GENDER EQUALITY and the MEDIA at NATIONAL LEVEL Compilation of Good Practices from Member States
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GENDER EQUALITY AND THE MEDIA AT NATIONAL LEVEL Compilation of good practices from member states GENDER EQUALITY COMMISSION (GEC) GENDER EQUALITY AND THE MEDIA AT NATIONAL LEVEL Compilation of good practices from member states The opinions expressed in this work are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy of the Council of Europe. All requests concerning the reproduction or translation of all or part of this document should be addressed to the Directorate of Communication (F-67075 Strasbourg Cedex or Cover and layout: SPDP, Council of Europe publishing@ coe. int). All other correspondence Cover photo: © Shutterstock concerning this document should be addressed to the Directorate General © Council of Europe, July 2014 of Human Rights and Rule of Law. Printed at the Council of Europe Contents FOREWORD 5 AUSTRIA 7 BELGIUM 8 CROATIA 10 CYPRUS 13 CZECH REPUBLIC 16 ESTONIA 18 FRANCE 19 GERMANY 20 ITALY 21 REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA 25 NETHERLANDS 29 NORWAY 30 POLAND 32 PORTUGAL 37 SPAIN 40 SWITZERLAND 43 THE FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA 44 TURKEY 45 Gender equality and the media at national level Page 3 Carlien Scheele Chair of the Gender Equality Commission of the Council of Europe Foreword romoting and improving the image of women in the forming society’s perceptions, opinions and behaviours. media has been the focus of attention of the Council of Hence, the media are in a privileged position to promote P Europe for many years and is one of the priority areas the combat against stereotypes, reflect the different reality of the work and activities of the Gender Equality Commission. of women and men in all their diversities and encourage gender parity. As mentioned in the Committee of Ministers Recommendation on gender equality and media adopted in July 2013 “Gender Despite progress achieved and good promising practices equality means equal visibility, empowerment, responsibil- leading the way for change, the media are still playing an ity and participation of both women and men in all spheres active role in producing and perpetuating gender discrimi- of public life, including the media”. nation. Gender inequalities are reproduced in the media The media can hinder or hasten structural advancements in many respects including women’s under-representation in towards gender equality since they play a crucial role in media ownership, information production and management Gender equality and the media at national level Page 5 fdsgdfgdg posts. Furthermore women are cited much less than men in on “gender equality and the media” at national level has articles and are largely under-represented as news subjects been developed. The good practices include national and or interviewees, with the exception of women’s magazines targeted media campaigns, specific legislation, prizes/ and advertising. awards for non-stereotyped portrayal of women, electronic databases with experts that traditionally appear less in The Council of Europe Conference on “Media and the Image media coverage, inventories of best practices in the field of of Women”, which took place in Amsterdam in July 2013, gender imaging, training courses directed at mass media examined the relationship of the media to the female images professionals, relevant data collection and competitions. they project, including issues related to stereotyping and sexism; freedom of expression and gender equality; female In preparing this compilation, we learned that a number of leadership positions in the media; and the new media as a countries had difficulties in identifying good practices which tool for positive change. highlights the need for further work in this area. The Conference clearly concluded that there is a strong need Sharing of best practices is the basis for any guidelines that to pursue efforts for gender equality to become a reality in might be put forward to tackle the issue. Therefore, despite the media landscape. the persistent challenges for the achievement of gender equality in the media, this compilation represents a useful As a follow-up to the discussions and conclusions of the and valuable step forward in our task of promoting gender Amsterdam Conference, this compilation of good practices parity in and through the media. Gender equality and the media at national level Page 6 fdsgdfgdg Austria Advertising In 2011 an advisory board on anti-sexism to the Austrian Advertising Council was installed including qualified gender exist advertising is currently, with a few exceptions, experts in order to counteract gender-discriminatory not regulated by federal law. Exceptions are, for example, advertising and to raise awareness of the advertising S the pornography