POOR TURNOUT AT GENDER ADVOCACY SYMPOSIUM
By Lindsay Dentlinger, Windhoek

July 22, 2003 – (The Namibian - Windhoek) MEDIA practitioners made a poor showing at a symposium called in the capital yesterday to draw up an action plan for gender advocacy.

The meeting was prompted by the findings of a Gender and Media Baseline study which indicates that only about a fifth of the voices heard in local media are those of women.

Addressing the meeting, Minister of Information and Broadcasting Nangolo Mbumba, called for a change in the editorial policy of media institutions which will allow for the equal representation of both men and women.

"The achievement of women should feature on the main pages and bulletins of news media and should not be hidden on women's pages or programmes or next to fashion news and recipes," he said.

The study conducted last year on the representation of gender in the editorial content of media in 12 southern African countries indicated that women's voices were grossly under-represented.

The analysis revealed that Namibia's media was largely "gender-blind" - meaning that the news is largely driven by events, and seldom by the issues raised.

Noting that the findings of the study are not endemic to the region, but also a global trend, the editor of The Namibian Gwen Lister said this situation was largely reflective of a society in which very few women hold positions which puts them at the forefront of news events.

She suggested that future research not only consider the news pages of publications, but also supplements and letter pages where women's voices are heard more frequently.

Lister was supported in her view by the editor of the Die Allgemeine Zeitung Eberhard Hoffman, who said the sources of news in the country are largely determined by the current hierarchy of power and the arenas of politics and business.

Colleen Lowe Morna, the Executive Director of Gender Links, which assisted in the research and is co-hosting the symposium, said a lot of the negative findings of the study can be attributed to poor journalism in the region.

She challenged the media to not only aim to "reflect society", but to challenge the gender-based stereotypes that exist and more consciously aim to include the views of the marginalised.

Today the symposium will conclude with the finalisation of a national plan which will outline various advocacy initiatives and activities which will aim to promote gender equality in journalistic practices.

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200307220374.html