The Malta Sports Journalists Association organised the first ever seminar totally focused on women involved in the sports media industry, Training Women Sports Journalists and Reporters to Work More at Ease in The Sports Media Industry.

This seminar was hosted at one of the leading hotels in Malta and involved various speakers, including Dr Zsuzsa Csisztu who is a renowned sports journalist and presenter in Hungary. She’s also a sports lawyer, Vice President of the Hungarian Sports Journalists Association and one of the AIPS’ Vice Presidents.

Being one of the first women presenting football programmes in Hungary,  she shared the difficulties she encountered when she became part of the sports media sector including intimidations and verbal attacks.  She had the courage to take to court all those responsible for such intensified attacks, where she opened seven cases and won them all.

Csisztu also emphasised the importance of training women journalists to be involved in a wide variety of sports programmes. She also spoke about the importance of having more women sportscasters and that women need to have “a mentor” to guide them in the eventuality of entering the sports media sector.

Earlier in this seminar Joanna Camilleri from TVMSport shared the challenges she met in her career as an athlete and as a sports journalist. She believes that both men and women must have equal opportunities and when women succeed, they don’t have to be compared with men but just given merit for their achievements.

Malta Sports Journalists Association’s General Secretary Lorraine Cunningham also made her speech. She was one of the first women on the local media in the beginning of the 90’s.

There was also an open discussion led by a panel formed by TVMSport’s Janice Briffa, Freelancer and Uefa’s Venue Operations Broadcast Manager (VOBM) Catherine Micallef and Vicky Licari who is a former sports journalist at PBS. They all shared their experiences and encouraged all those present not to give up and do all the necessary training to optimize their skills.

Hon. Julia Farrugia Portelli, Minister for Inclusion, Voluntary Organisations, and Consumer Rights, also attended and addressed a speech on this occasion.

The seminar came to an end with speeches from AIPS Europe’s President Charles Camenzuli who also attended this seminar and Malta Sports Journalists Association’s President Sandro Micallef.

This seminar was made possible by the funds the Malta Sports Journalists Association obtained from the Training Initiatives Scheme managed by the Malta Council for Voluntary Sector (MCVS) and supported by the Ministry for Inclusion, Voluntary Organisations and Consumer Rights (MIVC).