How Development Organizations can empower women in Pakistan

When the issue of women's political empowerment in Pakistan is brought, most of discussion tends to focus on women into positions in the upper echelons of government. However, this is no guarantee of women's empowerment. Nor is it a guarantee that women's and children's needs will be met by a female leader. This is why grassroots organization is a key in women's political empowerment in Pakistan.

According to the report Human Development in South Asia 2000: Gender and Governance, organization at the grassroots level allows individuals to play an important role in governing their communities.

For women, a successful grassroots experience presents the opportunity to form a coherent voice, to be heard and to make a difference in their communities. Across South Asia, including in Pakistan, women's experience in local government has varied, with some countries being more successful than others in gaining higher female participation.

Until recently, female representation in local governance in Pakistan was negligible. Here, politics is traditionally a male domain. All financial, economic, commercial and political negotiations conducted outside the home are by men. Women have very limited access to decision-making powers, and they have a severe lack of access to and control over financial resources.

This reduces women's chances of contesting elections, since men have control over assets and are relatively better educated, they have a dominant position in terms of political power and women remain surrogate actors in the political process.

Tokenism is also an issue at the local level of government. Because women councilors may not necessarily be educated, their lack of awareness leads to situations where they may become dependent on male councilors or political parties, focusing more on men's interests than women's concerns. In some cases, women are elected without actually participating in the actual functioning of local bodies.

For example, in Baluchistan, Pakistan, while the proportion of women councilors was as high as 16 percent before the 1998 local election, many of the women were council members only on paper.

But local government is not the only grassroots level milieu where women can be empowered. As NGOs play a greater role in Pakistan's human development, another structure has emerged which has the potential to empower women locally: development organizations:

Development Organizations (DO) are community-based organizations, which are responsible for administering and running a specific project, often with the help of an NGO. One organization which has used this model effectively is the Human Development Foundation, which has development projects in every province of Pakistan. Its DO's work in conjunction with HDF staff. In their case, the salient features of the DO's include participation from both men and women, where male and female DO's have been formed.

There is a set of bylaws that the participants are given that they to agree to become a part of the DO. In most cases, since many people in the project area cannot read, the bylaws are read to them and translated in their native language. Individuals must sign or put their thumbprint to become part of a DO. These members then elect a president and secretary.

The president and secretary are asked to attend a Community Management Skills Training CMST) workshop. The secretary needs reading and writing skills whenever possible. Out of these DOs, members for health committees and parent teacher association are chosen (health and education are two of the foci of HDF's work. Economic development is the third).

From this point, the DO's not only administer and maintain HDF's micro-credit program which provides accessible and interest-free loans to poor, rural communities. They also encourage savings by the members. These savings are later used for internal lending.

Another side benefit of these organizations is that people learn to sit together and discuss their other problems and issues. This also generates a feeling of empowerment and self-help.

While the DO's do not necessarily work with local government bodies, they are, however, a powerful way of empowering both men and women at the grassroots level who have traditionally been disenfranchised. In particular, since women are allowed participation in these organizations, many of the problems they face in gaining power through local government bodies (i.e. lack of assets and education) are not reflected in the DO system.

The DO model can be replicated at the local level to encourage the empowerment of Pakistani women. However, they are not the only solution to the problem. Unless existing mechanisms and attitudes that deny women chances in decision-making are not changed, female participation and empowerment in decision-making will remain a dream in Pakistan.

