Gender equality reporting and web content workshop conducted for journalists at Sukkur Press Club.
The Global Neighborhood for Media Innovation (GNMI) conducted a day-long training on how to report sexual and gender-based violence through web content creation on digital media at the Sukkur Press Club on October 24.
Najia Ashar, trainer of the session and founder of GNMI, briefed the participants over key gender issues, the use of appropriate vocabulary in the news reports and stressed that gender-based violence is a public issue and it is the responsibility of the media to hold debates and highlight the issue while taking into consideration journalistic ethics.
The trainer reiterated during the group activities based on real life case studies, that the media could play a role in dispelling gender based myths and stereotypes by reinforcing information about the true nature and extent of the incident they are reporting. The trainer added that journalists through their reports must challenge rather than reinforce medieval cultural and social norms which are now outdated and contrary to human rights.
Over 20 Sukkur-based journalists from mainstream print and electronic media, including bureau chiefs, attended the one-day training session in an interactive setting. The journalists voiced their opinion over the unprofessional treatment of gender sensitive stories seen in the past which led to serious repercussions for the subject and their families. However, the journalists stated that the skills learned in the training will help them in objective reporting but also will help bring positive impact in the society.
“The journalism training on the gender sensitive issues for the digital medium was a much-needed initiative,” said Sukkur Press Club President, Lala Asad Pathan. “Sadly gender issues are not given as much priority as it deserves hence we regularly come across reports which undermine professional ethics. The key takeaway from today’s training is the difference between gender and sex. I would like to laud the team GNMI for putting their efforts in sensitizing the participants towards an important issue which is wrongly considered trivial by a few.”
The training also incorporated pre and post surveys to gauge whether the days exercise was impactful. Alongside the constructive results of the tests, the overall feedback from the participants regarding such workshops taking place in the future was positive.