The media, both mainstream and the internet, are agog anew over a reported rape-slay of a flight attendant in a Makati hotel on New Year’s day. Ironically, it has only been less than a month when the 18-day campaign against gender-based violence ended amid various activities organized in the country and abroad.
It was an opportune time, then, that the Austrian Embassy with the support of the UNESCO and the EU Delegation in the Philippines Gender Focal Group organized a webinar on the safety of women journalists to jumpstart the 18-day campaign last November.
It was only the second webinar that the Austrian Embassy has organized on journalism and its vital role in ensuring a gender equal, free, pluralistic and democratic society. The first one was held in Cebu on the occasion of Press Freedom Week last September that tackled on gender-responsive reporting.
As H.E. Bita Rasoulian, Austrian Ambassador and EU Gender Champion, expressed: “This educational webinar focused on the sharing of best practices from both a regional and global perspective on the protection of female journalists.”
Keynoting the webinar was Senator Grace Poe who has championed women’s rights against gender violence and who noted that a great majority of domestic violence in the Philippines involved women. Now on her second term as Senator, she is the chairperson of the Committee on Public Information and Mass Media. Even before becoming a Senator, she has been known for her sustained advocacy in “intelligent media viewership.”
The international panelists presented their first-hand experiences and professional views on the role and responsibility of the media in combatting gender-based stereotypes and discrimination in society.
Dr. Katharine Sarikakis is professor of communication science with specialization in media governance, media organization and media industries at the Department of Communication, University of Vienna. She leads the Media Governance and Industries Research Lab, which aims to research and analyze issues, contexts, actors, and impacts of media and cultural governance.
Currently the research associate in media studies at the University of Witwaterstrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, she is also co-editor of the International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics.
Colette Braeckman has been a journalist at Le Soir, a French language daily Belgian newspaper since 1971. In the course of her journalism career, she has written several books on socio-political issues. During the last decade, however, violence against women and “rape as an instrument of war” have been central in her work. Her latest book, L’homme qui repare les femmes (The Man Who Mends Women) was her dedication to Dr. Denis Mukwege for his commitment to helping thousands of women victims of sexual violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The book led to a documentary film with Thierry Michel and in 2018, Dr. Mukwege received the Nobel Peace Prize. Because of her extensive work in Central Africa, Braeckman was conferred doctor honoris causa by the University of Liege and the Catholic University of Bukavu.
Florence Morice is a reporter at the Africa Bureau of Radio France Internationale (RFI). Serving as the Special Permanent Envoy in the Democratic Republic of Congo i2017-2019, her recent reports have taken her to Mali, Cameroon, and Congo-Brazzaville. Before joining RFI, she directed several TV documentaries, the last of which was on the fate of the Burmese slaves of the Thai fishing industry.
For more than 10 years, she has been working as a consultant for various media development organizations, particularly on issues related to gender and journalism in conflict zones.
The last panelist was Hanna Andersson, a former journalist and now project manager at Fojo Media Institute in Sweden. She specializes in lectures and group discussions on digital harassment and threats affecting Swedish journalists and media houses.
She testified to how global misogyny is a problem also in a country like Sweden, where gender equality is high. Andersson also discussed the results of Fojo’s pilot study, “#Journodefender,” where the Philippines is one of the countries surveyed in terms of the vulnerability of women journalists. The study gave suggestions on what can be done together on a global level to strengthen and protect women journalists.
Providing a reaction to all the presentations was Lynda Catindig-Garcia, president of the International Association of Women in Radio and Television, Philippine Chapter. The one and a half hour webinar was moderated by Dr. Ming-Kuok Lim, UNESCO advisor for communication and information in Jakarta, while this columnist was program host assisted by Dr. Jenny Lind Elmaco, senior officer of the Austrian Embassy Manila. – NWI