SOURCE:www.yespakistan.com

Threats Come at Journalists in Pakistan From All Sides

Despite gains in press freedom, news organizations and reporters engage in self-censorship as a strategy to protect themselves and their business. When I think about courage in the context of my country, Pakistan, I am reminded of the Cowardly Lion who went looking for the Wizard of Oz so he could get courage and then realized he actually already had it. It strikes me that reporting honestly and fairly — what the best of journalism should be about — requires courage whenever the surrounding climate is geared towards suppressing the truth, as it is in Pakistan and so many other places today. Despite press freedom in the United States, for example, many journalists still find it hard to question authority, investigate corruption, or follow up on unpalatable truths. Some who report on government and politics in Washington, D.C. have told me about the self-imposed restraints that creep into their work. Other conversations reveal that many U.S. journalists are so afraid of being labeled "partisan" in their coverage that they do what they can to accommodate "the other side." Those who ask questions that are unpalatable to the administration find themselves being edged out of the circle of those privy to inside information or not called on during press conferences. Recently John Green, executive producer of the weekend edition of ABC's "Good Morning America," was suspended after e-mail messages he wrote that were critical of President Bush and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright were leaked. The more I learn about journalism in the United States, the more I believe that things aren't all that different with journalism in Pakistan. Even today, when the press situation is freer than it's ever been, what is happening in Washington is familiar to journalists in Pakistan who dare to cross swords with the establishment. There are, of course, more constitutional protections and legal safeguards in the United States; much reporting about government abuses (Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib) is done without reprisal, even at a time of heightened concern about prosecutorial attempts to force journalists to reveal sources. Still, even in this reporting, few reporters have probed beyond the obvious transgressions of human rights: The focus remains on the whistleblowers rather than on those who are violating human rights. In Pakistan, despite recent improvements in press freedom, dangers remain for those whose reporting takes them against the official version of the truth. There are numerous examples of what happens to these transgressors, well documented by watchdog bodies such as the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch. Among the tactics of intimidation used are phone taps, surveillance, threatening or interrogating phone calls, or visits from intelligence agency personnel. Since the "war on terror" was declared, in which Pakistan is a key U.S. ally, Pakistan's intelligence agencies have developed close links to their American counterparts, and this war is used as a handy excuse to intimidate the political opposition, as well as journalists who question official policy. In Pakistan, despite recent improvements in press freedom, dangers remain for those whose reporting takes them against the official version of the truth.The cozy relationship between Pakistani and U.S. intelligence agencies means that "terror suspects" can be handed over to American authorities in Pakistan, though this practice is denied by both sides. Journalists fear that this is what happened to Hayatullah Khan, who was kidnapped by "unidentified gunmen" last December. Khan, who worked for the Urdu-language daily, Ausaf, and the European Pressphoto Agency in Pakistan's tribal areas, is still missing. Colleagues believe his disappearance is linked to a report he filed that contradicted official accounts claiming that a senior al-Qaeda commander, Abu Hamza Rabia, died after munitions exploded inside a house. According to a CPJ report, "Khan quoted local tribesmen as saying the house was hit by an air-launched missile. He photographed fragments of the missile for the European Pressphoto Agency." Using his photos, foreign journalists identified it as a Hellfire missile fired from a U.S. drone. CPJ went on to note that Khan received "numerous threats from Pakistani security forces, Taliban members, and local tribesmen because of his reporting." Intimidation and danger now also come to journalists from militant organizations that have gained in strength during the past few decades. Drawing strength from ethnic or religious polarization, members of these organizations have attacked reporters and editors, as well as buildings where journalists work. They've also gone after those who sell newspapers on the street. Arson and guns are among their weapons of intimidation. When journalists offer support to colleagues in trouble, danger transfers itself to them in the form of threats, intimidation and harassment. In 1999, journalists were involved in a campaign calling for the release of Najam Sethi, editor of the weekly The Friday Times, whom the government's intelligence agencies had picked up after he gave a speech in "enemy territory" (New Delhi, India), in which he was allegedly critical of Pakistan. A climate of menace descended on some of these journalists; a note delivered to the home of Ejaz Haider, a colleague at The Friday Times, warned him to install bulletproof windows in his car. Journalists Imtiaz Alam and Amir Mir, who had been writing about the intelligence agencies' transgressions and also had been involved in the effort to free Sethi, had their cars set on fire outside their homes. Other colleagues have faced consequences for what they've reported or for working with foreign journalists probing issues the government preferred to suppress. There are numerous examples, including several prominent journalists who had to flee the country after their interrogations by the intelligence agencies. Soon after freelance journalist Ghulam Hasnain "disappeared" for 48 hours in January 2002, he left the country with his family and for months he could not talk about his treatment at the hands of Pakistan's intelligence agencies. Khawar Mehdi Rizvi, now in political asylum in the United States, knows, too, about the tactics of the intelligence agencies: He was a "fixer" who worked with the French journalists whom the Pakistani authorities arrested in December 2003 for being in an area they were not "authorized" to be in. He was held without any charges for more than a month and then charged with sedition for working against the "national interest." When journalists see what happens to reporters like Khan and others, it deters some from probing further into situations that should be more deeply investigated.There are some journalists in Pakistan (and throughout the world) who criticize these reporters as being "foolhardy." They argue, perhaps rightly, that they should have obtained "versions" from the other side and presented them alongside the information they did report. Journalists in Pakistan often find it difficult to obtain such "versions," given the secrecy culture of those who are in power. And given "the other side's" power, if an attempt is made to obtain such information there is a good chance the story will not run either because pressure will be put on the editors not to do so or because the editors themselves might exercise caution through self-censorship. When journalists see what happens to reporters like Khan and others, it deters some from probing further into situations that should be more deeply investigated. Imtiaz Alam, who started the South Asian Free Media Association in July 2000, observes that the Pakistani news media, while quite vibrant and critical, is "being gradually entrapped in an elaborate system of self-censorship," as corporate interests increasingly set the nature of content and the direction of editorial policy. Given the climate in which they work, journalists are cautious in how they report on the army, the intelligence agencies, corruption and religious extremists. Journalists who exercise their political right as citizens to peaceful protest also need courage, given the tendency of police to use tear gas and batons. Recently in Islamabad the police attacked and arrested journalists demonstrating to demand changes in the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), a law that gives sweeping powers to law enforcement agencies and to PEMRA. For a woman in Pakistan, holding a job as a journalist comes with all of the challenges that women reporters everywhere face — trying to balance responsibilities of the home with those of the newsroom while proving themselves on the job in ways male colleagues do not seem to need to do. This can push one into being sterner than one might like. It needs additional courage to do all of this in the traditionally male-dominated atmosphere that exists most noticeably in local language publications. There the newsroom environment is often hostile to the presence of women; Urdu newspapers, for example, persist in using bylines such as "By Our Lady Reporter" despite protests by journalists' organizations. Women in the local language media are also often underpaid, have little or no job security, and no health coverage. For those of us who work in the English language press the situation is relatively better, given the more progressive atmosphere there. However, with the rise of private television stations and newspapers, the number of women journalists is increasing, even in more conservative small towns throughout the country.

