Countering gender-based violence: Meeting highlights media’s role | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

Countering gender-based violence: Meeting highlights media’s role

ISLAMABAD: The UKS Research Centre, Islamabad, in collaboration with UN Women organised a one-day consultative meeting with a selected section of the media on “Media as a Partner to Promote Gender Sensitive Reporting on Violence against Women” on Saturday, at the Best Western Hotel.

The aim of the consultation was to bring together media representatives from a wide range of backgrounds to discuss the importance of the media’s role to change our society’s prevailing mindsets on gender-based violence, and how the media can be helpful to empower women who have faced violence. The foremost aim of the meeting was to bring the participants together on establishing a Media Task Force comprising of committed people from the media on promoting zero-tolerance for violence against women and effective non-judgmental reporting.

The guests at the meeting included, senior media personalities, media managers and communication specialists with extensive experience in the media field. Their recommendations have helped the research centre and developing partners in identifying a way forward to design media interventions through which more gender sensitive reporting could be achieved.

The consultation also highlighted the findings of the International Women’s Media Foundation’s global report on the status of women in news media, which revealed that the overwhelming gendered pattern was one of the key issue which contributes towards the marginalisation of women at various levels in the media.

As per the report, men outnumber women with a ratio of 5:1. In Pakistan, the report further showed that the need to focus on this aspect of gender parity as a key component of any gender policy. It was highlighted that there was an urgent need to bring forward women’s issues and give them and their concerns an enhanced place in mainstream media.

UKS Director Tasneem Ahmar started the meeting by giving some examples of different forms of violence against women that exist in our society and showed how they were reported in the media.
Source: Daily Times
Date:6/6/2011