Body to promote gender-responsive media

ISLAMABAD, March 26: Civil society organisations and journalists have formed an alliance to collaborate and coordinate in promoting ‘gender-responsive media’.

It emerged from a roundtable discussion held at Uks Research Centre in collaboration with the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) on Monday.
“Our focus is not to point out anyone in particular and the issue is not only women but our households, our children and the society as a whole.” said Anis Haroon, the chairperson of NCSW, opening the discussion on the need of `gender-just media` in the wake of harrowing reports about violence against women.
She said she was heartbroken over the death of Fakhra who lost her life allegedly because of a person who was son of a renowned politician. “That person was not feeling ashamed of what he did. Fakhra underwent 38 operations and was shown by the electronic media all burnt. It is need of the hour to formulate a code of ethics for the media when it comes to showing such footages,” she said
The director of Uks Research Centre in her presentation said that with 15 years of experience in creating a gender-responsive media her organisation had been highlighting the fact that the media continued to reinforce sexual objectification, commoditisation, gender stereotyping, negative social practices and violence against women.
She added: “In most of the dramas, negative role of women is being shown. Electronic media should show more responsibility. Besides, advertisements are affecting the lifestyle of the community.”
Dr Salman Asif said there was a need for a national alliance to connect the dots. The meeting discussed the terms of reference and rationale of the alliance and its contours. Tahira Abdullah said in the race for ratings the media had left the reality and facts far behind and there was a need to define the issues clearly.
Dr Rakshinda Parveen said only five per cent staff in the media houses consisted of females and even they were facing so many problems, adding we should raise voice for them. Dawn