[WA-News] Feminist International Radio Endeavour - reporting from Women'sNet CyberCafe @ WCAR

[Jennifer Radloff]

August 29, 2001
For Immediate Release from Durban, South Africa
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The WomensNet CyberCafe: A Symbolic & Historic Space in the Hands of Women

By María Suárez Toro and Margaret Thompson

Feminist International Radio Endeavour (FIRE) (www.fire.or.cr)

The large room on the third floor of  Cricket Stadium is packed with more
than 60 computers, all occupied by journalists, communicators and
activists, busy writing news articles and other reports on e-mail to send
back home to their countries around the world about the first day of the
NGO (Non-Governmental Organizations) Forum at the UN Conference Against
Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and other forms of Intolerance
(WCAR) now underway in Durban, South Africa.

Welcome to the WomensNet CyberCafe, a symbolic and historic space in many
ways.  It is the first Internet Café organized and run by women at a UN
World  Conference, hosted by WomensNet, an African women´s organization
focused on training women in the use of new information technologies.

The CyberCafe is also a concrete example of one of the strategies being
debated at WCAR for combating racism, sexism and xenophobia in media, to
give access to and control over media and technologies in the hands of
those who are subject to discrimination, rather than to regulate and censor
the media content itself.

In addition, the WomensNet CyberCafe is also the latest temporary home of
the FIRE-PLACE, where Feminist International Radio Endeavour (FIRE) is
producing live daily Internet broadcasts in Spanish and English about WCAR.

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WomensNet Projects Focus on Women´s Access to Technology

Natasha Primo, a project manager with WomensNet, described how the Cyber
Café is one of several projects that her South African women´s organization
is doing to increase access to new communications technologies among
women.  She explained that they do training for women´s groups, and will
offer training in the CyberCafe for all persons and especially women who
are interested in learning to use the Internet.

WomensNet also conducts training with community radio staff on using the
Internet, as well as on bringing a gender perspective to their work to help
ensure that “women´s interests and voices are reflected in radio
content.”   Natasha explained that WomensNet is linking new communication
technologies with traditional media and particularly community radio
“because in South Africa, radio is used especially by rural women.”    She
explained, “We certainly see the potential of new technology, but don´t
want to put all our faith in it so that it doesn´t become a new form of
elitism.  We want to make technology accessible and have it used in a way
that is progressive and that advances the cause of gender equality within
South Africa.”  She noted that WomensNet also trains community radio staff
and other organizations on gender awareness and equality issues.

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Nicaraguan Activist Opposes WCAR Language on Government Restrictions on
Racist Media Content

Discussions at WCAR have focused on how media and new communication
technologies are being used by racist and other xenophobic groups to
disseminate hate speech.  But Margarita Antonio, a community radio
communicator from Uraccan University on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua
described in an interview on the FIRE-PLACE how the negotiations of the
official WCAR document include a debate over language that calls for
governments to regulate racist and xenophobic media content including hate
speech on the Internet.

Margarita noted that members of target groups of hate speech who spoke at a
recent panel workshop oppose any government restrictions on media content
because in the long run the same groups whom the government is claming to
protect are the ones who are most often silenced with these
restrictions.  She argued that the struggle to overcome racism and break
the silence is best accomplished by creating and strengthening alternative
forms of media that are run by these marginalized groups themselves.

The need to  break the silence of those victimized by racism and xenophobia
was also emphasized by speakers at the opening ceremony of the NGO Forum of
the WCAR yesterday, including Mary Robinson, Secretary General of WCAR;
South African President Mbeki, and Marcia Andrews, President of SANGOCO.

Likewise, Dalya Massachi of Project Change in the USA noted how her
organization which focuses on ways to combat racism and break the silence
of victims is attending the NGO Forum to learn about strategies and
activities other similar organizations around the world and to build
networks.

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First Night of FIRE-PLACE Focuses on Technology & Other Issues

As it has in almost every UN World Conference in the past 10 years, the
FIRE-PLACE broadcast live from WCAR in Spanish, English and Portuguese,
bringing the perspectives of women about the conference to a world
audience.  As described above, on its first webcast produced in the
WomensNet Cybercafe, FIRE staff interviewed Natasha Primo of WomensNet
about women´s access to media and new communication technologies and the
role of the Cybercafe.    Margarita Antonio of Uraccan, Nicaragua talked on
the FIRE-PLACE about the debate over government restrictions on racist
media.

Also interviewed by FIRE were Brazilians Rosalia Lemus of Culture House and
Neusa das Dores Pereira, from the Women´s Lesbian Collective of the Women´s
Issues Project.  They said they were skeptical of UN Conferences because
often governments such as theirs will issue impressive statements and
speeches at these forums, but in reality at home are implementing policy
that further marginalizes and increases poverty among the same sectors of
society that they claim to defend in conferences such as this.  But the
Brazilian women noted that they feel it is important to participate in
forums such as WCAR to make their demands be known to the international
community.

Bemardine Dixon of Uraccan, Nicaragua, also expressed her concern about the
actual impact of this conference on combatting racism.  She noted that the
forum has enabled many minority groups and other victims of racism to talk
about their issues concerns but few concrete mechanisms and practical
proposals have been created to deal with those issues and overcome racism.

  Lohana Berkins of the Association for Transvestite and Transexual
Identity in Argentina issued a call on the FIRE-PLACE to promote the
understanding of sexual and gender identity as a choice that must be
respected, contrary to what is happening in her country where more than 100
transvestites and transexuals have been killed by police becaue of their
sexual orientation.  She also described how feminism has given her and her
community a better understanding of gender identity issues and helped
improve their self esteem.

  The FIREPLACE will continue webcasting women´s voices every night between
6 :00 – 8 :30 p.m. South Africa time from the womensNet
Cybercafé  throughout the NGO Forum at www.fire.or.cr