Most of the media outlets in Moldova continue to have a wide discrepancy in the volumes of products featuring men and women, the latter being devoted insufficient attention. Such a conclusion was reached by a monitoring team within a media self-assessment program with emphasis on gender, which is implemented by the Association of Independent Press and is supported by the UN Women in Moldova, IPN reports.
Thirty media outlets – print media, TV/radio stations and online media – are taking part in the given program that is aimed at ensuring gender parity in the programs intended for consumers of information. During six months, since the launch of the program, the monitoring team has analyzed about 40,000 products centering on political, economic and social issues. The general picture does not look very well. Making effort, the mass media managed to increase the volume of products featuring women by only 8%. The print media, which were earlier a leader by the amount of attention devoted to women, evolved differently during these months. Over some months, the amount even decreased. The online media and the radio/TV stations ensured a slight rise in the number of news items and articles about women.
According to the report, the regional media outlets are the most balanced in terms of gender parity. These manage to ensure practically a 1:1 ratio between the products featuring women and men. The national media outlets are the most unbalanced in this regard. The radio here is 0.2:1 in favor of men. The political sphere remains the most masculinized area.
Association of Independent Press executive director Petru Macovei said that over the six months during which the media outlets involved in the program were monitored and offered financial support, the number of products featuring women rose from 7% to 15%. But the growth of only 8% is very modest. By the end of the program, the number of products where the women are protagonists is expected to rise by at least 15%.
Daniela Terzi-Barbarosie, a member of the monitoring team, said the journalists must discover women experts as these have what to say. She called on the media to use feminine forms for different posts. “The men MPs already name their women colleagues by the feminine form “deputate”, but the print media continue to use the masculine form “deputati”,” she stated.
Gender policy expert and monitoring team member Olga Nicolenco said she presented the report to a media outlet and proved that this had only one news item about a woman minister during a month, which is paltry. “I named my monitoring exercise ‘hunting for women in politics’. I look for women politicians in the media products for hours. I established that there are not many news articles about migrant women. We want to know what the women who returned home do. This is interesting for us,” she said.
The experts also want the radio stations and TV channels to invite women to different programs and talk shows. The media employers are encouraged to make effort to ensure gender equality among reporters and authors of journalistic products.