source:http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/

Freshta Shikhany – One of Pakistan's Pioneering Women Journalists

Freshta Shikhany, aka “DJ Malaika,” is a study in determination.
She fled Kabul in 1992 at age 9 when “rockets were flying all over the city” and sought refuge in the border town of Peshawar in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province.
Freshta got her early education in refugee schools and later joined an unregistered Afghan university to study journalism. A year into the course, Pakistani authorities closed down the school. Undaunted, Freshta and a few other students continued to study with volunteer teachers from the defunct university. Their classes, started in the backyard of a refugee organization, soon grew into a university when more refugee students joined. But two years later, this too closed down.
Freshta had family support, but no Pakistani institution would accept her as a student and allow her to finish her degree. Then she learned about the journalism training program run by Internews at the University of Peshawar. She was admitted as a special case due to her refugee status. Freshta went on to complete the radio journalism course offered by Internews.
Now, Freshta reports for the Internews-supported program, Da Pulay Poray (whose Urdu name means “On the Borderline”). The weekly program, produced by a team of Pakistani and Afghan radio journalists, covers issues affecting populations along the Pak-Afghan border and airs on 15 radio stations in the cross-border region. Freshta also has her own Dari language show on Buraq 104 – Peshawar’s first independent FM station.
“The program is about issues pertinent

to the large Afghan refugee population settled here,” she says. “With radio, I can give my community a voice.” Freshta believes radio gives her anonymity, yet empowers her to take up issues of relevance to some 3.2 million Afgto the large Afghan refugee population settled here,” she says. “With radio, I can give my community a voice.” Freshta believes radio gives her anonymity, yet empowers her to take up issues of relevance to some 3.2 million Afghan refugees still living in Pakistan. han refugees still living in Pakistan.

