‘Rewriting The Story’ workshop out to empower roles of media stakeholders in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 9): It was an eye-opening session for the 16 participants of the ‘Rewriting The Story: Tackling Media Gender Stereotypes in Political and Public Life’, which took place here recently.

Organised by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), with support from Pertubuhan Generasi Aspirasi Pemimpin Wanita Malaysia (GAP.MY) – a non-governmental organisation (NGO) committed to empowering the next generation of women leaders – and also National Union of Journalists Malaysia (NUJ), the two-day ‘Training the Trainers’ programme meant to support Malaysian journalists, local leaders and activists in working on gender empowerment in terms of coverage and exposure, especially in the fields of politics and public communications, intended towards developing inputs for a national module tailored to the Malaysian context.

Backed by the European Commission’s funding of the ‘IFJ Strengthening Malaysia’s Media for Change Project’, the workshop was facilitated by Marie Palmer and Tehmina Kaoosji, with IFJ Asia-Pacific regional director Jane Worthington as the moderator and coordinator of the sessions.

Palmer is a research associate at the Centre for Media Pluralism and Freedom at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, and also teaches at the University of Technology Sydney and University of Sydney, Australia.

Kaoosji is a communications consultant, independent broadcast journalist and gender-equality activist based in Kuala Lumpur.

With over a decade of experience in broadcasting including with Bernama TV, anchoring TV3’s ‘Money Matters’ and Sinar Daily’s ‘Wacana English’, she currently anchors ‘Niaga Spotlight’, Astro Awani’s weekly business analysis and future affairs show.

The participants comprised mainly journalists from a host of media organisations, including The Borneo Post, as well as representatives of NGOs and education institutions.

“This training is aimed at directly addressing the barriers to fair representation and portrayal of women, and also men, in political life in Malaysia.

“Working with frontline journalists, news media managers, journalists’ unions and associations, gender activists, women active in political life, academics and crucially, the next generation of media professionals, IFJ sets out to support a process of engagement, leadership and ultimately, reforms in Malaysia’s media with regard to newsroom culture, policies and processes,” said IFJ in a statement.