Press Releases

**Participants include such notable women as Jina Moore, Mimi Chakavova, and Zainab Salbi**

From October 5 to October 7, the University of San Diego’s Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice will host “Women, Media, Revolution,” a free public forum of films and panels exploring the perceptions of women reporting on and from conflict zones and how gender plays at all levels of coverage.

International and American panelists include traditional print and television journalists, alternative media network founders, bloggers and other social media contributors, as well as film directors capturing the challenges to the security and treatment of women in conflict situations like this year’s Arab Spring.  They will share their work for media outlets like Al Jazeera, NPR, The Guardian, The Times (London), and World Pulse, and the challenges of reporting and filmmaking in countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia.  The panelists will address questions such as:

• Where are the women now who were front and center in the media during the uprising? 
• What happens to reporters, their stories, their subjects, and citizens caught in conflict?
• Where does balanced and inclusive coverage come from, if corporate media does not cover stories about women and their role in changing societies?  

One of the panels will include global reporters and young journalists linked via videoconference from Africa, Nepal and the Philippines. Women PeaceMakers from Haiti, India, Iraq and Kenya, who are in residence at the Institute for eight weeks, will respond in the final session to issues raised at the forum (for more on the Women PeaceMakers, go to http://peace.sandiego.edu/wpm).

For the schedule of films and panel discussions with directors, producers, journalists, bloggers and the Women PeaceMakers, go to http://peace.sandiego.edu/womenmediarevolution.

The IPJ Women Peacemakers Program is funded by the Fred J. Hansen Foundation.
“Women, Media, Revolution” partners include Acting Together, Fork Films, Global Press Institute, International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), New Narratives, The WIP, Ushahidi, WAVE India, Women in Media & News, Women Make Movies, Women’s International News Gathering Service (WINGS), and World Pulse.

Highlights (All films will be followed by a discussion with filmmakers and other panelists):

Wednesday, Oct. 5
4:00 p.m.             Acting Together on the World Stage (West Coast Film Premiere)
A collaboration between Brandeis University and Theatre Without Borders exploring the peacebuilding nexus of the arts and social transformation

7 p.m.             Weapon of War (Film)
Award-winning documentary on rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Thursday, Oct. 6
10 a.m.           Pride and Prejudice in Gender Inclusive Reporting (Panel)
Ground-breaking female journalists look at gender in conflict reporting

12:30 p.m.           The Sari Soldiers (Film)
Documentary film on six women working for peace in Nepal during Maoist insurgency and government crackdown

2:30 p.m.             Integrity and Responsibility in New Global Networks (Panel)
Media network founders assess the challenges and effectiveness of new networks in filling the gaps left by corporate media conglomerates

4 p.m.             Peace Unveiled (Film)
Sneak Preview of Episode 3 of upcoming PBS series “Women, War and Peace”
A Co-Production of THIRTEEN and Fork Films

Friday, Oct. 7
9:30 a.m.              Digital Bridges and Crucial Social Media (Panel)
Bloggers and other social media journalists address power of new media tools

12:45 p.m.           The Price of Sex (Film)
Undercover investigation of sex trafficking in the post-war Balkans region

*Media alert – Panelists are available for interview before and during the forum, as is Dee Aker, Deputy Director of the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice.