UN Women Cameroon and the National Communication Council Advocate for Gender Sensitive Media Coverage during Elections
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Participants who attended the workshop to sensitize journalists on gender sensitive elections coverage. Photo: UN Women/ Teclaire Same
In the run up of the 2018 elections, UN Women and National Communication Council Organized a workshop to promote gender sensitive media coverage of elections. The workshop which brought together over 30 journalists from public and private media houses was organized on Wednesday June 13, 2018 in the conference room of UN Women Cameroon.
Adama Moussa, Resident Representative of UN Women Cameroon in his welcome address called on the media professionals to use their strategic position to ensure equal participation of women and men as panelists in different media platforms and to eliminate stereotypes and myths linked to women engaged in politics and leadership positions. “UN Women is engaged in this capacity building and sensitization of all stakeholders to guarantee a favorable environment for the political participation of women in contributing towards effective gender mainstreaming in electoral processes and gender sensitive media coverage of elections,” Adama Moussa added.
(From left to right) Adama Moussa, Resident Representative UN Women Cameroon, Peter Essoka, President, National Communication Council and Bruno Ahanda, Communication Expert, National assembly. Photo: UN Women/ Teclaire Same
Peter Essoka, President of the National Communication Council (NCC) echoed the role of the NCC in regulating media and media practices. He noted that gender-sensitive election coverage is a true catalyst for democracy but regretted the low representation of female journalists in the decision-making processes and production of media content. He therefore called on the media to promote gender balance by allocating equal airtime to women and tailor media content to ensure positive portrayal of women during the 2018 elections season. “We all have a duty to ensure a thorough monitoring of the airtime devoted to women in the media especially during elections. In addition, media content must advocate for a greater involvement of women, politicians and journalists, in public debates, raise gender issues in content, and above all ensure respect of Ethics,” Peter Essoka said.
The workshop was also a platform for participants to finalize the ‘Reporter's best practice guidelines’ for gender sensitive elections coverage on media coverage and the ‘Barometer of Diversity’ for men/women balance in television. UN Women is committed in supporting all elections stakeholders to ensure effective gender mainstreaming in 2018 electoral processes in Cameroon in view of a 50/50 political representation of women and men.
