As part of the Third Gender and Media Summit in August 2008, Gender Links (GL), Gender and Media Southern Africa (GEMSA) Network, and the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) will be hosting the Southern African Gender and Media Awards. The awards aims to recognise and acknowledge good practice in mainstreaming gender in reporting across the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The prize will include a cash award and the opportunity to attend and speak at the Gender and Media Summit in Johannesburg.

Criteria for submissions:

• all work submitted must have been produced between July 2006 and April 2008;
• only individual submissions are allowed;
• each individual can make a maximum of three submissions;
• all submissions must be original; and
• submissions may be in French, English, and Portuguese.

Submissions are invited in the following categories.

Print (including articles published in magazines, newspapers, online publications):

• News (750 words or less)
• Feature stories (between 750-1,500 words)
• Opinion and commentary (between 750–1,200 words)
• Cartoons

Radio:

• News
• Radio documentaries
• Talk shows

Television:

• News
• Documentary

Photojournalism:

• Photographs

Awards for best practices in reporting on the following issues:

• Gender violence
• Political participation
• HIV and AIDS
• Sustained reporting on a particular issue (in this category you need to submit a series of articles on a particular issue or theme)

Business Unusual Gender and Economic Reporting Award:
Participants in the Business Unusual (BU) Training Course conducted by GL in partnership with media training institutions across the region over the last two years are invited to submit articles or productions that demonstrate gender aware economic reporting. Three BU awards will be issued. The first two are for participants in the training and the third is open to everyone:

• most innovative article/production during the training;
• most innovative article/production after the training; and
• article/production that in the view of the judges has given audiences the best understanding of why gender is critical to economic advancement in the SADC region.

Click here for more information about the Summit and Awards.

Applicants should submit a completed application form for each piece being submitted, motivation of why the work should be considered for an award, and copies of the submitted work.

• For print: actual artifacts
• For radio: audio cassettes/DVDs
• For television: video cassettes/DVDs
• For photojournalism: actual artifacts
• For opinion and commentary: actual artifacts

Click here to download the application form in Word format, and for a list of country offices that will be collecting submissions.

Gender Links website on May 13 2008.