Amman, 17 March

On 15 March 2021, ARIJ Network (Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism) conducted a webinar titled “Gender Balance in the News… Have We Failed?”, the second in a series of 12 webinars under the umbrella of the I Will Not Say Silent project. The year-long project, launched by ARIJ in partnership with the Facebook Journalism Project, Women in News / WAN-IFRA, the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF), and SAFE, IREX, and supported by the German Federal Foreign Office, aims to create a safe, pluralistic, and diverse media environment that is free of discrimination based on sex, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, ideology, or otherwise.

The session was moderated by Dr. Rouba el-Helou, political communication and gender lecturer, and presented by Dr. Mona Abdel Maqsoud, assistant professor at Cairo University’s Faculty of Media, where she teaches on public opinion, digital marketing, communication research, media education, and gender balance.

The interactive session was attended by more than 100 journalists, researchers, and media professionals from the Arab world, who actively participated in the session by sharing their experiences of and opinions on Arab media coverage of gender issues, ways to bridge the gap, and the significant role media play in creating change.

The webinar discussed the importance of fair representation of our diverse communities and realistic portrayals of men and women in Arab newsrooms and content. The webinar also discussed major obstacles to achieving gender balance and potential mechanisms to help bridge the gap. According to a study by IWMF, women comprise around 33% of the journalism workforce in 522 companies surveyed in 59 countries. 

The webinar also tackled gender stereotyping in the media, which is seen in the portrayal of traditional gender roles and the lack of gender-sensitive language used in reporting. Moreover, participants discussed media coverage of women’s issues and how it is done in a seasonal, topical manner.

The webinar series, which launched on International Women’s Day, 8 March 2021, presents a weekly webinar, every Monday at 5 PM Amman time (+2 GMT). The series addresses various issues related to discrimination and harassment by specialized trainers from Women in News / WAN-IFRA. The hashtag, #IWillNotStaySilent, is being used on social media platforms concurrently with the project activities to spark online discussion on discrimination, harassment, and all forms of abuse of power. The next session, slated for 22 March 2021, addresses combating sexual harassment, especially online, and will be presented by Myra Abdallah, trainer specialized in gender and countering sexual harassment. Register for the session through this link.