No media freedom without women’s voices

Date: January 1, 1970

Among the most ground breaking provisions of the draft SADC Gender Protocol are those relating to media freedom. Article 12 states that: “Member States shall recognise that gender equality is intrinsic to freedom of expression, that all males and females have the right to communicate their views, interests and needs, and that “giving voice to the voicelessÀ is critical to citizenship, participation, and responsive governance.À

Zambia Media Women Association (ZAMWA) President Margaret Chimanse notes that women in Africa have always been expressive people; yet they have effectively been silenced by the media.

The Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) study conducted in 2005 showed that women in Southern Africa constitute a mere 19 percent of news sources. Various studies have confirmed that women are portrayed in a limited range of roles, most often as home makers, sex objects or victims of violence. Men on the other hand are portrayed in a wide range of roles- in politics, business, sports and economics.

The SADC Gender Protocol will place a heavy responsibility on media regulators, public media, media policy makers, training institutions and media houses to ensure that women’s voices are equally expressed on all topics and that women are equally represented at all levels in the media industry.

“It’s important that women are given enough room to express themselves. Women understand issues of society more for their close ties with life generally. We see it in the way they care and love. This can also be translated to other things and here we tie in the issue of freedom of expression,” says Chimase.

“It is only when we allow women to be expressive that certain important issues will be heard by society,” she said. “Women have their own problems that society has ignored for a long time. With the help of women in the media, information and communication sectors, we can help bring these issues to the light and forge gender equality and therefore development for all,” she adds.

Chimanse said women in the media know the issues that have historically been absent from public debate. But despite the fact that there are more women working in the media and communication sectors today, they still face challenges because of their gender.

“There are very few women in decision-making positions in the media,” Chimanse said. “Women usually don’t get to decide what gets carried in the news; they are foot soldiers who run around collecting the news and leave it to their editors to decide what gets published. Editors newsrooms in most Southern African countries are [full of] men.”

Creating gender equality is sometimes perceived as simply giving more power to women. As such, the message has been confused and, in some cases, has not reached its intended target. There is a need to interpret what gender equality truly means, if for no other reason than to emphasise that discussions of gender are not just about women.

Gender equality is empowerment for both men and women with the goal of bringing development to all. This is a human rights issue, and therefore, the media must play an important role in raising this issue with the general public.

One reason why women are prioritised in gender discussions is because they have been historically disadvantaged. But this should not exclude men from participating in the fight for gender equality.

Women in the media, information and communication industry have played, and will continue to play, an important role in making gender equality an integral component of freedom of expression. These women have a platform for agenda setting.

Chimanse was quick to mention that men do not necessarily deliberately avoid airing women’s issues. “But it’s rather because certain issues do not appeal to both men and women in the same way. It is only when we have representation as women at [the] decision-making level that we can see gender equality as intrinsic to freedom of expression,” she said. “When we work as equal partners there is every room for development.”

Mwiika Malindima is Chair of GEMSA Zambia and head of the HIV and AIDS programme at the Zambia Institute of Mass Communication (ZAMCOM)

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