Media
Since 2010 UN Women in Moldova works at the intersection between gender equality and media. In partnership with the Association of Independent Press and a wealth of different media outlets, we look for opportunities to raise awareness of gender equality, including through special workshops and toolkits that help them practice gender-sensitive reporting. UN Women promotes the use of gender-sensitive language in national and local media. We advocate for more women to work in the media, including in leadership positions.
We help women’s leaders and advocates develop communications and media skills so that they can effectively engage with journalists.Using a methodology piloted by UN Women in Moldova, we engaged print, online and broadcast media in a process of self-assessment of their coverage from a gender perspective. The results of this exercise have driven further awareness and concrete actions towards achieving a fully gender-balanced coverage.We also work side by side with journalists to identify and feature “success stories” of women who are contributing to the positive change of their communities and can serve to inspire others. This contributes to increasing the visibility of women as political, business and civic leaders.
MEDIA SELF-ASSESSMENT: We engaged 30 media outlets in a participatory exercise where they self-assessed their news production and verified the relative presence of men and women. Almost 55,000 articles were evaluated in this process. This led to stronger awareness, and resulted in an increase in the share of women featured as main protagonists - from 14% in September 2015, to 21% in April 2016 in the media concerned. Seven of the 30 participating media outlets have visibly balanced their coverage within the first six months of participating in the programme, achieving a relatively equal presence of men and women as main subjects in their political, economic and social sections.
GENDER EQUALITY COMMITTMENTS: Under the joint UN Women/UNDP programme “Women in Politics”, financed by Sweden, UN Women’s partner Association of Independent Press held a number of workshops and other awareness-raising initiatives with national and local media to discuss the ways women are portrayed and how this impacts the gender equality agenda. As a result, 37 broadcast, print and online media outlets signed a commitment to respecting gender equality principles, specifying concrete steps they will perform. One of these steps is publishing a specific number of articles per month dedicated to promoting gender equality. Another step is to make sure their news coverage represents both women and men: each media outlet committed to dedicating a specific share of their editorial space or airtime to women as compared to men – at least 30 per cent and often more. Media outlets committed also to use gender-sensitive language and images. This means avoiding to reinforce gender stereotypes with their selection of images, and portraying women in manners that cannot be interpreted as objectifying, disempowering or sexist.
37 MOLDOVAN MEDIA OUTLETS WHICH COMMITTED TO RESPECTING GENDER EQUALITY:(updated October 2016)
Radio and TV stations (10): TV 7, Moldova 1 (News and Debates Department), Radio Moldova (News Department), SorTV (Soroca), Radio Orhei, Media TV (Cimişlia), Noua Televiziune de Sud (Taraclia), Drochia TV, Radio Chişinău, Radio Moldova Tineret.
Printed newspapers and magazines (15): Adevărul (Anenii Noi), Cuvântul (Rezina), Cuvântul liber (Leova), Ecoul nostru (Sângerei), Expresul (Ungheni), Gazeta de Sud (Cimișlia), Gazeta Satelor, Glia Drochiană (Drochia), IPN news agency, Jurnal de Chişinău, Natura, Observatorul de Nord (Soroca), Unghiul (Ungheni), SP (Bălți), Vocea Poporului.
Online media (12): Agrobiznes.md, Diez.md, Everydayjournalism.md, Gagauzinfo.md, Ialovenionline.md, Rasputin.md, Realitatea.md, Stirilocale.md, Trm.md, Unimedia.info, Ziuadeazi.md, Zugo.md.
INCREASED VISIBILITY FOR WOMEN IN MEDIA: We helped our media partners increase women’s visibility, by supporting their work with successful women leaders. This resulted in 340 success stories of women from different walks of life and all corners of Moldova, that featured in different types of media.
Turning around the entrenched journalist practice to represent women in secondary or sexist roles, women are now more prominently portrayed as successful politicians, entrepreneurs and opinion leaders. This is contributing to changing public perceptions about the role of women in society.