UN Women and Coordinating Council of the Audiovisual sign a cooperation agreement for promoting gender equality in media
Date:
On September 3, 2018, in Chișinău UN Women Moldova (United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women) and Coordinating Council of the Audiovisual (CCA) signed a cooperation agreement for the next three years. Through this agreement, UN Women and CCA agree to achieve concrete results in promoting gender equality, combating gender stereotypes, and non-violent communication in audiovisual media products from Moldova.
Asya Varbanova, country representative a.i of UN Women Moldova, stated: „It is largely through audio-visual media that people in Moldova obtain information and shape their opinions. That is why media can be influential actors in advancing gender equality. This refers to their role within the working environment - in terms of ensuring that women occupying all roles in the newsroom and media offices, including senior positions. It also refers to media content and having a fair and non-stereotypical portrayal of women and men and including their diverse voices and perspectives.”
Dragoș Vicol, president of Coordinating Council of the Audiovisual: "We are grateful for UN Women`s Moldova support and I am convinced that the signing of this agreement is only one step, which will eventually materialize in multiple actions to promote gender equality in both within the Council and in the audio-visual media from Moldovan.”
Thus, through this Memorandum, UN Women and the CCA will work together on the following objectives of the implementation of the Strategy to Ensure Equality Between Women and Men in the Republic of Moldova for 2017-2021, towards the achievement of the following objectives:
- Ensuring a complex approach to equality between women and men.
- Strengthening the institutional mechanism to ensure equality between women and men.
- Combating stereotypes in the society and promoting a non-violent communication.
In particular, UN Women will provide support through the following means, such as capacity development, integrated policy advice and advocacy and social mobilization.
On the other hand, Coordinating Council of the Audiovisual will dedicate human and technical capacities towards the realization of joint activities and initiatives, will work with media institutions in support of realization of the objectives, in line with its mandate and responsibilities per the Strategy to Ensure Equality between Women and Men and the National Strategy for Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence, and will ensure effective coordination with all national stakeholders, development partners and media institutions.
The memorandum was signed for a period of three years and may be extended for two more years.
As a first step of the new cooperation, 22 representatives of the CCA participated in a two-day training on gender equality, gender mainstreaming in media content and media monitoring methodologies. Moreover, CCA members and staff did practical exercises on how to ensure gender mainstreaming in media debates, documentaries, and reporting on electoral campaigns.
The Coordinating Council of the Audiovisual from Moldova is the state regulatory authority for broadcasting media. Its mission is to monitor and regulate the TV/radio mass-media to ensure respect for law and human rights, as well as social and political diversity in the media.
UN Women is a global leader in promoting gender equality and women's and girls' rights. In Moldova, UN Women has three priority areas of activity for the years 2018-2021: promoting women in politics and in decision-making processes, women`s economic empowerment, ending violence against women and girls.