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Integral measures to promote women in the media |
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In order to promote women’s representation in the media, in the field of journalism, as reporters, presenters and editors, work must be carried out to implement training activities, formulate laws and increase pressure from the civil society. These were some of the resolutions of the II Seminar on the responsibility of the media in the elimination of violence against women and girls.
 UN-INSTRAW participated in the seminar in which more than 200 persons
gathered from all Latin America, the Caribbean and Spain, from 11 to 13
November in México DF.
“It is said that violence against women is not news. The coverage of
this issue by the media is insufficient and twisted, taking into
account that this is the strongest problem concerning health and the
rights of half the world’s population,” stated Tove Silveira,
Communications Associate of UN-INSTRAW at the seminar.
The issues of media responsibility and the eradication of violence
against women are closely related. The media has a strong influence on
attitudes and behaviours. The inequality, a result of unbalanced power
relations between men and women, underlies the real cause of violence
and the stories that appear in the media, where the dominating
discourse is reproduced; it is a form of violence against women.
“It is important to deal with the issue of violence against women as
something much more comprehensive. A country’s policies should
recognize violence in its different representations restricting women’s
human rights,” highlighted Teresa Rodriguez Allende, Regional Director
of UNIFEM.
 This year we commemorate 30 years of the Convention on the Elimination
of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Next year 15 years will
have passed since media and communication professionals’ responsibility
to promote gender equality was set forth in section J of the Beijing
Platform for Action.
“We still have much to do in order to fulfill the commitments. Among
the actions to be taken are the regulations on the media and women’s
participation in media management,” Teresa Rodriguez Allende added.
Rocio Garcia Gaylan, President of the National Women’s Institute of
Mexico, highlighted that communications professionals are under much
pressure in their daily work. In the work carried out by media
communications organizations, the gender perspective is not included.
“Our new task is to continue putting pressure on these organizations to
include the gender perspective in their management. This will not only
benefit them but also the country. It means that we will have a world
with better quality and in harmony”.
There are good practices and examples of important initiatives from
Member States and the civil society in Latin America and the Caribbean
in fulfilling the CEDAW and Section J of the Beijing Platform for
Action. However, women’s organizations and international entities
highlight that little has been done to end with the institutionalized
gender inequality that is reproduced through the media, taking into
account the commitments made at worldwide level almost 15 years ago.
The States as well as the media have received criticism for the lack of
political will and for not giving enough importance to the issue of the
media inequity as it has been given to other issues.
 In preparation of the revision of the implementation of the Declaration
and the Beijing Platform for Action, the Regional Commissions of the
UN, among which are ECLAC (Economic Commission for Latin America and
the Caribbean), have prepared a questionnaire to obtain information
from governments on the most important actions and the remaining
challenges. Seventeen countries of Latin America and seven countries
from the Caribbean have filled out and submitted the questionnaire on
March 31st of this year. The results will be part of the 54th Session
of the Commission on the Situation of Women, March of next year.
Among the accomplishments and initiatives of Member States, it is worth
mentioning new laws, the installation of media observatories and
projects to make the new technologies available to rural women.
At the civil society level, one of the most important initiatives is
the creation of national, regional and international networks of
journalists with gender perspective or monitoring mechanisms. The
networks seek to link the society, the women’s movement, academia and
institutions and to reach the editorial newsrooms.
The seminar was organized by INMUJERES, the National Institute of Women
in Mexico with the support of the Citizens’ Council for Gender Equality
in the Media, the regional office of UNIFEM, the Spanish Embassy in
Mexico and the Spanish Cultural Centre.
Read UN-INSTRAW´s presentation (Spanish)
Read the presentation in Word format (Spanish)
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