‘List of obstacles faced by women in media long’
Author: Womens UN Report Network
Date: January 22, 2006
Gulf Today – 29 January, 2006
Communication Technology and Journalism became an efficient tool to support the
women’s role in media, while continuing to enhance awareness among men on the
women’s perspective, competency and achievements at the local and regional
levels.
in the UAE and the region, also serves as a means of facilitating collaboration
between high-level, internationally-recognised researchers and teaching staff of
the college and other institutions in the UAE and the Arab region, according to
Reem Obeidat, holder of the Unesco chair for Communication Technology and
Journalism.
Reem told The Gulf Today that talking about the lack of
female presence in the media is one thing and helping women crack that glass
ceiling is something else. “The Unesco Chair in UAE has made inroads in changing
the status of women in media,” she added.
The short experience of the
Unesco Chair provided excellent examples of what can be achieved in establishing
strong women’s networks within the media.
“We became a vital source and
reference to all the international organisations concerned in women and media
issues,” she said.
Reem affirmed that the chair media programmes
endeavour to help women to overcome the social barriers that prevent them from
taking up media jobs.
“The challenge for us is to put an end to the
social taboo related to women taking up jobs in media,” she stated.
The
chair is also playing a key role in promoting and encouraging women to handle
media jobs in print, TV and radio.
“Our programme will also support
initiatives that develop the women’s role in media by promoting their right to
work. Our next step will be to launch a media club in one of the schools here to
give girls an insight into media,” she added.
Different themes
Reem said the chair works on different themes every year. “I request new
proposals for programmes within the theme, strive to avoid separate approaches
in their methodology and work on projects with socially-meaningful themes,” she
said.
“So far, the chair has launched several initiatives such as a
three-day training conference titled “Women empowerment in media through IT”
which aims to bridge the gap between men and women through IT; the annual “Press
freedom day” event.”
“This gives a rare opportunity for government,
journalists and academics to put their heads together to discuss various key
issues,” Reem pointed out.
Such events have provided an opportunity to
take matters forward, she added.
Moreover, many video conferences,
seminars and sessions were held in co-operation with the American embassy as the
theme for the academy year 2004-2005 was “Promoting reading among students.”
The theme of the academy year 2005-2006 is “Media role in covering
natural and human-made catastrophes.”
Therefore a one-day conference
will be held on Feb.22 which will be presented by a female director. “So far, we
have not been into a specific personality yet.”
Such work, according to
Reem, implies ever more effective control of the means of establishing the
quality of what was being produced, of resources and relations with the
environment such as holding training programmes that take students’ activities
in society into account.
“The Unesco Chair for Communication Technology
and Journalism has undoubtedly helped women journalists take big strides towards
their advancement, in knowledge, experience, expertise and working conditions,”
she said.
Women’s rights
Reem affirmed that the Unesco Chair is
keeping women’s rights on top of their agenda since many issues remain
unresolved.
“The list of obstacles faced by women who want to get ahead
in journalism is long. Working conditions in any media organisation seem to be
more or less the same — long hours, deadlines, working on national holidays
without due additional payments. In other words it is a demanding but
unrewarding job,” she said, adding that “Child care facilities and maternity
leave are still not a right in most media organisations set in the Arab World.”
Furthermore, the Unesco Chair Programme aims to work with other
agencies, NGOs and foundations.
“Inter-agency co-operation will be
pursued systematically as a means of making action more effective,” said Reem.
However, these goals are still far from reach due to the lack of funds.
“There is a deep need to streamline interactions across networks and partners,
and to clarify the role, obligations, expectations and reciprocity between
Unesco and relevant departments, as a way to reduce the gap and enable the Chair
to access funds from local, regional and international sources,” she pointed
out.
Stating that private sector funding can compromise the direction of
the chair’s projects, Reem said that the chair is keen on protecting project
credibility while actively seeking the private sector funding.
Being the
only Unesco Chair that is totally devoted to promoting women and journalism in
the Arab region, Obeidat called for more sponsors to join their projects in
order to help them achieve their short and long-term goals.
Despite all
these challenges, DWC Unesco Chair topped the list of the most active Unesco
Chairs worldwide.
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