Approaching a revolting theme, the 4th lecture of Casper Libero’s IV Woman and Media Week discussed Women Communicators at risk. The table mediated by the professor of Legislation and Juridical Practice, Political Science and Juridical Formation for Popular Leaderships, Ester Rizzi joining the journalists: Laura Daudén., Laís Modelli and Vanessa Martina Silva, brought up conflicts the communicators faced while in foreign countries.
Vanessa Martina Silva, Laís Modelli, the professor Ester Rizzi and Laura Daudén
Laura Daudén – journalist graduated in Casper Libero, master in International Relations (a man dominant environment) and collaborator of a human rights organization that discuss gender matters, the right to demonstrate and the issue involving imprisoned women – introduced herself on conflict coverage during her Final Paper. Together with a colleague, she presented their proposal of spending three months studying a region of the occidental Africa where there is still colonization and were deeply discouraged by their professors, situation repeated when she started working on an editorial department and intended to continue on covering conflicts, since “being a woman doubles the risks of calamities”.
Laura addressed the three most important issues when covering a conflict:
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Dislocation and logistics: the journalist up for this task should have an itinerary, local sources and carry the documents;
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Legitimacy, credibility and respect: to transit between opposite sides of the combat without taking sides;
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To know the minimum about the language and culture of the place on quest: subtle care is extremely important to connect with the citizen you are interviewing and it’s essential to be permeable to understand the women who live the conflict;
Even if counting on friends or ties and the three premises above along the journey, that doesn’t avoid the risks of sexual violence. Laura declares that she and her colleague went through a sexual arrestment by a person they knew while returning from the airport to a hotel, which leads us to sadly conclude that we can’t fully trust nobody.
Laís Modelli and Vanessa Martina Silva, both journalists by Unesp – Bauru (State University of Sao Paulo), deepened on their experience covering Mexico and Argentina-Venezuela, respectively. The two went to its location where ended up spending more time than expected due to political revolutions that changed their careers.
Laís Modelli, claims she wasn’t raised to succeed or to leave the county. From a country town, she only moved to Sao Paulo after graduating and started to work at Quatro Rodas (aka Four Wheels), a magazine in which the journalists were mostly men. Afterwards, she started working on another magazine Caros Amigos (aka Dear Friends) with the same kind of environment. On a twenty-day vacation in Mexico, she found herself on a political coup in 2012 and used her time to report. When returning to Sao Paulo, she refused to be subordinated and became correspondent of Caros Amigos.
While living in Mexico, she experienced the measures the government implanted to avoid violence against women as in separating the subways wagons in genders, and joined an epistemology group where she met women who contributed to the classification of feminicide as a crime in Mexico, in 2011. Back to Brazil, Laís now works for Cult Magazine, Caros Amigos and is finishing her master degree focusing on feminism.
Vanessa Martina Silva, reporter of Opera Mundi, carries thousands of stories inside her backpack. Travelling to Argentina to study Spanish, the journalist got caught up on a political coup occurring in Paraguay in 2012. She was working for Vermelho (aka Red) – an online news platform – at the time, arranged hospitality and asked to cover the situation. “In the heat of the moment, you don’t think that you are flying to a male chauvinist country”, she says. She wanted to interview the ousted president, Fernando Lugo. Alone and having a hard time to arrange the meeting, she teamed up with another Brazilian journalist to have a five-minute conversation with the ex-president while having to hear sexist jokes by his press manager.
In Venezuela, she covered the election of Hugo Chávez partially ignoring the recommendations of the hornbook for foreigners: “you should measure the risks, but shouldn’t let the rules stop you from doing your job”, she says. There, she followed the crowd, got up in the stage with the candidate and witness a commune election escort by the motorizados – motorcyclists who supported Chávez and are considered to be the army of the people.
When questioned about how should a woman make your opinion count on a male chauvinist environment as in newsrooms, they all agree that women should fight and defend their point of view, otherwise the opinion won’t be valid anyway.
On conflict coverage, the three highlighted the importance to create ties, even as a matter of protection. At the end of the lecture, Vanessa’s state finds a true north: “Everything is dangerous. We have to stand up for ourselves, show our face and confront the world, that’s it”.