Kanya

#MeToo Kenya by Florence Dallu

“As a journalist who reports frequently on gender and human rights in Africa, this movement signifies a timely and profound cultural reckoning.”

#MeToo, one of the most articulate feminist movements of the decade is not just about gender, it’s about the things that make people vulnerable – their class, their race and their sexuality.The movement has grown beyond simplistic narratives of women as victims and bystanders . A New Yorker article attributes the guilty verdict during the re-trial of Bill Cosby for sexual assault on the effects of the #MeToo movement. The first prosecution of Cosby for the same crimes last year had ended in a mistrial.  The judge, according to the article, acknowledged that the #MeToo movement and the allegations of sexual misconduct in the entertainment industry during the trial may have attributed to the shift in judgement. However the movement is not just confined in the West among Hollywood elites; women from all over the world are speaking up about sexual harassment and abuse in their work places. (pic: Kenyan women confronting rape and sexual harassment by learning karate)

As a journalist who reports frequently on gender and human rights in Africa, this movement signifies a timely and profound cultural reckoning. The last 9 months have exposed a silent epidemic of sexual assault and harassment that haunts every industry and every community. While the media has drawn attention to these cases, the sector itself has proven to not be different in the way it treats women. There are very few women in leadership positions in the media, and women journalists suffer various atrocities from sexual harassment to being deemed unfit for ‘manly’ journalistic assignments. A report by the Media Council of Kenya assessing the gender issue in the Kenyan media adds that stereotypes in the media tend to undervalue women as a whole, and diminish them to sexual objects and passive human beings.

Kenyan women journalists are coming out and talking openly about rife sexual harassment in the newsroom. A blog by Amina Chombo, a renowned political and current affairs talk show host, singles out sexual harassment, discrimination in promotions, and women being underrated among some of the obstacles she and her fellow female colleagues in the media face.  However, she said, many of the women feared to stand up and speak out. See sexual-harassment a challenge media women face in Kenya on Jambo News Network Gender Agenda.

An investigative story by South African newspaper, Mail & Guardian exposed the full extent of how pervasive sexual harassment has become in Kenyan newsrooms and in the media industry generally. The story, Sex Monsters in the Newsroom, revealed accounts from Kenyan female journalists about how their bosses were demanding sexual favors in return for professional assistance or better working conditions.

Many female journalists have been open about their experiences, marking commendable progress for women’s rights and empowerment in the country. An award winning Kenyan journalist penned a post on her social media titled ‘I am a Woman Journalist’ on her experiences in a patriarchal  newsroom saying that it was time for women to have courage, “Then one day the woman in me, the lioness who had been rained on and people thought was a cat, roared…it was the woman being fought yet fighting for her space in the newsroom at the same time.”

This transformative movement is not just for women and gender equality, it is for all who care to remove barriers for women to advance in the workplace. The media needs to interrogate and confront sexual harassment and ensure removal of all obstacles to equal opportunities and for the enhancement of women’s work.

Gender mainstreaming report

Members and non-members can apply for Research Postion

IAWRT has secured UNESCO funding to develop a project based on the successes of the 2014-2015 pilot Gender Mainstreaming Project (GMP). 

This will further our work in the area of freedom of speech and gender equality in the media. The 2014-2015 pilot GMP resulted in the report, pictured, Gender Equality and Social Justice in Public Media available here which was based on media monitoring research in 8 countries and the designing and presentation of IAWRT workshops and discussions on gender equality in the media inspired by that report.

In the the upcoming 2018 GMP,  we are planning to develop a handbook for media students, journalists, and media professionals, based on our experiences and best practices from the GMP pilot and additional research. It will focus in particular on best practices from the Global South. Then this will be followed up by workshops in all 14 countries where IAWRT has chapters to provide applied learning grounded in the handbook.

IAWRT is now calling for applicants for a researcher & report writer position to take responsibility for collecting and compiling experiences and examples of best practices, based on the GMP pilot study and additional research, particularly focusing on South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and India.focusing on the key questions

●Why is gender equality important and what items related to gender equality are more often reported by women journalist and neglected by males?

● How journalists, editors, and producers understand the importance of gender balance in the media, and what works best to convey the message of gender equality to media practitioners. 

● How journalists, editors, and producers see the need for concrete guidelines on how gender equality can be realized in the media

● What strategies are helpful in keeping gender equality in focus throughout the daily difficulties and challenges of media work.

● What are the biggest obstacles to realizing gender equality in and through the media in practice and what are the best ways/examples of overcoming them

● What are the biggest cultural taboos that prevent gender balance from being reached in and by the media and how to overcome them.

● What is the need for guidelines and policies on how to prevent sexual harassment in media organizations and hate speech towards journalists.

The full text of the call for applicants and the application form attached below. Deadline May 21 2018.

uganda

By Sarah N. Bakehena & Eunice N. Kasirye

IAWRT’s Uganda Chapter is working on implementing strategies to improve media gender recogition and representation. 

It has held several workshops on gender mainstreaming for senior media managers and reporters from stations in Uganda.Their purpose was to create awareness and to empower media managers and journalists with an understanding of the value of gender mainstreaming, as well as to stimulate dialogue on incorporating gender issues into media output. They also aimed to to come up with an implementation strategy which will include developing a Gender Mainstreaming Guide for Media in Uganda.(Pic right: Irene b. Mugisha Treasurer IAWRT Uganda Chapter and  left is Ms. Sofie Matovu Programs Manager Uganda Broadcasting Corporation (UBC) Television).

