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Zimbabwean media lacks grounding in reporting gender related issues
Sharon Tapfumaneyi, MISA-Zimbabwe
Extracted from MISA-Zimbabwe Monthly Alerts Digest- November 2005
December 12, 2005

In Zimbabwe, as elsewhere in the world, gender based violence continues to rear its ugly head due to the traditional, cultural, religeous and social factors that seriously impact on the rights of women as human beings.

The media therefore, has a critical role to play in taking issues of gender violence and HIV / AIDS and reproductive health into the public sphere. The Zimbabwean media has, however, been found wanting in playing this critical role.

Despite the commemoration of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, the country’s media continues to relegate issues pertaining to gender based violence, HIV and Aids and reproductive health to the periphery of social discourse.

The 16 Days of Activism commemorate the anniversary of the 1993 United Nations conference on human rights where violence against women was formerly recognised as a violation of human rights.

The media has, however, been found wanting when it comes to reporting and exposing gender-based violence.

This nebulous attention to issues pertaining to sexual abuse of minors, child marriages and gender violence, has resulted in the upsurge of crimes of that nature in Zimbabwe.

The media in Zimbabwe tends to restrict its coverage of gender violence as isolated cases based on court proceedings or police reports, and not as human rights issues.

This stereotypical reporting of gender issues resides in the lack of requisite policies that should guide the media in bringing to the fore and into the public domain information and reportage which will advance gender equality.

The Beijing Platform of Action identified as one of its critical areas of concern, the role of the media as a medium for the advancement of gender equality.

Although the Zimbabwean government has committed itself regionally and internationally to the various protocols that recognise women’s rights as human rights, it is civic groups and non-governmental organisations that have been on the forefront of championing the causes of women.

This situation has resulted in the continuous gender insensitive reportage that only serves to entrench gender inequality at the expense of analytical and investigative pieces that will help in not only reducing gender violence but will lead to the formulation of requisite policies.

Just as traditional Zimbabwean society dictates that women should not be heard, the media has perpetuated this by rendering them invisible in their news coverage.

Discouraging women from speaking out in public discourages them from taking up leadership roles and articulating with force issues pertaining to reproductive health, gender violence, equal opportunities and HIV and Aids.

The media should through policy formulations, be encouraged to balance their stories through accessing the comments and views of women.

Sexist language and words that exclude and render women invisible need to be addressed through clearly defined gender responsive policies that will guide journalists in their writing.

Without that, events such as International Women’s Day and 16 Days of Activism will fail to bring about the desired changes as envisaged in the international declarations, conventions and protocols aimed at creating an enabling environment for gender equality and equity between men and women.

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