source:www.internews.org

PAKISTAN: Female Journalist Makes History in Male-Dominated Media

The election of a woman as general secretary of the Khyber Union of Journalists (KhUJ) — the first ever in the male-dominated Pakhtun society— may well encourage more women to enter journalism.
On Jan. 30, Aneela Shaheen was elected as the first female general secretary of the 320-member journalists’ organisation based in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) capital of Peshawar. “Challenges before me are huge. We will struggle to do away with contractual jobs in media industry and arrangement on a war footing for protection of media workers due to the deteriorating law and order situation,” she told AMF in an exclusive interview. In 2009, Shaheen won against a male colleague for the joint secretary slot of the Peshawar Press Club. The 29-year-old journalist, who has a master’s degree in health and physical education from NWFP's Gomal University Dera Ismail Khan, began her career as a magazine reporter of the morning edition of 'Urdu Daily Subh'. She later reported for Dunya (World) TV. In a telephone interview with AMF, Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFYJ) general secretary Shamsul Islam Naz congratulated Shaheen for making a difference in the history of journalism in an area where women leaders are generally frowned upon. "I pay my compliments to the members of the KhUJ who, in fact, created history by electing a female as general secretary, Aneela Shaheen, in a one-to-one contest with a man," he said. There are only 37 female journalists in the 10,000 members of the Pakistan journalists’ union. "We had Fareeda Hafiz as general secretary of the Rawalpindi Union of Journalists in the late '80s and recently, Fauzia Shahida, who was elected vice president and then general of the PFUJ in 2007 and 2008, respectively," he added. Of Pakistan’s four provinces, the NWFP, whose population is mainly Pakhtun, is considered among the most conservative where women are seen as second-class citizens. According to Naz, most female journalists work in the ‘Dawn’ media group in Pakistan's financial capital Karachi.
Sadia Qasim Shah of 'Dawn' newspaper said that with Aneela’s election, female journalists now have symbolic representation in the Khyber journalists’ union. “Our number is far lesser than male journalists, but Aneela’s election will create gender balance. Our problem will get to the limelight,” she said. According to Shah, she does not see fundamentalist militants like the Taliban, as a threat to women journalists because no female reporter has ever been targeted. At the same time, she added that Shaheen's election might be a small step but can bring about big changes in finding solutions to problems faced by women journalists. “It is extremely encouraging and will lead to empowerment of women journalists in this part of the country,” Shahida Parveen, a reporter of 'Express' newspaper, said. Her election is a welcome sign because it has set in motion the opportunity for women to get into the mainstream of journalistic politics, she added. “The unflinching support I have been receiving is a manifestation of immense trust from colleagues, which gives me strength to fight for their rights,” said Shaheen. Among her priorities include working for the provision of life insurance to journalists, creating job security and ensuring their protection in the workplace, as well as creating a conducive working environment for them. She also wants to see the establishment of a fund for journalists killed while covering conflict areas, and increase capacity-building activities.
“My plans are to organise training courses for local journalists to raise their capacity. We plan to invite senior journalists to Peshawar to impart much-needed training to them,” she says. In addition, she wants to see permanent and long-term planning for “the capacity enhancement of journalists and introduction of short courses at university levels for media workers". “I will try to bring to journalism as many women as possible. Today, we have six females of the total 320 members, which is extremely few,” Shaheen says. She adds that females are often reluctant to take up this profession due to the attitude of the male colleagues. "But with my election, it has become evident that people are now accepting females as journalists." “I am fully confident that my catapulting to the electoral post would encourage other women to come forward and join the profession of journalism and lead the media persons in the journalist unions throughout the country,” she said. According to Shaheen, 10 journalists have been killed in NWFP and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) near Pakistan's border with Afghanistan in the so-called U.S.-led 'war on terror' campaign. The Taliban, in the wake of the Sep. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, crossed over to Pakistan from Afghanistan after their government was topped by U.S.-led coalition forces. They took refuge along the 2,400-kilometre porous Pakistan-Afghanistan border in FATA. “The causes of the journalists' deaths are yet to be investigated. There is a deep sense of insecurity among journalists,” Shaheen explains. Syed Bukhar Shah, president-elect of the KhUJ, said Shaheen’s election is an encouraging sign given the participation of women in politics. Woman political leader Begum Nasim Wali Khan was elected to the National Assembly on general seat in 1977.
Added Naz: “Well done Khyber Union of Journalists for taking a lead in encouraging women and proving that women have equal chances in all fields.”

source: http://www.theasiamediaforum.org/

What challenges face female journalists in your region?