law, the prohibition of gender- industry for a non-discriminatory portrayal of the sexes. discriminatory “audiovisual communication” in the Federal Law Out of 278 complaints received in 2012 more than half on Audiovisual Media Services (AMD-G) and the prohibition dealt with “gender discriminatory advertising” (53.41%). of gender-discriminatory “commercial communications” The anti-sexism Advisory Board reviewed these complaints in the Federal Act on the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation and furnished its opinion to the Council. In 13 cases (7.39%) (ORF). the Council called for immediately stopping the campaign. On the initiative of the Minister for Women, an interna- The “Gender Award Advertising” is another awareness- tional conference on “sexist advertising” took place in 2010. raising initiative established in 2012. The new prize honours The aim of the international conference was a survey and gender-sensitive advertising productions (TV, radio or print) analysis of the legal and institutional situation in Austria and from Austria. The most important criteria are the promotion Europe. Based on best practices, possible implementation of equality between women and men in relation to strategies to reduce gender discriminatory advertisements overcoming gender stereotypes in the portrayal of persons, were illustrated. Experts from academia, government and and that women and men are represented in atypical media participated and discussed jointly future prospects. professions/roles. Gender equality and the media at national level Page 7 Belgium Flanders contains more than one thousand names, and is open to journalists, students in journalism and programme makers. Expertendatabank (met brochure- affiches) The database provides experts belonging to these target he Flemish government created an electronic database groups on a wide range of issues from soil science to heart (www.expertendatabank.be) in 2008 with experts that transplantation. In addition, it contains the contact details T traditionally appear less in media coverage (women, of organisations working on gender, LGBT issues, disadvan- ethnic minorities and people with disabilities, transgender taged women, migration and disability issues. people, …). With this project, the Flemish government wants to increase their visibility in the media in a non-stereotypical The Flemish Association of Journalists (VVJ) was closely context and show the media the shortest route to experts involved in the construction of the database and proves to belonging to certain target groups. The expert database now be an interesting partner in disseminating it. Gender equality and the media at national level Page 8 In 2011, Equal Opportunities in Flanders published the bro- Both in 2012 and 2013 News Monitors were published chure “Beyond the cliché” focusing on the issue of gender: ‘Woman wanted’ (no. 9, January 2012, on the number of women in televised news (internet link: www.gelijkekansen.be/Portals/ programmes, www.steunpuntmedia.be/wp-content/ GelijkeKansen/39007_VoorbijHetCliché%20AS.pdf). uploads/2013/10/Nieuwsmonitor-15.pdf) and, ‘How divers The brochure aims to inspire journalists in their pursuit of a is the Flemish press corps?’ (no. 15, October 2013, balanced representation. on age, gender and ethnicity in Flemish newspapers, To promote the database well known male experts were www.steunpuntmedia.be/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/ asked to be the face of the campaign entitled ‘It doesn’t Nieuwsmonitor-15.pdf). always have to be…’. Online Knowledge Platform Policy Research Centre of the Knowledge Centre on Media Literacy for Media – News Monitor There is still insufficient public knowledge and under- The Policy Research Centre (PRC) for Media is one of the standing about the existing good practice in the field of 21 Flemish Policy Research Centres providing policy-rele- gender imaging. The Department of Culture, Youth, Sport vant research to the Flemish Authority. The PRC for Media and Media is developing an inventory of best practices researches news production, news coverage and media with regard to gender and imaging. As of 2014 these good literacy in Flanders. The research focuses on the whole news practices will be transposed onto the Online Knowledge cycle from news selection by the journalist up to the media Platform of the Knowledge Centre on Media Literacy. choice of the user. The online platform already consists of dossiers on media literacy for elderly people, for disadvantaged people living in The New Monitor is a periodic scientific report on a current poverty, on online privacy and on publicity literacy. Website: topic in the Flemish media. The report is written based on mediawijs.be/dossiers. the data collected by the PRC Media. It is sent to politicians, media, academics and other stakeholders on a regular basis to encourage