The Executive Director Women, Media and Change (WOMEC), Dr Charity Binka, has urged media owners and managers to develop policies that address issues of gender inequalities.
She observed that because of the lack of policies, women continue to be objectified, stereotyped and reduced to sexual characters.
She was of the belief that without policies, it would be difficult to hold people responsible for what they do against women, especially at the media houses.
Dr Binka gave the advice at a media stakeholder’s forum, held in Accra on Thursday, March 16, 2023.
As part of the International Women’s Day celebrations, the Alliance for Women in Media Africa(AWMA) in collaboration with the Canadian High Commission organised a media stakeholder’s forum on the theme,”Equity for Women in Media, Who Cares?”
The Programme was held in two sessions, the Mentorship session and the main forum.
Read Also: Int. Women’s Day: AWMA calls for equal opportunities for women in media
Speaking at the Forum, Dr Charity Binka stated that the media in Ghana is gender insensitive, explaining that although the media houses try so hard to guard and protect its right to be free from government’s censorship and control, it has not been able to detect, analyse and address the gender biases that exists in the newsroom.
Dr Charity Binka underscored the need for sexual harassment policies to protect women in the media, questioning how many media houses have sexual harassment policies.
Although there were many policies in Ghana, she noticed that implementation always became a problem.
“The National Media Commission has a responsibility to make it mandatory for all media houses, whether private or public to have gender and sexual harassment policies at least even if they cannot push both at the time, they should push the sexual harassment policy. In fact the two of them must be pushed and they have the power to do so and I am appealing to them to do so. It is time to push the gender agenda,” she said.
Dr Charity Binka continued that,”Women Associations and the Ghana Journalists Association must also be seen playing leading roles in sensitizing media owners of the importance of mainstreaming gender in their operations. Media Houses have to make deliberate effort to support women in their journey as career women through a clearly defined path and development opportunities in relation to their biological functions because it is very important.”
She also called on women groups to intensify advocacy on gender issues.
“We need to have strong gender and media networks and associations that can push the change that we are looking for, through dialogues, discussions and research. We need to monitor the media to name and to shame and to have evidence. Evidence based advocacy is extremely important and gender activists must be part of this,” she adviced.
Touching on Equity, Dr Charity Binka underscored the need for women to be given equal opportunities as given to men in the media houses.
“Gender Equity is both a moral issue and also an economic issue and we need to look at it. We need to look at issues of under representation, issues about leadership roles and issues about the gender stereotyping that happens in the newsroom,” she said.
Ghana| Atinkaonline.com| Porcia Oforiwaa Ofori
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