Women and Media, The Need for Policy

Dima Dabbous-Sensenig

In the regional conference on Gender and Communication Policy held in Beirut in November 1999, thirty speakers from eight Middle Eastern countries reported on the media situation in Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates, with an emphasis on gender portrayal and existing gender-sensitive communication policies. Participants voiced similar concerns about women and the media: on the one hand women are objectified in front of the camera and underrepresented behind it, and on the other hand the situation is made worse by the general lack of gender-sensitive communication policies capable of changing the situation. The regional conference resulted in the Beirut Declaration, which stressed the need to implement various recommendations concerning training, advocacy, and networking, in order to stimulate ‘the formulation of communication strategies using a gender approach’ and ‘to achieve gender equity in human rights, freedom of choice, greater access to mass media and full participation in the process of decision-making’.

The following article offers, in addition to a summary of my report on Lebanon presented at the above-mentioned conference, an evaluation of the major recommendations of the Beirut Declaration. I discuss the strengths and weaknesses of those recommendations, especially regarding their applicability within a Middle Eastern context. I also offer some suggestions for change and point to areas that require further investigation, with the modest aim of contributing to what I truly consider an urgent step towards developing a gender-sensitive communication policy in the area.

In 1998 media activists and media workers from eleven countries in the Caribbean drew up the Kingston Declaration on Gender and Media Policy.
Marjan de Bruin

Like declarations on this topic drawn up in other regions in the world, it stated principles, intentions and guidelines designed to improve media coverage on gender issues. It focused on content (portrayal), media employment (women’s share in production and decision making) and professional behaviour (codes of conduct). The following article explores what happened next.

Maria del Nevo

How have gender issues in communication altered since two landmark conferences in Bangkok 1994 and Beijing 1995? The following article reviews the current situation, concluding that a global transformation of culture and the policies of the communications industry are required. This can only be done through the development of gender sensitive communications policies that are democratically pout into practice.

Ann Mainville-Neeson

Freedom of expression can be both friend and foe of the women’s movement. While the ability to speak out on political, ideological, social and many other important issues is unquestionably the first imperative of a democratic society, the freedom to do so, if granted as an absolute, may pave the way to abuse. In countries where mass commercial media are widespread, the envelope is being pushed further and further from what most people would find acceptable expression. Women are especially vulnerable to the abuses of free speech, whether it be through negative or degrading comment about women or through the perpetuation of the idea of women as sexual objects.

Meena M Shivdas

The women, media and development relationship has been analysed by media activists and academics in the Asian region since the 1970s. The focus then was on highlighting unacceptable stereotyped portrayals of women in the media. Subsequently, calls were made for more women journalists in media organisations to initiate change. The shift in focus since addresses such issues as the unequal flow of information, gender biases in media policy, media’s treatment of violence against women, questions on pornography, implications of satellite and telecommunications technology including issues of Internet usage and pornography on the net. These issues have added more complex layers to the women and media relationship. The following article raises questions on some of the contradictions and conformations encountered when feminists have analysed and assessed the impact of globalisation of the media in women’s lives.

Bernadette van Dijck

‘We are journalists. We tell it how it is. You cannot expect us to make the world prettier than it is.’ Discussions with programme teams about gender portrayal often become heated affairs. Both male and female programme-makers have difficulty acknowledging that the way men and women are portrayed on television is still fairly stereotypical. Women appear on screen less often than men and they hold the floor for less time. ‘If this picture really is accurate, the fault lies with reality, not with the journalist.’ And that is precisely the conclusion that the Gender Portrayal Department of the Netherlands Broadcasting Corporation (NOS) rejects. The fact is that reality is far more varied than the image we see on television. Change in the way we see men and women must come first and foremost from journalists.

Karin Achtelstetter

What are the ethical responsibilities facing us in the context of the information society and its new communication technologies? This is the question posed by the author of the following article, who argues that Christians should work not for the globalisation of the economy but for the globalisation of solidarity.