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Herald Reporter
Media organisations need to promote gender balance in the newsrooms and ensure women occupy their share of the top positions, a Women in News workshop in Harare heard yesterday.
An additional problem was that sexual harassment in some newsrooms was forcing some women out of the profession.
Out of the 3 647 accredited journalists in Zimbabwe, 2 804 are men while 843 are women. The workshop was attended by senior Government officials, senior female journalists, junior reporters and interns, among others. The workshop was meant to come up with solutions to the challenges faced by women in media especially in dealing with sexual harassment.
In a speech read on her behalf by Deputy Minister Kindness Paradza, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said it was discouraging that men held more than 70 percent of newsroom management jobs in the majority of countries, while female journalists hold only 27 percent.
“It is, therefore, not surprising that women are noticeably scarce from decision-making positions within media houses in Africa and elsewhere,” said Minister Mutsvangwa. “It is for this reason that we celebrate notable achievements with some amazing female editors and managers, some of whom are on this platform; a good number being Women in News alumni.
“As Government, we encourage media organisations to actively provide the necessary support and training to retain and advance female media workers to C-suite positions.”
Minister Mutsvangwa said the Government had introduced a raft of media reforms in the last three years, which have resulted in the appointment of female journalists to head the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation where Ms Adelaide Chikunguru is the chief executive officer, The Sunday Mail where Victoria Ruzvidzo is the Editor and Manica Post whose Editor is Wendy Nyakurerwa-Matinde.
Faith Zaba is Editor of The Zimbabwe Independent, with Nomsa Nkala being head of the Zimpapers Television Network while Susan Makore was appointed Commissioner in the Zimbabwe Media Commission.
“Although we have women editors, assistant editors, line editors and women in management positions for other departments in media organisations, however, the numbers are small and there are still many barriers to women’s advancement in the media sector,” said Minister Mutsvangwa.
Participants at the workshop said there was need to empower media women practitioners so they could deal with issues of gender equality and sexual harassment.
Public Service Commissioner Dr Tsitsi Choruma said: “There was need for safe and harmonious working conditions for men and women to feel secure, respected and empowered in the newsrooms.
“Empowerment has nothing to do with education, it has nothing to do with skills but it has everything to do with the behaviour you take on when you deal with difficult situations.”
However, Dr Choruma said Government had come up with a policy on sexual harassment which also could be used by media organisations when drafting their own policies.
WIN Africa director Ms Jane Goda said women were missing in top leadership positions of media organisations.
“Thus we decided to start a programme or project that would build the capacity of women in media to take up leadership and management positions,” she said.
Zimbabwe Gender Commission chief executive officer Mrs Virginia Muwanigwa said: “As we go up the ladder of media you lose some of the women that were very promising that should have actually have gone to the top of the ladder in that profession but they do not because of issues of sexual harassment.
“There is need for gender balance in the newsrooms and it is necessary in the event that someone has had to do with sexual harassment and needs to report and there is a human resource section that only has men or only has women, you will then find out it will be difficult to get different perspectives to the issue.”
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