New coalition declares it is time for action on gender equality in media

A new global alliance of organisations involved in the media, co-led by the ABU, has declared it is time for greater action on gender equality.

Delegates at the first meeting in Geneva of the International Steering Committee of the newly-formed Global Alliance on Media and Gender (GAMAG) said the time for talking about gender equality in the media had passed and 2015 should be the year for action.

An off-shoot of the UNESCO-organised 2014 Global Forum on Media and Gender, GAMAG is a global alliance of 500 professional broadcast media associations, civil societies and research groups working for empowering women through media.

ABU Secretary-General Dr Javad Mottaghi said that, as a vice-chair of GAMAG, the Union had helped to set the agenda for practical action to make the alliance a strong voice in achieving gender equality in and through the media.

“GAMAG’s unique strength is in bringing together researchers, advocacy groups and media organisations,” he said. “It will be able to translate the excellent research generated by some members into specific gender-fair policies and programming.”

The alliance is calling on UN member states to include strong provisions on gender, media and Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) in the post-2015 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

These include:

• Equal and effective participation for women and freedom from violence in all areas of media decision-making and practice.

• Equal access for women to media ICTs and their benefits.

• The right to safety and bodily integrity in the digitally-mediated public sphere.

• Fair and balanced gender portrayal and occupational representation of women in the media.

• Sensitive, fair and rights-based coverage of violence against women and girls.

• Mainstreaming of gender in media and ICT policy and training curricula.

• Gender, media and information literacy training, education and campaigns.