The Women's Commission held a forum "A Close-up on the Media through Gender Perspective" on 6 December 2003. Representatives from women's group, academia, media, the Equal Opportunities Commission and Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority shared with participants their perspective, experience in dealing with gender bias or stereotyping in the media and advertisements.

The forum, facilitated by Professor Fanny Cheung, a Member of the Women's Commission, comprised a plenary session and small groups discussion. Panel speakers were Ms Amy YUEN, Internal Vice-Chairperson of Association of the Advancement of Feminism; Dr NG Chun-hung, Assistant Professor of Department of Sociology, The University of Hong Kong; Ms CHEUNG Ping-ling, Chairperson of Hong Kong Journalists Association; Mr Joseph LI, Acting Director (Operations) of Equal Opportunities Commission; and Ms Rose May LI, Principal Entertainment Standards Control Officer (Content Regulation) of Television Entertainment Licensing Authority.

Participants discussed whether women had been portrayed with bias in the media and advertisements; the impact of such bias or misrepresentation on women and other sectors of the community; the need to initiate changes in various sectors (including roles that different parties could play); how to tackle the problem and at the same time uphold freedom of the press and expression, and allow sufficient room for creativity; and effective ways to promote gender sensitivity in the community.

The forum was part of the Commission's public education and gender mainstreaming programmes to promote greater gender sensitivity and awareness, as well as to reduce gender stereotyping and community prejudices against women. 50 representatives of women's groups and interested parties attended the forum.

The Women Leaders' Network (WLN) is an informal network of women in business, academe / civil society and government from APEC member economies. It was formed in October 1996 in Manila to promote the integration of gender perspectives into APEC's work. This year, the WLN meeting was held in Chiang Mai, Thailand from 30 July to 3 August. The theme of the meeting is "Women make a world of difference: partnerships for gender and development". Speakers from APEC member economies were invited to speak on three sub-themes, namely, knowledge creation, sharing and management through partnerships; promotion of human security for women; and women entrepreneurship through creative partnerships. The Chairperson and five Members of the Women's Commission together with ten women leaders from professional and business sectors attended the meeting. Please refer to the information pamphlet (DOC, 48KB), programme (DOC, 58KB) rundown, and statement and recommendation (DOC, 31KB) of the meeting for more information.

The Women's Commission invited contribution from women organizations as well as other community groups and sectors on examples of good practices on the empowerment of women in April 2002. Response to the exercise was enthusiastic. Close to 100 submissions from different organizations and sectors were received. An independent Selection Panel, which comprised Ms. Christine Fang, Director of Hong Kong Council of Social Service; Professor Japhet S. Law of Chinese University of Hong Kong; Ir. Edmund Leung, Council Member of Hong Kong Institute of Directors; Judge Wong Hing-chun; and Ms. Ip Shun-hing, Member of the Commission, selected a total of 33 good practices for inclusion in the booklet on good practices on empowerment of women.

The booklet on good empowerment practices was published (in Chinese). Some of the practices have now been translated in English. In this connection, we held a forum on 7 June 2003 (Saturday), at which representatives of organizations whose practices have been selected for inclusion in the booklet, together with their beneficiaries, shared their experience and learning points of good empowerment practices. The following areas were covered:

• women's education and training;
• economic well-being;
• mutual/self help;
• health;
• safety at home and in the public; and
• women's social participation and decision-making.

The booklets on good practices on empowerment of women were distributed at the forum.

The forum provided an opportunity for various sectors of the community, including women NGOs and service agencies, to exchange views and experience. The Commission hopes that it will stimulate the development of more innovative and positive initiatives and projects for women's advancement.

The Women's Commission and Radio Television Hong Kong are jointly organising a 13-episode radio programme on the theme of "human capacity building". The programme, delivered in a talk-show format, includes experience sharing with guests, street interviews, and phone-in. Topics vary for each episode, covering different "capacity-building" related issues which are of concern to women, including health, economic well-being, marriage, education and training, safety and violence, social participation and decision-making, women's images, etc. It is a 1 1/2 hour programme broadcast live on RTHK Radio 1 (FM 92.6 - 94.4) and Radio 5 (AM783) from 23:30 every Thursday night during the period from 20 February 2003 to 15 May 2003.

Quotable quotes (episodes 1-13) [in Chinese only] (151KB, PDF)

The Women's Commission and Ming Pao have jointly organised a Chinese essay competition on the theme of "New Sky Of Modern Women". The competition aims at stimulating public discussion on the life and development of women's potentials. Response has been favourable; more than 1,800 submissions were received from five entry categories. Participants wrote about the experience of women around them or their perception of the women's world.

The selection was conducted by an adjudicating panel chaired by Ms Ophelia Cheung, Co-Convener of the Public Education Task Force of the Women's Commission, and consisted of the following members: Ms Marina Wong, Honorary President, Hong Kong Women Professionals and Entrepreneurs Association; Dr Man Kit-wah, Head of Humanities Programme, Hong Kong Baptist University; Ms May Chan, Director of News and Public Affairs, Hong Kong Commercial Broadcasting Co Ltd.; and Ms Jackie Lam, Strategic Development and Marketing Director, Ming Pao Newspaper Ltd. The winners of the competition (chinese version only) (360KB, PDF) attended the prize presentation ceremony held on 1 March 2003 during the International Women's Day reception held at Central Library.

The Women's Commission (WoC) held a reception to celebrate with guests from women's groups and various sectors of the community the International Women's Day 2003 on 1 March 2003 at the Hong Kong Central Library. At the same occasion, WoC presented prizes to winners of "The New Sky of Modern Women" Essay Competition held earlier to promote public awareness of women's internal strength and potential.

WoC took the opportunity to launch its latest television announcement of public interest "Women, the gravity that gathers strength" and its revamped web site, as well as to distribute VCD of TV drama series "Women with Dreams" jointly produced by WoC and Radio Television Hong Kong to further promote empowerment of women.

Officiating at the ceremony were the Chairperson of WoC, Mrs Sophie Leung; the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr EK Yeoh; and the Permanent Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Mrs Carrie Yau. The Secretary for Justice, Miss Elsie Leung, the Chairperson of Legislative Council, Mrs Rita Fan and Director of Social Welfare, Mrs Carrie Lam also attended the celebration.