SYNOPSIS How successful was has the Base FM News Desk been in implementing a gender focus at the station? Challenges and Way Forward?

BACKGROUND Established 2007 with donor funding as ring fenced unit Aim to establish streamlined focus & Intervention to highlight community news and highlights usually ignored by mainstream media Gender element makes up big focus in community news

OBJECTIVES To incorporate a 50% quota of gender related news stories into all Base FM new bulletins and current affairs programmes on a daily basis.

TARGET AUDIENCE Primary – Men and women of all ages who are able to identify with the stories, and who are able to learn from them Secondary – Government, decision makers, civil society and general intellectual think tank of society, who are able to change and improve lives of those affected through the news stories

PROCESSES FOLLOWED Establish core objectives for the Newsdesk Secure financial and material resources Recruit individuals from the community who are passionate about community and social issues facing our communities, and who can communicate about these issues in an innovative and intelligent manner Representation of female journalists in newsroom Training

RESOURCES Premises and security ICT ’ s – server, computers, editing and word processing software, voice recorders, headphones Transport Facilities (ongoing) – scooters and/or taxis Training (ongoing) – news production, digital editing, studio & presentation training Annual budget – staff salaries, recurrent expenses and overheads, capital expenses

EXPECTED OUTPUTS 12 news bulletins per day with audio clips, 1 daily current affairs programme, 1 daily phone-in talk show as well as a weekend news highlights show, broken down as follows: Full news bulletins – 3 community, 1 national, 1 African, 1 International and 1 Sports stories News Flashes – 1 community, 1 national news stories News Hour – 7 produced stories of which 4 must originate from the community, 2 national stories and 1 sports story. Daily Talk Show on topical issues of the day

ACTUAL OUTPUT 1 Sept – 2 stories 2 Sept – 4 stories 3 Sept – 2 stories 7 &9 Sept – 1 story per day 10 Sept – 1 story 13 Sept – 13 stories 14, 15 & 16 Sept – 1 story per day 17 Sept - 2 stories 20, 28, 29 Sept – 1 story per day

CHALLENGES & WAY FORWARD Newsdesk output compares well to other bigger, well established radios Continued funding from Partners critical 7 staff members in News room Consumes third of operational budget Consumers half of operational & capital budget Citizens journalism Interactive website Continuous training Recruiting, remunerating & retaining staff especially female journalists

REPLICATON The model followed by the Base FM Newsdesk can easily be replicated by other community radios, provided they have all the financial and material resources to operate at full throttle. However, this may take some time. In the case of Base Fm, the Newsdesk only became adequately functional by year 3 of the project once most of the needed equipment and training was delivered.