As we mark International Women's Day 2010, women throughout the world are leveraging their power as leaders in journalism, and paving the way for a future where girls feel empowered to join the profession.
But challenges still exist, including balancing community and family life with the demands of a time-consuming profession, and navigating the touchy landscape of gender stereotypes that exists in many societies.
What's more, many feel that issues surrounding women and girls remain underreported. In a March 5 statement, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) called on media owners "to take steps to raise women's profile in the news, both as professionals and as news topics."
What challenges do you or other female journalists in your region face? What successes have you seen for women?
source:www.ijnet.org

LEGAL AND POLITICAL EDUCATION THROUGH

Internews is working with Geo TV to produce a prime-time television series focusing on human rights, rule of law and legal education.

Internews is helping produce a 15-part television series in association with Geo TV, Pakistan’s biggest and most popular private TV channel. Geo TV is the country’s most daring station, willing to take editorial risks and to ask questions never before posed on Pakistani television.

The Urdu-language program is the first of its kind in Pakistan, with its focus on rule of law and human rights issues. The project is a joint endeavor of Internews and Geo TV, with shared responsibilities and costs.


The program series:
highlights stories that affect the lives of people in Pakistan, rather than official press releases
stresses facts, understanding, and analysis over propaganda
functions as a vehicle to train TV reporters in impartial, balanced journalism
produces stories on a regular basis about legal and human rights at present rarely covered on Pakistani TV


While TV channels in Pakistan like Geo have been engaged in interesting and refreshing studio-based debates, no station has been producing in-depth stories about people in their own communities because they lack the technical expertise and the experience to shoot longer-format television stories.
Internews has trained Geo TV staff to produce a program for which cameramen shoot proper sequences and reporters write to pictures and use character development as part of their stories.
The project has trained professional staff at Geo TV in the principles of impartial journalism and the techniques of magazine format production.





Training Focus


The training consisted of the following:


Practical sessions where journalists, camera people and tape editors produced news stories with guidance from international trainers
Field production, narrative film technique, journalistic ethics, investigative and research techniques, interviewing, and studio production skills


Internews held two formal training sessions at its Islamabad office for Geo using outside production and journalism specialists, and will mentor and monitor the program throughout the project.
The program is 30 minutes in length and has a TV news magazine format, including a mix of field reporting, documentary, interviews, studio discussions, and commentary.


Internews contribution:


Training for Geo TV staff via intensive production and journalism seminars and ongoing consultation
Production consultants advise on program design, program content, journalistic technique, and video production technique
Funding to cover salaries of some key staff
Funding for field production, travel, and communications


Geo TV contribution:


Airtime
Production and administration staff
TV production equipment
Studio space and equipment
Administrative support and resources

Top

Evaluation Plan, Outputs and Outcomes


Using the data and analysis from this project, the following anticipated outputs and outcomes will be measured:


Output:


A total of 15 editions of a 30-minute prime-time program focusing on human rights and rule of law televised on Pakistan’s most popular television channel.


Anticipated Outcomes:


Improved skills of Pakistani TV journalists and producers in field reporting and in-depth TV journalism
More open discussion and awareness of formerly taboo subjects
Improved public understanding of rule of law and human rights issues
Improved capacity of TV to focus on rights and rule of law issues