Uganda, like many other African Countries, presents serious concerns in terms of gender imbalances and inequities in employment opportunities, female participation and the portrayal of women and girls.

The Beijing Platform for Action for Equality, Development and Peace places specific obligations on the media, both in the way women participate and in how they are portrayed. It has objectives that require signatory nations and their citizens to ‘increase the participation and access of women to expression and decision-making in and through the media and new technologies of communication’ and that demand that governments and other organisations, businesses and individuals ‘promote a balanced and non-stereotyped portrayal of women in the media’

During the workshops, the participants observed key issues affecting women in the media in Uganda.

  1. Lack of an ability to demand their space in the media industry from the newsrooms. The majority of female journalists are trapped in junior and subordinate positions in the newsroom because they lack what it takes to push to decision lines and even lack mentorship to gain excellence.
  2. Majority of female journalists are assigned or even opt for less challenging tasks for fear of going an extra mile to make them shine.
  3. Female journalists are often compromised by male bosses whom often turn them into people with less self esteem.
  4. News sources are also said to be abusive to female journalists.
  5. Some female journalists have done little to diversify their knowledge and skills, which makes it hard for them to be assigned to critical stories.
  6. Capacity building and development is not taken seriously by most female journalists and is often used as an opportunity to get off routine work or even for spoiling oneself.
  7. Some female Journalists tend to dress in a way that takes away their dignity.
  8. In Uganda, because the media is so demanding, some media owners prefer that a journalist should be at work on a daily basis. When female journalists become pregnant, it is a reason for them to be demoted or asked to leave for good. This is a breach of the labour laws.
  9. Female journalists in the regional areas still struggle with conservative societal perceptions about the role of women in society..
  10. Remuneration for female journalists is wanting. Even when they do the same job as their male counterparts their pay is little, inconsistent or paid partially or in arrears

Key Strategies for Gender Mainstreaming:

  As a strategy, IAWRT Uganda Chapter agreed to

   * Develop a Gender Media Guide 

   * Develop a Code of Ethics to protect women against discrimination in the media.

   * Profile all female journalists around the country

   * Undertake a mentorship program for all women in the Media in Uganda to empower them with key journalism skills.

   (Pic: Ms. Rose Namale Board Member IAWRT Uganda Chapter and Mr. Tyaba S. Abubaker Programs Manager NBS Television). 

sanga Mwalimu resize_edited-2

By IAWRT-Tanzania Chapter

The Report on Gender Equity and Social Justice in Public Media, compiled from monitoring by chapters of the International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT), has shown that women and girls are not engaged fully as sources of information or in decision making bodies at different levels compared to male counterparts. 

The Report on Gender Mainstreaming Monitoring in the Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC) further said that the gender inequality gap that exists between men and women denies women’s rights to enjoy different opportunities, including wages.

At the official launch of the report in Dar es Salaam, the guest of honour and Executive Director of the Tanzania Media Women’s Association (TAMWA), Edda Sanga (pictured with head of IAWRT Tanzania Rose Haji Mwalimu) called on the government to abide by the Beijing Platform Declaration on the advancement of women and the South African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Gender and Development, to ensure women are engaged at all levels of decision making bodies in order to bridge the existing gap and enhance the development of the country.

Sanga however, called on women themselves to be aggressive and united, to ensure that the gender equality agenda is pushed through by a common voice. Those who are already at top of the ladder should ensure they get down and uplift the status of others, especially those at grass roots level.

Rose Haji Mwalimu said women also need to be self-aware and value their contribution to the community. She said a failure to do so will reinforce the existing gender gap between men and women. Despite the burden women carry and the contribution women make in the community they have been denied their right to hold top positions at workplaces and do not access media information.

As a way forward, participants to the launch came up with a collaborative strategy to popularize the report nationally, internationally and in the local community. One strategy is to circulate the report widely to different stakeholders, to include the report in different workshops and seminars and to translate the report into Kiswahili for the community to understand the relevance of the contents to them.

Another strategy is to hold discussions in and around electronic media and to use social media platform as well as the existing websites of partner organizations like TAMWA and others to publize the report.

Such engagements will influence journalists to be more engaged with gender issues so they can mainstream gender into their daily undertakings and influence media owners and media decision makers to create interest in gender issues. (Pictured left Razia Mwawanga, IAWRT – Tanzania Treasuer Chapter and director of the programme, leads discussion).

The Tanzania workshop also included the screening of the ‘Reflecting Her’ an IAWRT produced documentary on reproductive health in a number of countries.

The workshop is part of IAWRT’s ongoing project on gender mainstreaming, which includes holding fact-based events aiming to inform media parctitioners, to reverse the lack of progress in making gender issues central to media output. Workshops continue at the local level and in global forums, principally through side events at the Commission on the Status of Women. 

launch

The Gender Equality And Social Justice In Public Media report has been  launched at the IAWRT Biennial Conference in New Deli. The eight country study of public radio and television, lead by Greta Gober & Diana Iulia Nastasia, measured representation of gender and other social justice measures such as age, ethnicity, and sexual diversity, across four continents and eight countries. ESP

The Full report is available, or listen to the researchers, Greta Gober and Dr Diana Nastasia explain how their monitoring project of public radio and television has found a very narrow spectrum of opinion which is predominantly male and middle class and not representative of the populations where they broadcast on Astute Radio .

Picture: IAWRT President Racael Nakitare at the report launch at the IAWRT Biennial New Delh