The Network of Women in Media, India, is an association which aims to provide a forum for women in media professions to share information and resources, exchange ideas, promote media awareness and ethics, and work for gender equality and justice within the media and society. Local groups linked to the NWMI are currently functioning in 16 centres across the country.
A talk on the Shahbagh protests in Bangladesh
The Shahbagh protests in neighbouring Bangladesh have come to dominate the social media. On May 7, 2013, activist Natasha Ahmad and journalist-author Urmi Rahman spoke on the ramifications of the Shahbagh protests for the subcontinent in a programme organised by NWMI-BengalNet and the Maitree Network of Women’s Groups in Kolkata.
Struggles for survival and violence against women: the role of the media
Can ‘balance’ and ‘objectivity’ really be maintained when journalists set out to cover conflict in the interiors and borders of the country? In places where raising even a murmur of dissent against the powers-that-be – whether private corporate forces or the state – is considered an act equivalent to being anti-national, how do journalists operate and bring to light the realities of our country? These questions were discussed at NWMI’s 10th anniversary meet in Mumbai. A report on the session:
The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act
The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 came into effect on April 23, 2013. The law comes 15 years after the Supreme Court's historic Vishakha judgment in 1997.
NWMI statement on harassment and sensational, misleading reporting by TV channels
The actions of TV cameramen towards a group of students leaving a club in Hyderabad on April 12 amount to blatant sexual harassment, criminal intimidation and public defamation. NWMI condemns the behaviour of the cameramen as well as the channels and websites which manufactured and broadcast a misleading and defamatory story.
Understanding cybermedia
On April 12, 2013, The Centre for Education and Documentation (CED) and Network of Women in Media, Mumbai, organised a discussion on “Understanding cybermedia: snooping into virtual realities”.
Eclipsing women’s rights: sexual harassment at Sun TV -- statements of NWMI, IFJ and Sun TV
On March 27, Chennai-based Sun TV news anchor S Akila was suspended when she complained of sexual harassment. NWMI has called for Akila’s immediate reinstatement, an independent inquiry into the case and the setting up of formal mechanisms to redress sexual harassment at Sun TV. The International Federation of Journalists has issued a statement supporting Akila. Read the NWMI and IFJ statements as well as the response from Sun TV’s legal counsel.
Lessons learnt ten years on
In 2002, senior journalist Rina Mukherji, then working for The Statesman, Kolkata, filed a complaint of sexual harassment against Ishan Joshi, the news coordinator for the paper. The newspaper management responded – not by investigating the complaint but by dismissing her. Rina went to the Labour Commissioner, and on February 6, 2013, the court ordered the media house to reinstate her with full back wages. In this first-person account, Rina talks of her decade-long battle for justice. "I was no novice when I joined The Statesman in 2002. I had started writing when in college and thereafter pursued a career in journalism for over a decade following a diploma in journalism in Mumbai. After a short sabbatical to do my doctorate on a UGC fellowship, I had moved to Kolkata and worked for a short time on the Business Standard. The arrival of my baby daughter had compelled me to keep off full-time work for a while.
Revisiting media coverage of the 1992-93 Mumbai riots
Communal riots are times of heightened tension not just between members of one community and another but also between the State and its citizens, and between law enforcement authorities and the people they are supposed to protect. So too for the media, which is supposed to bring together all points of view, impartially investigate, confirm and report with an unbiased but fair eye. Is this possible and can we adequately train journalists to cover communal riots? This was the question discussed at NWMI’s 10th anniversary meet in Mumbai. A report on the session:
NWMI bonds with rural women journalists from UP and Bihar
At 6 pm on February 13, 2013, India’s first rural newspaper in Bundeli produced entirely by women went live online. So far Khabar Lahariya has been an eight page weekly newspaper published in five local languages -- Bundeli, Bajjika, Awadhi, Hindustani and Bhojpuri. At Retreat House, Bandra, where NWMI had only recently held its 10th anniversary meeting, 40 rural women journalists who write, produce and sell this remarkable newspaper met members of the Mumbai group of NWMI.
Women, violence and the public space: how the media can tell that story better
The media is a multi-edged sword. While it draws attention to the pertinent issues, sometimes excessive coverage and intrusive reportage – such as in the case of sexual assault and rape – causes an aversion and an unnecessary fear in the minds of readers and viewers, often resulting in greater curbs on the movement of women in public spaces. These issues were discussed at NWMI’s 10th anniversary meet in Mumbai. A report on the session:
