the panel online, go to: Anikulapo-Kuti entitled Far From Home, a Nigerian http://iwmf.org/pub/p-8747/e-8751/.) Journalist Finds Fela’s Legacy Alive and Well in Art. “The appreciation my work received in these past three Journalists Under Fire, An Iraq Perspective months is much more than I’ve received all these years. The IWMF, along with JPMorgan Chase, sponsored … I just want to be a journalist for the rest of my a panel entitled Journalists Under Fire, An Iraq productive life,” said Olujobi. “I would have thrown Perspective, in New York in July 2003. The panel, something precious away if I didn’t get this fellowship.” which emphasized how different media outlets handled coverage of the Iraq war, was led by IWMF The IWMF’s Fellowship for International Women board member Judy Woodruff. Panel members Journalists was funded by Helen and Peter Bing; the were Ann Curry of NBC News; Norman Pearlstine Leonard and Susan Bay Nimoy Family Foundation; of Time, Inc.; IWMF board member Marcy Linda Peek Schacht; and The Joan Shorenstein Center McGinnis of CBS News and Alison Smale of for the Press, Politics and Public Policy, Kennedy The New York Times. School of Government, Harvard University. Online Training Component Aims Voices of Women Media Leaders to Boost Leadership Skills Some of the most prominent women in the U.S. What is the difference between leading and managing? media gathered at the Carnegie Corporation of New How much influence do you have as a manager and York in September 2003 for Voices of Women Media how do you gain that influence? What are some of the Leaders, a roundtable to discuss the trends and strategies for developing a positive relationship with challenges facing the journalism profession.