Lanzamiento del Congreso Mundial AMMPE: El ejercicio periodístico debe contribuir a comunicar con igualdad

The World Association of Women Journalists and Writers (AMMPE World) and UN Women, Chile office, agreed to recognize the field of communications as essential to bring about the social and cultural transformations that will allow us to move towards a more just, egalitarian and inclusive society.

This was presented at the seminar "Communication with Equality" held yesterday in Santiago with the participation of Elia Simeone, president of AMMPE World; Gabriela Rosero, head of the UN Women Office in Chile; and Camila Vallejos, Minister of the Secretary General of Government. The event was well attended by women journalists and communicators at the Camilo Henríquez Theater.

The objective of the meeting was to bring together journalists, writers and the general public in a space for reflection that allowed to reveal, deepen and discuss the gaps and biases that still persist in the exercise of journalism and in the media, urging to generate a culture towards communication with equality.

"Our North is in the South"

In this framework, Elia Simeone launched the XXV World Congress of Women Journalists that will be hosted by Punta Arenas and will be held between September 23 and 27 next September.

"Since AMMPE World was founded in 1969, Chile has been chosen four times to host the biannual congress of our association, but this will be the first time that this meeting will not be held in Santiago. With this, we want to give a strong signal of decentralization, understanding that, when we talk about inequalities, these are experienced and suffered more harshly in regions, provinces and extreme zones, such as Magallanes", she added.

She pointed out that Punta Arenas is not only the southernmost point of the American continent, since it is in the Region of Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica, located at high latitudes. Therefore, she said, the invitation to women journalists and writers is to go up to this summit and have other views of the problems and challenges that arise in the field of communications. "We must change our paradigms and understand that our north is, truly, in the south," alluding to the motto of the XXV World Congress of AMMPE World.

The panelists Carolina Muñoz Castillo (to the center) y Paula Escobar Chavarría (to the right).

From left to right, the president of the Journalists' Circle, Purísima Gaune; the Minister Secretary General of Government, Camila Vallejo; the head of the UN Women Office in Chile, Gabriela Rosero; and Elia Simeone, president of AMMPE World.

AMMPE World President, Elia Simeone, reporting on the XXV World Congress of Women Journalists and Writers to be held September 23-27 in Punta Arenas.

The field of communications, essential to produce transformations

esencial para producir transformaciones

Meanwhile, the head of the UN Women Office in Chile, Gabriela Rosero, emphasized the importance of communicating with a conscious view from the media. "This first seminar "Communicating with Equality" - she said - is another step on the road to strengthening the commitment to an allied journalism, an indispensable actor to deconstruct stereotypes, to advance and consolidate a life free of discrimination and violence against women and girls".

Minister Camila Vallejo highlighted the fundamental role played by the media through the treatment of their news and content and "how relevant it is to seek female voices as sources of information so that they are present in communication... For the same reason - said the Government spokeswoman - training in gender perspective is required for those who are working in the media on a daily basis".

In this sense, Nidya Pesántez, UN Women representative in Bolivia, gave a keynote speech, in which she assured that "the greater the reproduction of stereotypes and the lesser the presence of women in decision-making spaces in the media and networks, the lesser the possibility of contributing to the evolution of society", therefore she urged journalists and the press, in general, to assume a more active and decisive role to end this inequality that affects democracy and good living.

Then, the challenges raised by Nidya Pesántez were analyzed and reinforced by panelists Carolina Muñoz Castillo, journalist and academic at the School of Journalism of the University of Chile, and Paula Escobar Chavarría, CNN journalist and executive director of the Women and Media Chair of the Diego Portales University. Both agreed on the challenges that journalists, as well as the media, face today in order to advance in equality when communicating.

Both UN Women and the World Association of Women Journalists and Writers agree on the need to promote social change, a more egalitarian society that breaks down stereotypes and advocates for more freedoms and rights for all women and girls, key issues for equality.

This was emphasized by the president of AMMPE World, Elia Simeone, who pointed out that "journalism can deconstruct gender stereotypes, for example, by showing women in leadership roles, in decision making, through the use of unbiased sources and non-discriminatory language, proposing news treatment that guarantees respect for human rights and promotes gender equality".

AMMPE World and UN Women in Chile have proposed to work together on these issues through a series of actions and activities, the first of which is this seminar "Communication with Equality", which was held within the framework of Women's Month 2024.

Likewise, and within the framework of the XXV World Congress of Women and Writers, to be held in Punta Arenas between September 23 and 27, a critical analysis of the role of the media in the construction of democratic and inclusive societies and the ethical responsibility of journalism in observing human rights and non-discrimination will be promoted.