The Fourth World Conference on Women
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Chapter 1. Resolution 1. Annex II - The Beijing Platform for Action
IV. Strategic Objectives and Actions
J. Women and the media
Strategic objective J.1.
Strategic objective J.2.
234. During the past decade, advances in information technology have
facilitated a global communications network that transcends national boundaries and has an
impact on public policy, private attitudes and behaviour, especially of children and young
adults. Everywhere the potential exists for the media to make a far greater contribution
to the advancement of women.
235. More women are involved in careers in the communications sector, but
few have attained positions at the decision-making level or serve on governing boards and
bodies that influence media policy. The lack of gender sensitivity in the media is
evidenced by the failure to eliminate the gender-based stereotyping that can be found in
public and private local, national and international media organizations.
236. The continued projection of negative and degrading images of women in
media communications - electronic, print, visual and audio - must be changed. Print and
electronic media in most countries do not provide a balanced picture of women's diverse
lives and contributions to society in a changing world. In addition, violent and degrading
or pornographic media products are also negatively affecting women and their participation
in society. Programming that reinforces women's traditional roles can be equally limiting.
The world- wide trend towards consumerism has created a climate in which advertisements
and commercial messages often portray women primarily as consumers and target girls and
women of all ages inappropriately.
237. Women should be empowered by enhancing their skills, knowledge and
access to information technology. This will strengthen their ability to combat negative
portrayals of women internationally and to challenge instances of abuse of the power of an
increasingly important industry. Self-regulatory mechanisms for the media need to be
created and strengthened and approaches developed to eliminate gender-biased programming.
Most women, especially in developing countries, are not able to access effectively the
expanding electronic information highways and therefore cannot establish networks that
will provide them with alternative sources of information. Women therefore need to be
involved in decision-making regarding the development of the new technologies in order to
participate fully in their growth and impact.
238. In addressing the issue of the mobilization of the media, Governments
and other actors should promote an active and visible policy of mainstreaming a gender
perspective in policies and programmes.
Increase the participation and access of women to expression and
decision- making in and through the media and new technologies of communication
Actions to be taken
239. By Governments:
(a) Support women's education, training and employment to promote and ensure women's equal
access to all areas and levels of the media;
(b) Support research into all aspects of women and the media so as to define areas needing
attention and action and review existing media policies with a view to integrating a
gender perspective;
(c) Promote women's full and equal participation in the media, including management,
programming, education, training and research;
(d) Aim at gender balance in the appointment of women and men to all advisory, management,
regulatory or monitoring bodies, including those connected to the private and State or
public media;
(e) Encourage, to the extent consistent with freedom of expression, these bodies to
increase the number of programmes for and by women to see to it that women's needs and
concerns are properly addressed;
(f) Encourage and recognize women's media networks, including electronic networks and
other new technologies of communication, as a means for the dissemination of information
and the exchange of views, including at the international level, and support women's
groups active in all media work and systems of communications to that end;
(g) Encourage and provide the means or incentives for the creative use of programmes in
the national media for the dissemination of information on various cultural forms of
indigenous people and the development of social and educational issues in this regard
within the framework of national law;
(h) Guarantee the freedom of the media and its subsequent protection within the framework
of national law and encourage, consistent with freedom of expression, the positive
involvement of the media in development and social issues.
240. By national and international media systems: Develop, consistent with
freedom of expression, regulatory mechanisms, including voluntary ones, that promote
balanced and diverse portrayals of women by the media and international communication
systems and that promote increased participation by women and men in production and
decision-making.
241. By Governments, as appropriate, or national machinery for the
advancement of women:
(a) Encourage the development of educational and training programmes for women in order to
produce information for the mass media, including funding of experimental efforts, and the
use of the new technologies of communication, cybernetics space and satellite, whether
public or private;
(b) Encourage the use of communication systems, including new technologies, as a means of
strengthening women's participation in democratic processes;
(c) Facilitate the compilation of a directory of women media experts;
(d) Encourage the participation of women in the development of professional guidelines and
codes of conduct or other appropriate self-regulatory mechanisms to promote balanced and
non-stereotyped portrayals of women by the media.
242. By non-governmental organizations and media professional
associations:
(a) Encourage the establishment of media watch groups that can monitor the media and
consult with the media to ensure that women's needs and concerns are properly reflected;
(b) Train women to make greater use of information technology for communication and the
media, including at the international level;
(c) Create networks among and develop information programmes for non-governmental
organizations, women's organizations and professional media organizations in order to
recognize the specific needs of women in the media, and facilitate the increased
participation of women in communication, in particular at the international level, in
support of South-South and North-South dialogue among and between these organizations,
inter alia, to promote the human rights of women and equality between women and men;
(d) Encourage the media industry and education and media training institutions to develop,
in appropriate languages, traditional, indigenous and other ethnic forms of media, such as
story-telling, drama, poetry and song, reflecting their cultures, and utilize these forms
of communication to disseminate information on development and social issues.
Promote a balanced and non-stereotyped portrayal of women in the media
Actions to be taken
243. By Governments and international organizations, to the extent
consistent with freedom of expression:
(a) Promote research and implementation of a strategy of information, education and
communication aimed at promoting a balanced portrayal of women and girls and their
multiple roles;
(b) Encourage the media and advertising agencies to develop specific programmes to raise
awareness of the Platform for Action;
(c) Encourage gender-sensitive training for media professionals, including media owners
and managers, to encourage the creation and use of non-stereotyped, balanced and diverse
images of women in the media;
(d) Encourage the media to refrain from presenting women as inferior beings and exploiting
them as sexual objects and commodities, rather than presenting them as creative human
beings, key actors and contributors to and beneficiaries of the process of development;
(e) Promote the concept that the sexist stereotypes displayed in the media are gender
discriminatory, degrading in nature and offensive;
(f) Take effective measures or institute such measures, including appropriate legislation
against pornography and the projection of violence against women and children in the
media.
244. By the mass media and advertising organizations:
(a) Develop, consistent with freedom of expression, professional guidelines and codes of
conduct and other forms of self-regulation to promote the presentation of non-stereotyped
images of women;
(b) Establish, consistent with freedom of expression, professional guidelines and codes of
conduct that address violent, degrading or pornographic materials concerning women in the
media, including advertising;
(c) Develop a gender perspective on all issues of concern to communities, consumers and
civil society;
(d) Increase women's participation in decision-making at all levels of the media.
245. By the media, non-governmental organizations and the private sector,
in collaboration, as appropriate, with national machinery for the advancement of women:
(a) Promote the equal sharing of family responsibilities through media campaigns that
emphasize gender equality and non-stereotyped gender roles of women and men within the
family and that disseminate information aimed at eliminating spousal and child abuse and
all forms of violence against women, including domestic violence;
(b) Produce and/or disseminate media materials on women leaders, inter alia, as leaders
who bring to their positions of leadership many different life experiences, including but
not limited to their experiences in balancing work and family responsibilities, as
mothers, as professionals, as managers and as entrepreneurs, to provide role models,
particularly to young women;
(c) Promote extensive campaigns, making use of public and private educational programmes,
to disseminate information about and increase awareness of the human rights of women;
(d) Support the development of and finance, as appropriate, alternative media and the use
of all means of communication to disseminate information to and about women and their
concerns;
(e) Develop approaches and train experts to apply gender analysis with regard to media
programmes.
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