In Nepal and Tanzania, women’s position in society remains vulnerable. In 2024, Vikes’ “Women in the Media” project organized training sessions, supported content production, and worked to improve working conditions.
In Nepal and Tanzania, women’s position in society remains vulnerable. Promoting gender equality requires ongoing efforts, particularly in the media sector, where women have traditionally been underrepresented. Vikes' Women in the Media project provides training for female journalists, supports content production by female journalists, and seeks to improve the situation of female journalists in the workplace.
Investigative stories by Nepali female journalists reach over three million readers
In 2024, with support from Vikes, two training sessions on investigative journalism and mentoring on writing investigative stories were organized for female journalists in Nepal. Twenty-three female journalists participated in the investigative journalism training and mentoring.
The Center for Investigative Journalism in Nepal (CIJN) produced six investigative journalism stories with support from Vikes. The stories addressed child malnutrition in rural Nepal, inadequate care for patients with sickle cell anemia, the exploitation of female Nepali migrant workers in the Gulf countries, the risks of stock market investing, the challenges faced by investors in public hydropower projects, and the success story of women entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector in Gandaki Province. The investigative reports were published in Nepal's largest daily newspapers, reaching a total of over three million readers.
Vikes’ partner organization, CIJN, also organized training on gender-sensitive journalism for managing editors and editors-in-chief at Nepal’s mainstream media outlets. The training helped these senior editors better understand their role as gatekeepers in promoting more equal news reporting.
Equality-promoting practices are spreading in Tanzanian media
In Tanzania, a total of 152 journalists participated in training organized by Vikes partners in 2024. The media training included mobile journalism training and fact-checking. In addition, female journalists received mentoring in producing stories and conducting investigative journalism. Training was organized for rural community radio stations on gender-sensitive reporting.
The Media Council of Tanzania (MCT) collaborated on gender equality initiatives with more than 20 media organizations. As a result of this collaboration, five media organizations developed gender equality guidelines, and similar processes were also launched at other media organizations. Three newsrooms appointed gender equality officers or separate teams dedicated to promoting gender equality, whose task is to take gender equality issues into account both in editorial content production and in the media organizations’ internal renumeration and other practices.
Young female journalists were mentored to produce high-quality journalism
MCT and Tamwa, the Association of Women Journalists in Tanzania, also mentored young female journalists. As a result of the mentoring program, 23 articles or programs were published. The articles and programs covered topics such as the situation of street children, violence experienced by disabled children, violence against women, online harassment experienced by female leaders, the need for healthy food among expectant mothers, the health impacts of water shortages and lack of clean water, and various everyday environmental issues. In addition, six investigative stories were produced that addressed the challenges faced by female journalists in the workplace.
On community radio stations in Zanzibar and Kilosa regions, female journalists also produced 11 radio programs where local women were interviewed about the cultural and social challenges they face.
Some of the stories were published in national newspapers with a circulation of around 10,000–40,000 copies. The rest of the programs were broadcast on local radio stations or published online and on blogs. The stories and programs reached around 500,000 people in Tanzania.
