The United Nations Women has launched an innovative partnership with 35 leading media houses to galvanise attention and concrete action toward women’s rights and gender equality.
The compact was signed at the ongoing 60th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, holding at the UN Headquarters in New York.
The leading media houses involved in the partnership are AllAfrica, AMARC (World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters), Al Wasat (Bahrain), Cambodia Centre for Independent Media, Care2, Citizen News Service (India), Dawn (Pakistan), Devex, El Telégrafo, (Ecuador), Eurovision Regional News Exchange for South East Europe – ERNO, France 24 and Good Housekeeping.
Others are Guatevision (Guatemala), Gulf Daily News (Bahrain), Instituto Patrícia Galvão (Brazil), Inter Press Service, Marie Claire, Monte Carlo Doualiya (MCD), Naewna Group (Thailand), Nómada.gt (Guatemala), Philanthropy Age, Pravda, Reportaje De (Guatemala), among others.
The initiative entitled:”Step it Up for Gender Equality Media Compact”, brings together a broad coalition of media outlets from every region who work in print, broadcast and online news media to ensure wide reach and robust efforts towards women’s rights and gender equality.
The compact, will function as an alliance of media organisations who are committed to playing an active role in advancing gender issues within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Speaking at the launch, UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, said the compact was launched in recognition of the influential role media can play in driving women’s empowerment and gender equality.
Mlambo-Ngcuka, said by signing up to the Media Compact, the outlets are committing to a range of concrete change actions: championing women’s rights and gender equality issues through editorial articles and ensuring inclusion of women as sources in stories produced.
The compact, she added, is also aiming for gender parity; adopting a gender-sensitive Code of Conduct on Reporting; ensuring women journalists are provided mentors and guidance for career advancement, and many others.
She said the outlets will implement the compact by scaling-up the focus on women’s rights and gender equality issues through high-quality coverage, complemented by gender-sensitive corporate practices.
“Media have great influence over how we perceive and understand the world around us.
“That influence has many dimensions.
“Even when reporting is entirely factually accurate, if it is reported predominantly by men, about men, it is actually misrepresenting the real state of the world.
“At UN Women, we want to address this through partnership to change the media landscape and make media work for gender equality,” she said.
Mlambo-Ngcuka said the level of support and leadership from media houses and newsrooms alike is what is needed to ensure that we can achieve gender equality and women’s rights by 2030,
