Saddia Mazhar
Islamabad, (Parliament Times: It’s been four yearsnow, on every woman’s day our media house select a women as a bureau chief for a day. I was also one of them said Rooba,an investigative journalist from Lahore.
It was indeed a great step to encourage women in media but I wonder why women need this kind of gesture, are we not qualified or proficient to be a bureau chief of any media channel? Rooba further added.
To see the Image of Women in Print and Broadcast Media when wego deep down in the history of Pakistani media, we will be shocked to know that no women has ever been an editor of a Urdu newspaper other than Maleeha Lodhi. The Herald was the only newspaper that had a female editor.
In Punjab, we have not seen any women as bureau chief of any mainstream channel but have some women as assignment head, head of news desk and digital media head .
Maheem Mahar is a bright example of digital media head ,she joined Saama almost four years back and audience witnessed the growth and content quality of saama digital. She also focused on data journalism and effectively counter misinformation through data during covid_19.
In Pakistan , there is a slanted balance and representation of women in the news both in term of number in the media industry and in depiction in the content.
In 2007, less than five percent of the estimated 20,000 journalists in Pakistanwere female according to the Pakistan fedral union of journalist(PFUJ).which reflect how underrepresented women are in media.over the year , the number of women has gradually increased in news operations for current affairs, reporting for TV channels, radio stations and newspapers.However, women remain diminished at all level of news organization with aglass ceiling which prevent them from rising to top positions and decision-making role,Night Dad ‘s Digital Right Foundation(DRF) highlightedin report.
Pakistan is one of the deadliest country to practice journalism, an annual press freedom and safety indexes in recent years prove but for women media partitioner, they face additional challenges such as harassment and other social pressures working in fields or in offices.
A lot of girls in Pakistan are students of journalism and mass communication, but theyhesitate to join the field of media. A major reason for limiting women in media is the portrayal of women presented in news and current affair as well as entertainment shows done by a male lens. Women are always cast as victims in the media.
Laiba Zainab, a freelance multimedia content creator tells the that women are missing from top positions in Pakistan media industry because our society is still not accepting them as capable, qualified and professional. They still comment that women do not need money; they are not here to boost their profession and they do not have to run the house. It’s just a time pass venture for them.
The world of media is male-dominated andis literally being run by men in Pakistan, which has created an environment discouragingwomen from joining and staying in media houses.
Kiran is a print and digital journalist from Gilgit Baltistan. Kiran tells that in GB women are discouraged in media industry . our print and electronic media houses are male dominant and now after the raise of digital media women are trying to create their space as digital creator but the social response is very humiliating. They do not consider us as journalists and it is very hard to cover any event in GB as digital creator. Our male working journalists do not give us our due space to play or contribute in print and electronic media from GB.
“ When any graduated girl want to join any media , they offer her an internship of almost six month without paying any panni. And after completion an amount of five or six thousand is offered as monthly salary.which shows clearly that women in media are not acceptable. Kiran further added
While a lot of women have been discouraged from joining media in Pakistan, there are afew women who are fighting to be acknowledged for their abilities. Then why are womenmissing from top positions in the field of media?
The fact that the top management in most media houses is male and does not recognize therights of women, contributes greatly to the fact that women are excluded from top jobs.
More women need to be in decision-making positions within the media in order toinfluence decisions about hiring more female staff and policy decisions regarding sexualharassment at workplaces, among other things.
Dr. Maleeha Lodhi (TheMuslim and The News International) was the only woman to head English language dailies.
She was joined by Dr. Shirin Mazari who is now the political worker or ex fedral minister heads remined the editor of The Nation . Kamala Hyat,BeenaSarwar, Ayesha Haroon have headed different editions of national dailies. Twopolitical monthlies- the Herald and Newsline- have women editors and predominantlyfemale teams. APP, the official wire agency, has never had a woman director generalneither has the Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation ever had a woman director general.
Pakistan Television had one or two women as regional or national heads.
The press in Urdu and regional languages, which captures 80 percent of the newspapermarket, has very few women workers. The state-controlled Pakistan TelevisionCorporation has had one female reaching a top position as a Managing Director andanother female as Director of Programs.
Dawn a leading English newspaper is having almost 20 percent female staff in print and digital.News editorial page in charge is female and young world magazine editor is also a female. A female is also heading the social media desk of Dawn.
ARY another big name in media is having only one female staff reporter in its Lahore office.
Women are under represented in news stories which misleadinglyindicates that women are unimportant or invisible. Multiple studies have pointed out that women experts are not sourced in news stories as often as men.That means that decisions about news content are primarily made by male editors.
Women only make up 24 % of persons heard, read about or seen in newspapers, television and in radio news. Even worse. 46% of news stories underpin gender stereotypes while only 4% of stories clearly challenge gender stereotypes , Global studies Report .
When journalism in Pakistan is discussed abroad, the first question modeled is, do women have equal representation in the industry? On face value, most of us feel confident to say yes, as there are many more women journalists active in the field in various roles. However, theUks report 2020 presents interesting data stated that
“Only 18 per cent of the women journalists were monitored as ‘Reporters’ (whose bylines were mentioned). While 82 percent were recorded as news presenters/ announcers. In comparison, 60 per cent of the men journalists were reporters and 37 percent were presenters.
Report further stated , “Only 10 percent of news stories on television were reported by women reporters whereas not a single news item was monitored to be reported by women reporters in print and radio. Surprisingly, Twitter had the highest number of reports by women reporters at 45 percent, followed by 25 per cent of stories from the internet.”
It is interesting to note that in the Twitter sphere, “the occupation of 31 percent of women news subjects was mentioned as “politician,” compared to 64 percent of men. The function of 76 percent women in these news items was covered as “Subject”, with 12 percent as “Spokesperson”. Only six percent each was noted as “Expert or Commenter” and “Eyewitness”. “11 per cent of the stories from the internet challenged stereotypes, while Twitter had nine percent of these stories.”
Asma Shirazi, Garida Farooqi, Maria memoon, and many more prominent women journalists are not considered eligible as Bureau in media house while Hamid mir is heading Geo from Islamabad , Shiraz Hassnat heading Hum in Lahore and examples goes on. Hum is another leading channel , run by a female but is missing even equal representation of women and in its five years of journey they are also failed to establish an example of women in leading role .
After covid _19 the shift of media towards Digital , we witnessed a hug gape of gender discrimination here too. In Pakistan we hardly have any digital news media heading by a Women.
Asfhan Musab , a co partner in Native media tells that she is having all the decision making power in her digital media but the f truth is that in our industry women are barely tolerable at main/ prominent positions .
Native media is a digital media and I am breaking this barer that women do not have any technique knowledge like video making, editing and graphics. I am doing all the technique work of my program by myself. Afshan further added.
