More than 50 women journalists participated in the workshop "Strengthening Election Coverage with a Gender Perspective," held on Saturday, February 7. The workshop was organised by the Circle of Women Journalists, the National Association of Journalists of Bolivia (ANPB), the Bolivian Journalism Foundation, and the European Electoral Support Centre (ECES), as part of the PRO-Election Bolivia project, funded by the European Union through the Foreign Policy Instruments.
The event featured opening remarks by Patricia Flores, president of the Circle of Women Journalists, and Luis Castellar, coordinator of the PRO-Election Bolivia project, who emphasised the importance of promoting journalistic practice committed to democratic principles, human rights, and gender equality in electoral contexts.
The workshop included four thematic presentations by expert journalists to strengthen participants' professional skills. The topics addressed included: ethics and press freedom in electoral processes, as well as violence against women journalists, with a presentation by Zulema Alanes; digital journalism with a focus on human rights and digital security, presented by Patricia Chambi; the challenges of gender parity in democracy, discussed by Elizabeth Salguero; and political violence, the use of social media, fact-checking, fake news, hate speech, digital security, and optimizing the use of artificial intelligence in journalistic work, presented by Patricia Cusicanqui.
During the discussions, participants reflected on the challenges journalism faces in covering subnational electoral processes, highlighting the need for pluralistic, balanced, and gender-sensitive coverage that increases the visibility of women candidates. The importance of critically and responsibly addressing the problem of harassment and political violence based on gender was also emphasised, contributing to dismantling stereotypes, denaturalising these practices, and strengthening strategies against disinformation.
The workshop included renowned journalists with national experience in print, digital, and television media, as well as fact-checking platforms, enriching the exchange of experiences and best practices. Among them were Mery Vaca, with more than 25 years of experience in print, digital, and news agencies; Tania Frank Torrez, director of projects at the Foundation for Journalism (FPP), coordinator of the Bolivia Verifica platform, and correspondent for Deutsche Welle (DW) in Germany; Ivone Juárez Ramírez, columnist and investigative editor at Brújula Digital; and Paola Belmonte, who has faced workplace discrimination and professional discrediting, exacerbated by more than a decade of systematic online violence. and Verónica Palenque, journalist and host of the program “Hola Verónica” on Channel 47 (open signal), the journalists' collective “Las Cabronas” from El Alto, among others.
The event reaffirmed the commitment of the participating journalists, the organising institutions, and the ECES to strengthening journalism, defending freedom of expression, and promoting inclusive, transparent, gender-equal, and violence-free electoral processes.