Background
Internews is implementing a $1.3m media development program funded by DRL and spread over October 2005-March-2007 (18 months) across Pakistan to train journalists to cover critical human rights, rule of law, and election issues facing the country through practical training, support for innovative TV and radio programming, and a legal resource center to provide expert advice and small grants.
The project will also expand the capacity of independent media in Pakistan through expert advice and advocacy in media law and regulation, and monitoring of freedom of expression issues by Internews and its local broadcast and university partners. Proposed activities will accomplish the following:
Help Pakistan 's most courageous broadcaster – Geo TV – to create Pakistan 's first-ever TV program focused on rule of law, human rights, and legal education;
Train journalists in legal and political reporting to improve journalistic coverage and public knowledge on political and legal issues, with a focus on coverage of elections, courts, and the legislative process;
Train journalists at nongovernmental radio stations in human rights, rule of law issues, investigative journalism, and supporting local programming on those topics;
Support the women's production studio and program, Meri Awaz Suno (Hear My Voice), to produce radio programming on socio-economic and women's issues;
Train journalists and journalism students from Tribal Areas to produce radio news programs, together with Peshawar University;
Create a resource center that supports rule of law reporting with expertise and small grants, and serves as a monitor and source of expertise on media rights and media development.
The project supports the following DRL goals in Pakistan :
1) Build capacity of independent media through a focus on investigative journalism;
2) Promote rule of law through support for human rights and legal aid activities and clinics with civil society organizations, including media, political parties, and rights organizations; and
3) Strengthen freedom of expression by monitoring media freedoms and their violations.

source:http://www.internews.org.pk/

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Women in the media

AT the South Asian Women in Media’s (SAWM) first regional conference in Lahore (Oct 10-11) the keynote speaker Nandita Das spoke of her many-layered identities – both given and acquired – and how she had to negotiate between these.

The activist-actress-filmmaker-writer advised her audience to avoid stereotypical gender portrayals that associate particular roles or social attributes with people on the basis of gender.

Correct. In keeping with this line of thinking, a ‘woman journalist’ should think of herself first and foremost as a journalist without linking the two identities. This appeared to be a contradiction in terms at the conference where the participants were trying to balance their two hats – of being women (the given identity that cannot be changed) and of being journalists (the acquired identity that they retained as a matter of choice). With the focus on gender sensitisation, equal pay, professional training for women journalists and so on, the emphasis seemed to be heavily on the gender dimension.

I have never felt happy with this approach as I tend to agree with Nandita Das that women should not allow themselves to be pushed out of the mainstream and be segregated in a narrow area assigned to them by society. If women hold up half the sky, as the Chinese say, should not their share of the burden be equal so that they are not relegated to a subordinate role?

Rehana Hakim, the editor of Newsline and the retiring president of SAWM, displayed the sagacity that women are required to demonstrate when negotiating their way between paradoxical positions. She made it clear that SAWM was not created to win special privileges for women journalists but to facilitate the mainstreaming of women in the media by providing them with enhanced training and skills.

It is important to understand that one cannot demand equality on the one hand and insist on a special status on the other. You cannot demand induction into decision-making positions on the one hand and expect to be mollycoddled at the same time. The need is to mobilise women and provide them with equal opportunities for intensive training, thus empowering them with professional skills so that they can stand in the mainstream.

We must understand the pitfalls of an approach that seeks to make gender the touchstone in judging the role, performance, responsibility and privileges of journalists. The truth of this assertion struck me even more two days later when Uks, a research, resource and publication centre on women and media, held its national conference on ‘More women in news and views: how to make it happen’. Once again the status of women journalists came under scrutiny.

With Tasneem Ahmar at the helm, Uks has conducted useful research on content analysis of the mainstream media since 1997. According to Ahmar, over the years she has discerned an improvement in the style of coverage of women’s issues. Yet the quantum of coverage is not enough. To rectify this, Uks suggests the increased participation of women in the media and the gender sensitisation of all journalists, both men and women, vis-à-vis women-related issues.

Uks has been holding workshops to train media persons, and investigating the working conditions of women in newspaper offices and the electronic media. Although inclusive in its approach – Uks got some male media practitioners to participate in its Karachi conference – it has not made enough of an impact.

Uks realises that the need is to expose all media persons to gender-sensitisation, training, awareness-raising and so on. But its approach to content analysis needs to be looked into. How to write a story in which women figure and how to include them in opinion-gathering on any issue is something Uks has rightly focused on. But how does one determine the issues that are relevant to women? For instance doesn’t the transport system or the schools have a bearing on the lives of women?

