Wednesday 31 October 2007
Suva, Fiji - As the global discourse on unequal representation of women in the media rages on, gender and media communicators met in Fiji, the island nation in the South Pacific, October 23-25, to learn advocacy skills to lobby for more gender-sensitivenews media.
"The stereotyped and unequal representation of women in the media remains one of the major impediments to the achievement of gender equality", said media expert Nebojsa Radic while training participants at the three-day workshop held in the Island's capital, Suva.
Recent statistics indicate that only 20 per cent of women in Fiji are featured in news. 49 per cent of the island's population are women. The workshop was organized by the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) and femLINKPACIFIC: Media Initiatives for Women.
According to WACC's media and gender justice programme manager, Sarah Macharia, the workshop called attention to Section J on ‘Women and the Media’ in the Beijing Platform for Action (PFA). Strategic Objective J.2 in the PFA spells out actions to promote a balanced and non-stereotyped portrayal of women in the media. Over 10 years have passed since the adoption of the PFA however the changes hoped for are yet to be seen.
The workshop was a follow up to the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) held in 2005, the most extensive global research into gender in the media ever undertaken. GMMP mapped the representation of women in the news media of 76 countries. Fiji was the only country from the South Pacific region to be part of the research.
The results of the GMMP show that gender imbalances in content, access, ownership and control of media are still as prevalent in 2005 as they were in 1995 when the first GMMP was carried out. Gender bias and stereotyping in and through media continue and in turn, negatively impact women’s opportunities in all spheres. The workshop is WACC’s commitment to equipping civil society engaged in gender and media work with the tools and skills necessary to carry out effective evidence-based advocacy campaigns.
"This workshop is important because we want to equip the participants with the findings of the 2005 report and help them voice for equal representation of women in the media in the run-up to the next global survey that will be conducted in 2010," said Radic.
He acknowledged that under representation of women in the mainstream media was a problem in most countries and asserted that women's voices needed to be heard in the media equally as men."Fiji's results from the last survey are similar to the results of the rest of the countries and we want to find out what the results would be like in other Pacific Island countries," he said.
FemLINK Pacific coordinator Sharon Bhagwan Rolls re-affirmed that in Fiji, it was mostly the men who dominated news stories and hold high positions in various media firms."This needs to change" she said.
Rolls emphasized the need to empower women to ensure that their voices are heard through the media and to participate in policy-making processes and broader media issues.
WACC and femLINKPACIFIC affirm that fair and balanced representation of women and men in the media is key to attaining gender equality, sustainable development and communication rights for all.
Participants at the workshop included representatives from the National Councils of Women of Fiji, Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, Cook Islands, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Bougainville, Fiji Media Watch and a representative of the Pacific Foundation for the Advancement of Women (PACFAW). They acknowledged the role of women's media initiatives, such as community radio, as a strategy to advance commitments to gender equality as well as to strengthen and support community empowerment effort.
The participants further acknowledged the role of WACC and femLINKPACIFIC in advocating for positive change in Pacific media. They recommended strengthened strategic coalitions among civil society in the region to promote gender equality in and through the media. Read more...
(By Teresia Mutuku, Communications Officer and Web Manager)