WUNRN
THE FREEDOM FRONTIER: PRESS FREEDOM IN SOUTH ASIA 2014-15
– Barriers & Challenges for Women Journalists in South Asia
Direct Link to Full 114-Page 2015 Report:
The International Federation of Journalists
(IFJ) and the South Asia Media Solidarity Network (SAMSN)
has released The Freedom Frontier: Press Freedom in South Asia 2014-15. The 13th annual report on
press freedom in the region explores the frontlines shaping and thwarting
ongoing efforts to build a robust media environment across South Asia. A total
of 14 journalists lost their lives across South Asia in the period under
review, mostly targeted in attacks with Pakistan the most dangerous country in
the world for journalists……
On the 20th anniversary of the Beijing
Declaration and the Platform for Action, which aimed at “removing all the
obstacles to women’s active participation in all spheres of public and private
life through a full and equal share in economic, social, cultural and political
decision-making”, this report gives special attention to the barriers affecting
women journalists’ progression in South Asia’s media and highlights best
practice examples where change is happening…..
Women’s Feature Service
Women In Media in South Asia –
Challenges, Risks, Skills, Determination
By Rashme Sehgal
Delhi (Women’s Feature Service) – Arifa Noor, resident
editor of ‘Dawn’, a daily newspaper published from Islamabad, Pakistan,
describes her role as a woman journalist in the following words: “It’s my job
to think differently – on war, on politics, on crime and everything else that
is covered by the paper I edit. I am here to provide diversity, to celebrate
difference. Women are not here [the media] to be limited to a topic or an
issue. We are here and we are the difference.”
The heavy pace
and inequalities of news television has not deterred many South Asian women
journalists, who remain committed to their chosen field.
But are women journalists able to provide these
crucial interventions in the face of increasing threats, harassment, abduction
and sometimes death in a host of South Asian countries? A recently published
report on the state of the media in South Asia, titled ‘The Freedom Frontier:
Press Freedom in South Asia 2014-15’ looks at how journalists, both female and
male, are forging forward in the face of tremendous challenges in the region.
The report spans India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives and
Afghanistan.
The report lists some of the cases of extreme
brutality that occurred against journalists in 2014-15, forming a continuum in
a series of attacks against the community during the last decade. Among those
attacked were several women media workers. Sabeen Mahmud, the Pakistani media
activist, was gunned down on April 24, 2015, in Karachi because she dared to
host a panel discussion on the ‘taboo’ subject of Balochistan. In Afghanistan,
Palwasha Tokhi Miranzai was murdered in September 2014 because she had dared go
against the Taliban diktat of stepping outside her doorstep to work for Bayan
Radio in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif. In Bangladesh, Nadia Sharmeen of
Ekushey TV, who had gone to cover a rally, was attacked by fundamentalist
Hifazat-e-Islam workers, who believe all women must remain behind ‘purdah’.
Professionals in India have encountered their share of
challenges. Shirin Dalvi, the Mumbai-based editor of the Urdu daily,
‘Awadhnama’, was forced to go underground after an arrest warrant was issued in
her name in January 2015 for republishing a ‘Charlie Hebdo’ cartoon on the
front page of her newspaper. She had to go into hiding leaving her young
children after fundamentalist threats. More recently Shiv Sainiks demonstrated
outside the Mumbai home of well-known columnist Shobhaa De for ‘defaming’ the people
of Maharashtra.
Last year in September, more than 40 women journalists
were put behind bars for daring to protest against the high handed behaviour of
Telangana’s chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao. He had pressured cable
operators to stop airing two cable channels, TV 9 and ABN Andhra Jyoti, because
they were telecasting what he believed was anti-Telangana sentiment. In Delhi,
an anchor working at India TV had swallowed poison in a suicide bid in her
office in June 2014, allegedly because her bosses were putting pressure on her
to entertain some powerful people whom she declined to meet.
Despite such attacks and confrontations, the numbers
of women journalists, who continue to brave the tremendous odds to carve a
niche for themselves in the world of print, TV, digital and radio is on the
rise.
To better understand their situation, the
International Federation of Journalists, Asia Pacific (IFJ), also undertook a
survey of gender and media across seven South East Asian countries, an activity
sponsored by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) and UN Women. Their findings show women working in multiple media and
proudly admitting that their primary motive for joining the profession is “love
of journalism”.
The majority of these female professionals work in the
preferred area of reporting. Even in violence prone areas like Peshawar, women
are determined to work on the ground as reporters, coping with often hostile
colleagues and fundamentalist forces. As one woman reporter, who covers
assignments in this frequently Taliban-besieged city put it, “For a female TV
journalist, it is like being in a battlefield with enemies on all sides.” In
fact, the situation is so dire that in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in
Pakistan a woman who went to the local press club was told not to come again as
her visit would endanger the lives of the other club members.
In Pakistan’s conservative pockets, as per the
findings of the report, many women prefer to work in the relative anonymity
offered by radio than on television. In Sri Lanka, many have opted for the
digital media because years of prolonged ethnic conflict had resulted in
greater censorship on the print media. The online platform provides a safer and
more independent alternative.
Full-time work, however, continues to be difficult to
find for women journalists. The survey has highlighted that while 72 per cent
of men in Pakistan have full time jobs as compared to 47 per cent women, in Sri
Lanka 30 per cent of the respondents happened to be freelancers, with women
comprising the majority.
The conclusions are hardly heartening. The average
woman journalist faces poor working conditions, low wages, insecure employment
under the contract system, hazards of working in late shifts and nights shifts,
often with no transport provided, and denial of leave, including maternity
leave. Sexual harassment is another problem, with 18 per cent of the women
interviewed admitting to having faced harassment at the workplace.
This is not to say that their male counterparts are
having an easy time either, as they too frequently face the wrath of militants,
bureaucrats, politicians, the military and security forces. The year 2014 saw
the death of 14 journalists in the region, the majority being targeted
killings. India saw four deaths of which two were targeted killings. The IFJ
report focuses on the issue of impunity as the perpetrators of these crimes go
scot free in many cases. The report carries vivid photographs of bold protests
organised by journalists against such attacks. It also places the issue of
gender equality within the wider context of press freedom.
According to senior journalist Sujata Madhok, who has
contributed to the report and the gender survey from Delhi, “Women journalists
have high visibility today, especially on television. Yet, life is not so
glamorous for the majority, who are overworked and underpaid. A few upper class
women, with the advantages of money and family connections, have achieved
career success but the rest are denied decent working conditions, good wages
and decision making powers. Their struggles, both within the home and at the
workplace, need to be acknowledged.”