Tayland’ın başkenti Bangkok’ta 2-4 Aralık tarihlerinde gerçekleştirilen 1. Uluslararası Medya ve Toplumsal Cinsiyet Forumu’nun sonuç bildirgesi açıklandı. Bildirgede, “Biz 1. Uluslararası Medya ve Toplumsal Cinsiyet Forumu’nun delegeleri olarak; medya sistemlerinde, yapılarında ve içeriğinde toplumsal cinsiyet eşitliğinin yükseltilmesini, kadınların güçlendirilmesini ve Uluslararası Medya ve Toplumsal Cinsiyet Birliği’nin (GAMAG) kurulmasını taahhüt ettiğimizi duyuruyoruz.” denildi.
Bildirgede, kadınların hayatın her alanında tam katılımının sağlanması için medyanın önemli rol oynadığı vurgulandı.
Toplumsal cinsiyet eşitliğini, kadınların güçlendirilmesini, kadınların medya dünyasında karar mekanizmalarında yer almasını hedeflediklerini belirten forum delegeleri, tüm medyada toplumsal cinsiyete ilişkin basmakalıp olmayan, adil ve dengeli tanımlamaların yapılması için çalışacaklarını açıkladı. Delegeler, ayrıca, medyada toplumsal cinsiyet eşitliğinin sağlanması için etik ilke ve kuralların uygulanmasını teşvik edeceklerini duyurdu.
Medya içinde her işte ve işin her aşamasında, karar alma mekanizmalarında kadınların eşit temsili için çalışacaklarını belirten delegeler, kadınların medyada güvenliğini, dijital platformanlarda eşit katılımını, yurttaşların toplumsal cinsiyet konusunda medya aracılığıyla bilgilendirilmesi ve bilinçlendirilmesini amaçladıklarını dile getirdi.
Forum delegesi kadınlar, bu amaçlar doğrultusunda, Uluslararası Medya ve Toplumsal Cinsiyet Birliği’nin (GAMAG) kurulmasını desteklediklerini ifade etti.
Bildirgede, UNESCO ve BM Kadın başta olmak üzere, tüm BM ailesine ve partner kurumlara, bu birliğe katılarak çalışmalara katkıda bulunma çağrısı yapıldı.
Bildirgede ayrıca şu ifadeler yer aldı: “Herkesi GAMAG’a üye olmaya, bizimle birlikte bilgi toplumunda ve medya teknolojilerinde, kadınların eşit olanaklara ve fırsatlara sahip olması için destek sunmaya çağırıyoruz.”The Global Alliance on Media and Gender (GAMG) was formally launched on 4 December, 2013, in Bangkok at the close of the UNESCO Global Forum on Media and Gender. Here is the declariton by UNESCO and partners:
In 1995, the United Nations identified gender inequality in media – in access, representation and the dearth of female decision-makers – as a key area of concern in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action at the Fourth World Conference on Women. Progress since has been largely fragmented and lacking the force of a global body capable of seizing upon positive momentum for the benefit of women worldwide – until now.
The Global Alliance on Media and Gender (GAMG) was formally launched on 4 December, 2013, in Bangkok at the close of the UNESCO Global Forum on Media and Gender.
This pioneering collective will bring together key stakeholders capable of effecting meaningful change; among them are representatives of media organizations, media professionals, academics, policy-makers, civil society groups, development agencies. Membership will be dynamic and open to all parties that subscribe to the alliance’s core principles.
International in scope and integrated in structure, the GAMG is a cohesive global force dedicated to tackling gender disparities in media.
The Final Statement declaring the GAMG’s overarching mission read: “We are committed to gender equality and women’s empowerment across generations to fully participate and enabling women’s access to expression and decision-making by promoting a gender-inclusive media and communication environment that reaches gender equality in media organizations.”
Janis Karklins, the Assistant Director-General for UNESCO’s Communication and Information Sector, oversaw final deliberations on a draft framework for the GAMG.
After receiving additional inputs from participants and obtaining unanimous approval for the initiative to establish the GAMG, he announced that further feedback would be accepted via UNESCO headquarters’ website until 15 December, 2013. Following that, an official version of the framework will be posted and, barring any major objections, will be considered final.
The formation of the alliance marked the culmination of the first-ever Global Forum on Gender and Media, which brought together more than 300 participants from over 80 countries from 2-4 December, 2013.
At the closing of the event, Churairat Sangboon, the Secretary-General of the Thailand National Commission for UNESCO, called the forum, the first of its kind, a success in spurring an important dialogue on female equality in media.
“Our aim in coming together for this meeting is to stimulate debate on the challenges faced by international, regional and national gender and media programmes,” she said. “More specifically, it was also intended to facilitate a Global Alliance on Media and Gender and to achieving Millennium Development Goal Three, promoting gender equality and empowering women. For this meeting, I believe we have successfully achieved our objectives.”
Corletha Ollivierre, Director of the Board of the Caribbean Broadcasting Union, applauded the integrated framework of the draft GAMG, saying it opened up a major forum for dialogue and cooperation, particularly between civil society groups and media houses.
“The Global Alliance starts today, with all of us in this room linking with other partners to make sure things happen,” she said. “Media houses are not the enemies of civil society. We have to try to find ways to engage constructively … We must work together to bring about the transformation that is needed.”
Philomene Aboudou from the African Union of Broadcasters agreed that the GAMG served as a valuable forum for cooperation and a long-needed mechanism to advance one of the key areas of concern in the Beijing Plan of Action. “In Beijing, we talked about media and gender, but did not take further action. After this event we will have an important mechanism to work together on this with UNESCO,” she said.
Adama Lee Bah, President of Young People in the Media and youth representative on the steering committee of the Global Alliance for Partnerships on Media and Information Literacy, called for the need for young people to have a voice in the GAMG and for older generations to be open to this important voice. “To be kind is more important than to be right. Many times what we need is not a brilliant mind that speaks, but a unique heart that listens,” she said. “What we want… is [a platform] where young people can have the confidence to voice our thoughts, our dreams and challenges for a better future.”
Closing the forum, Dr Karklins, said that while the establishment of the alliance was a historic step in the right direction, the real work lies ahead.
“I hope for all of us this is just an intermediate step because we have set ambitious goals. We have created a framework, an alliance. We will be animating that and we will be defending the cause of gender equality in representation and empowerment of women in media together,” he said. “We will carry on, with the same vigour, our work to ensure and promote freedom of expression and freedom of media which is absolutely necessary for democratic societies.” Inputs resulting out of the GAMG would feed into the 2015 development agenda, he added.
UNESCO’s key partners for the Global Forum on Media and Gender were: Thailand’s Ministry of Education, Thammasat University, Thai Public Service Broadcaster, UN Women, the World Meteorological Organization, the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), the Doha Centre for Media Freedom, IREX, the World Association for Christian Communication, the Panos Institute for South Africa, and Al-Jazeera.
