UNESCO to Conduct Comprehensive Assessment of Women’s Representation in Media
AKP Phnom Penh, October 6, 2022 --

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) will conduct a comprehensive assessment of women’s representation in Cambodia’s news media to fill the existing gap in data and research related to the matter.

According to its press release issued yesterday, UNESCO has initiated a research project that will analyse and better understand the way journalists report on women, and how women are represented and portrayed in the news that Cambodians read, watch and listen to.

The report and findings resulting of this research will be the first of its kind in the country, which will offer much needed benchmarks on how women are portrayed in media in the country, and provide evidence-based recommendations to media houses, journalists, the authorities as well as to development partners to effectively support the voices of women through the media, as means to advance gender equality and enable the participation of women in public debates.

When it comes to the media discourse, women in the media are misrepresented based on traditional gender-roles and stereotypes. According to a recent report by the Cambodian Media Centre for Independent Media, “the biggest challenges in producing gender-aware stories lie in avoiding bias and stereotypes of women and in identifying strong story ideas and angles (…) emphasising the difficulty for media reporters in ‘using gender-inclusive and gender-sensitive language in news stories.’ Addressing these issues is an imperative to improve women’s representation in the news media.

To conduct this study, UNESCO has engaged Angkor Research to monitor news published and broadcasted by national media outlets, including print, online, radio and television. The research will apply UNESCO’s Gender-sensitive Indicators for Media, which is a tool developed to facilitate gender equality and women empowerment in and through the media. The indicators look at different aspects of women’s presence in the media, including their portrayal in stories about gender-based violence, their inclusion as expert voices or the patriarchal stereotypes that the media tends to perpetuate.

Recognising media as a powerful agent of change through its holistic media development interventions, UNESCO and Sweden are committed towards gender equality and women’s empowerment by unleashing the transformative potential of media. In Cambodia and through its current project ‘Strengthening Media Development and Freedom of Expression in Cambodia’ with financial support of the Swedish Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), UNESCO strives to work toward addressing misrepresentation and underrepresentation of women in the media sector. UNESCO is promoting that media provides equal opportunities for all, and avoids narrow or harmful stereotypes for gender representation, contributing to advancing gender equality in and through all forms of media.

The monitoring activity, which will take about six months, will produce an evidence-based baseline about the situation of women’s representation in news media and a set of evidence-based recommendations to improve the representation and the visibility of women in media which will be supported further in collaboration with national stakeholders.

By Phal Sophanith
AKP

Coverage of gender-based violence ‘improving’
Long Kimmarita | Publication date 06 December 2022 | 21:31 ICT
The Ministry of Women’s Affairs has noted positive changes in the media regarding their coverage of violence against women. The ministry also urged social media users to take part in a 16-day campaign to end violence against women.

The assessment was made by a team from the ministry, who monitored media coverage over the previous three months, according to its December 5 press statement.

The assessment came as the government, ActionAid Cambodia, Gender and Development in Cambodia, and other partners co-launched a digital campaign of media significance to curb violence against women and young girls. The 16-day campaign will run from November 25 to December 10.

“We noted that of the 12 media outlets surveyed, most have made positive changes over the last three months. They are abiding by the code of conduct better, by curtailing the identification of victims and providing less graphic detail,” the statement said.

In the past, some outlets had mocked the victims of crimes or focused on the details of offending, both of which are detrimental to the well being of victims. Their respect for the rights and dignity of both victims and suspects has improved, it added.

The ministry warned that despite the positive changes, some journalists continued to report the news without protecting victims’ identities. In addition, they do not appear to have considered the harm their mocking headlines may be having on efforts to change the attitude of some members of the public to these types of crimes.

“Our team has identified some issues with online news outlets, especially websites which are not registered with the Ministry of Information and certain other online journalists who lack professionalism,” it said.

“With that being said, we have also recorded members of the public responding to negative reporting, and this has gone some way to encouraging more care among reporters,” it added.

The ministry issued a code of conduct for media outlets reporting on violence against women in 2017, in an effort to rein in journalistic practices that experts say harmed and often demeaned victims.
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ ... -improving