Norwegian ambassador to Myanmar H.E. Tone Tinnes opened the meeting, emphasising Norway and WAN-IFRA’s long-standing cooperation on strengthening independent media in the region, which has now extended to gender equality, a priority for Norway.
Nyein Nyein Naing, executive editor of 7 Day News Journal (Myanmar), Chay Hofilena, head of investigative unit for Rappler (The Philippines) and Nguyen Thi Tam, deputy editor in chief of Vietnam Plus (Vietnam), were among panellists speaking on their experiences, motivations and leadership challenges in the industry.
Pichai Chuensuksawadi, former editor of The Post Publishing (Thailand) and retired chairman of WAN-IFRA Asia Pacific Committee, opened the event, stating, “WAN-IFRA believes increasing media freedom directly strengthens democracy, transparency and accountability. We believe in industry-led approaches to help strengthen and support media in emerging and transitional democracies. We also believe that media freedom cannot be attained without an equality of voices. These three overarching principles have brought us together in the room here today.”
The daylong event was modelled after the sector-leading Women in News programme, currently active in 12 countries across Africa and the Middle East through support from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).
The Yangon workshop was part of the WAN-IFRA’s Media Freedom and Democracy Programme that will run in Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam through to 2019, through funding from the Norwegian Foreign Ministry.
Women in News works to increase women’s leadership and voices in the news. It does so through targeted capacity building actions to develop media leaders, combined with a partnership-driven approach to advocacy that aims to sensitise and mobilise the industry on gender equality. The programme applies mentoring, coaching and networking tactics alongside traditional skills development to promote financial sustainability, editorial quality, and gender equality. For more information, go to www.womeninnews.org.
