gender aware reporting. For example, just because a story is about a woman does not mean it is gender sensitive. It has become traditional around the globe for women to take over the making of the news on 8 March- International Women’s Day. The challenge posed by the GMBS is for equal numbers of women and men, at all levels of decision making, and giving equal voice to women and men, to make the news. Hence the slogan of the study: “women and men make the news”. Partners In addition to MISA and GL, the study brought together twenty institutional partners in the twelve countries. These included two media monitoring projects; three media-related NGOs; seven gender related NGOs; four country-level media women’s associations; one regional media women’s association and five media training institutions. The Media Monitoring Project (MMP) South Africa provided technical support. Media Monitored The study covered 114 out of the 317 print and electronic media in the 12 countries covered, or 36 percent of the media in these countries, during September 2002. It included a total of 25 110 news items, compared to the 16 000 news items monitored in the 2000 GMMP. The sample covered the full spectrum of private, public and community media. The countries covered were: Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Scope The study focused solely on the news. It did not include entertainment programming and advertising. In the case of radio and television, the study did not cover news feature programmes such as weekly news round ups and analysis (in the case of the print media these are usually contained within the same news publication). These important genres are acknowledged as important areas for consideration in future studies. Findings Table one summarises the main findings of the GMBS for South Africa and the region. Where they are available, comparative statistics are given from the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) that took place just prior to the five- year review of the Beijing Fourth World Conference of Women held in 1995. Margaret Gallagher, who served as chief consultant to the GMMP also served as an advisor to the GMBS, providing an important link between the two studies. 41