It is important for the forums that provide a platform for women in media not to lose sight of the ultimate goal of mainstreaming women. This is the only way media women can go beyond a token role and make their impact felt. Hence Safma’s secretary general, Imtiaz Alam, did not offer the perfect solution when he described the basic objective of SAWM as the provision of a gender-exclusive platform for women in media across South Asia for discussion and resolution of their professional problems. He promised not to interfere with its working.

Admitting that Safma which had provided representation to women in media was preponderantly male in composition and ‘male-dominated’, Mr Alam said that SAWM was created as a separate organisation on this count. Would it not have been better if an effort had been made to work for improvement of women journalists’ working conditions from Safma’s platform?

The draft of the Memorandum of Association of SAWM circulated before the conference contained as one of its goals, ‘Plan and work for the mainstreaming of women working in the media’. But the draft read out by Sharmini Boyle of Sri Lanka, who was later elected the president, dropped this objective. One hopes that this omission was an oversight that will be corrected when the memorandum is finalised.

With the number of women in the media growing and so many of them in key positions they should refuse to be segregated. When my generation entered the profession, there were too few of us to even think of forming associations and gender-based professional bodies. We would link up with women’s organisations when the need was felt. Otherwise we negotiated (to use Nandita’s term) our way around the shoals without surrendering the mainstream.

With the impressive numbers around, there is no reason why they should not do the same. Their strength lies in focusing on better training and professional commitment opportunities which are more accessible today than before. Most of them are already committed to their work, the other element in the making of success.

source: www.dawn.com

Pakistan Media Project Aims to Change Attitudes about Women

An innovative initiative has worked for the past five years help the media in Pakistan examine the way women are portrayed and develop more balanced and positive approaches reports the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The project has trained 400 media professionals, helping them develop ways to present women in Pakistan in a new light in programmes aired by the Pakistan Television Corporation and ensure that all the corporation's productions are sensitive to the issue of gender and avoid reinforcing biases against women.

The media in Pakistan often portray both women and men in ways that reinforce prejudices, researchers have found. Women are frequently presented as weak, dependent and uninformed, while men are usually portrayed as aggressive, manipulative and insensitive.

The project has established a system to monitor how women are portrayed on television. It commissions TV productions on gender issues, has helped integrated gender issues into television training curricula and has brought together media professionals to examine and address issues concerning gender and media. The initiative is also helping organize regional and international film festivals dealing with gender themes.

"Ingrained attitudes towards women can only be changed by a persistent nationwide effort," said Onder Yucer, UNDP Resident Representative. "The mass media, especially television, is the ideal arena for this because of its obvious influence on people's prejudices and social behavior."

A workshop in Lahore earlier this month on gender and creativity for drama production brought together 25 television producers and writers from all over the country.

With support from the British Council and the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development, UNDP invited acclaimed screenwriter Haseena Moin to work with participants to prepare a script for a television drama dealing with gender-based violence and victimization of women. Pakistan Television will produce the drama for broadcast.

The project has already led to number of gender-sensitive productions telecast by Pakistan Television. Among them are a daily one-hour special broadcast, Khawateen (Ladies) Time; a long play, Dasht-e-Tanhai Mein (In the deserts of loneliness) telecast on International Women's Day in March; and drama serials entitled Dopatta and Ana.
source:portal.unesco.org

Women in Pakistan media face discrimination

As women in Pakistan's mushrooming electronic media break new barriers, surfacing reports of sexual harassment and unfair pay and profiles is becoming a matter of grave concern. At a recent conference in Lahore, speakers focused on designing measures to combat the situation.

Most members of the Pakistan Association of Television Journalists (ATJ) are under 35 years old, according to Faysal Aziz Khan, 33, the Karachi-based secretary general of the association and reporter for Geo TV.

New challenges for women in media/ Photo credit: Beena Sarwar/IPS ATJ only has some 50 females among its 700 or so members around the country, but nearly half of them are concentrated in the business capital of Karachi. Women are highly visible in the Pakistani media as anchors and talk show hosts on dozens of private radio and television channels in various regional languages, besides English and Urdu.

