Mastrogiovanni, founder of the Forum of Mediterranean Women Journalists: ‘Ethical journalism, the kind that wants to care for words and with words, must be protected as a form of social reproduction, for which women journalists once again take responsibility’
Protecting freedom of information means defending every aspect of democratic life, civil rights, human rights, environmental and ecological justice. By the level of press freedom is measured the resilience of the rule of law. In Italy, the growing instability of the publishing system and the transformation of young female journalists into poor workers cannot guarantee turnover in a category that is increasingly thinning its ranks.
On a European level, the ‘information deserts’ are growing, the news deserts, areas where there are no newspapers to guard democracy: at the expense, as always, are minorities, and among them women, the favourite target of haters.
It is up to the press to create an aware public opinion and to disrupt the culture of rape that also feeds on stereotypes and discrimination conveyed through bad language by the press, when it does not fulfil its deontological obligations. But how can the press activate a virtuous circle if the figure of the journalist is increasingly weakened?
Sexual harassment according to various researches is greater in the world of journalism than in other environments and contributes to keeping female journalists in a subaltern position. In addition to this, discrimination, gender pay gaps and crystal ceilings undermine their careers: daily newspapers made largely by women at the desk, but designed and edited by men. The patriarchal mentality is inevitably reflected in the way news concerning women is handled.
Yet they take it upon themselves, even in the editorial offices, to ‘liberate truth and nourish life’: it is above all women who pose the problem of gender language, of the use of ‘good’ words, i.e. those that do not multiply inequalities but respect the dignity of the subjects narrated, just as it is above all women journalists who seek and implement new cooperative editorial models, and new modes of leadership, circular and not verticist, authoritative and not dirigiste.
In this ninth edition, we wanted to dig into the exact point of intersection between freedom of the press (duty and right), women’s freedom and their self-determination, and the action of social reproduction carried out by all women, including by women journalists who, within the editorial offices, propose and demand greater attention to language, to the correct representation of gender, disability, ethnic groups and every minority, attention to avoid the double standard whereby there are deaths and violence of series A and series B, typical of the western mainstream narrative; these are all topics that women, in the newsrooms, take on.
What we are proposing today, in this 9th edition of the Forum of Mediterranean Women Journalists, is to look at ethical journalism, that which wants to care for words and with words, as a form of social reproduction, which women journalists once again take charge of.
In fact, as Jineoloji teaches us, i.e. ‘Women’s Science’ that is the basis of the women’s revolution in Kurdistan, the category of social reproduction, is much broader than we think, because it also involves the reproduction of the ecosystem, of other living creatures, of the entire society as we know it, that is, of us in relation to others and nature.
Of this connective tissue that allows societies to produce and reproduce (exist), the free and independent press is part of it, which is why freeing the truth means nourishing life.
In this sense, the Forum of Women Journalists of the Mediterranean demands that now and immediately, at all levels, national and international, the institutions implement forms of incentive and support for the creation of innovative, creative publishing systems based on anti-patriarchal models, which favour the self-determination of minority groups, especially young people and women.
Because if the press fails to be fully free, if it fails to liberate the truth, it will also fail to ‘nourish life’; that is, it will fail to be a promoter of ‘values’ and ‘good’ ‘words’ aimed at strengthening the social pact between citizens and the institutions that represent them; it will fail to bring out through ‘good’ data the discriminatory phenomena, otherwise invisible
will fail to fulfil its pedagogical function of educating people to critical thinking,
because in education to critical thinking the foundations are laid for the control of power, control without which true democracy risks perishing
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The Scientific Committee
The Forum is the brainchild of Marilù Mastrogiovanni, who is its director. The Forum’s scientific committee is made up of Marilù Mastrogiovanni, investigative journalist; Loredana Perla, director of the For.Psi.Com Department of the University of Bari; Luigi Cazzato, coordinator of the Master’s Degree Course in Journalism at the University of Bari; Lorena Carbonara and Laura Corradi of the University of Calabria; Armida Salvati, Rosa Gallelli, Ylenia De Luca, Filippo Silvestri, Antonella D’Autilia and Claudia Attimonelli of the University of Bari.
Organisation and Partnership
The Forum is organised by: University of Bari, National Association ‘Giulia giornaliste’, Association ‘Giornaliste del Mediterraneo’, journalists’ cooperative Idea Dinamica; under the patronage of the Order of Journalists of Apulia, FNSI and Assostampa, Master’s degree in Journalism of Uniba, Ossigeno per l’Informazione, CREIS-European Research Centre for Sustainable Innovation, Noi rete donne, Balab, Research Centre “S-murare mediterraneo”. Gender Archives, Association ‘Fermenti lattici’-project ‘Io vivo qui’.
The ninth FMWJ is also a winner of the ‘Futura’ call for proposals of the Regional Council of Apulia.
