International Association of Women in Radio and Television
The International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT) is a women's organization involved in the broadcasting industry. More The organisation of professional women working in, or educating about, electronic and allied media, has a mission to strengthen initiatives which ensure women’s views and values are integral to media programming and to advance the impact of women in media.
IAWRT has consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
History
IAWRT was founded in 1949 and held the first conference of its own in 1951.
One of the founders of the organization, Willemijn Posthumus-van der Goot,[1] left an extensive collection of papers from its early years, which are housed in the International Archives for the Women's Movement (Dutch: Internationaal Informatiecentrum en Archief voor de Vrouwenbeweging (IIAV)), located within the Atria Institute, a major women's archive based in Amsterdam.[2]
During the 1950s through 1980s, IAWRT was a friendship organization between women journalists on either side of the Iron Curtain, intended to promote peace. At first, only one member from each country was permitted to join. As times changed, IAWRT became more of a networking organization for media women, [3]
As IAWRT continued to evolve it included female digital journalists and media academics, and IAWRT began implementing media projects in various parts of the global south, supported by FOKUS in Norway. It has run projects and reported on gender representation on the media and released a free safety handbook for women journalists. As well it has taken an increasing participatory role in the annual NGO-CSW and CSW held annually around and in UN headquarters in New York, USA. IT and Gender Justice solutions to cyber violence were among the 2018 events which IAWRT participated in.
Current status
The organisation today has 14 chapters across the world and continues to organise regional and international conferences, film festivals, workshops and training for the professional development of its members, including safety training. https://www.iawrt.org/events The 2016 regional conference was in Johannesburg South Africa, the 2017 biennial conference took place in Quezon City, the Philippines, the 2018 regional conference is in Entebbe, Uganda.
The President for 2017-19 is Violet Gonda
The United Nations main representative is Sheila Katzman of the US, backed by Rebecca Myles and Linnea Rae, the youth representative.