Women are paid less than their male colleagues for equal work and have to fight harder for the political or other high profile assignmentsMost identify sexual harassment as their biggest concern, according to Zebunnisa Burki, who has been coordinating South Asian Women in Media (SAWM) since the organisation was launched in April this year. National conferences have recently been held in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nepal.

Harassment and prejudices

"Practically every journalist who is here has a tale to tell," she told IPS at the SAWM- Pakistan conference in Lahore, on Oct. 10-11. "I think our complaints cell will be the most active part of our association."

"Oh dear," responded Khan when IPS asked him to comment. He said he would put it on the agenda of the next ATJ council meeting. There are two women on the 17-member council, including one who was at the Lahore conference.

The second biggest issue that the 50 or so delegates identified at the conference was gender discrimination: they said that women are paid less than their male colleagues for equal work and have to fight harder for the political or other high profile assignments.

"These challenges are quite different from the ones we dealt with when we entered the profession in the 1980s," veteran reporter Mariana Baabar of the daily The News told IPS. "These young women are amazingly confident and bold in taking on these issues. We had to fight our way up also, but most of our male colleagues actively supported and helped us."

"We never even considered that we might be getting paid less than men for the same work," she added. "Nor did we did face any kind of sexual harassment. But maybe the younger generation is more conscious of their rights than we were."

The relatively newer issue of sexual harassment is linked with the age-old problem of gender discrimination, commented Rubina Jamil who heads the 22-year old Punjab-based Working Women’s Organisation (WWO).

Raising voices

WWO is among the civil society organisations which got together a few years ago to form Aasha, the Alliance Against Sexual Harassment (www.aasha.org.pk) in collaboration with the International Labor Organisation (ILO) and Pakistan’s Ministry of Women Development.

"I am so glad they are doing this," a radio journalist in her early twenties told IPS. "I’ve been working since I was 17, and I am sick of producers offering to help me if I go out with them. I want my work to be taken on merit."

Aasha developed a code of conduct for the workplace and a procedure to deal with harassment and discrimination. Geo TV, the largest private television network in Pakistan is among the few media organisations Aasha lists as a ‘progressive employer’.

"It’s not necessary for every case to be a federal issue," commented a television producer who worked with Geo when Aasha started. "Often the tension arises because of the widespread gender segregation in our society - many of these youngsters don’t know how to interact with each other. This leads to misunderstandings that the code helps to clear up."

Another reason for growing sexual harassment may be that, with education, more people are crossing class barriers.

"Women coming into journalism earlier were relatively well-connected and self-confident. Many now come from lower-middle class backgrounds and have less confidence. Men find it easier to take advantage of or intimidate them," observed a senior journalist.

"Women must be trained to refuse unwanted advances clearly rather than trying to be nice about it and making excuses that can be taken at face value."

Aasha recommends that the person feeling harassed should keep notes about the time, date, place, and nature of the harassment.

"This helps establish a pattern and also provides the management with something to work with," said the former Geo producer. "When we had a case of unwanted SMS messages and e-mails going to one young woman, she followed these steps. We were able to resolve the matter internally without embarrassing the people involved or making it public."

''Let me tell you, the challenges that women face here are not that far off from media anywhere in the world," said Saima Mohsin, a senior anchor at the English language Dawn News channel who came to Pakistan a year and a half ago from London, where she has worked with Sky TV, ITV and BBC.

"It has taken years for women in the West to achieve what women in Pakistan have managed in a short time," she added. "Women are making a mark in the media industry here that has catapulted them into visibility everywhere. But are women taken seriously? Not without a fight."

But issues of representation, harassment and discrimination pale into irrelevance for women journalists working in conflict areas, like Farzana Ali of Aaj TV in Peshawar in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) bordering Afghanistan.

"We have picked up the flesh of our own people with our own hands after a bomb blast," Ali, the petite mother of an eight-year old boy, told conference participants in a chilling reminder of the unprecedented challenges that journalists - male and female - face in an era of unmitigated violence.

source:southasia.oneworld.net