Women seek media fairness in Southern Sudan

By Miriam Gathigah | Last updated: Dec 3, 2009 - 1:39:52 PM

JUBA, South Sudan (IPS/GIN) - The guns have gone silent—except for sporadic conflict in parts of the vast South Sudan region, such as the Eastern Equatoria State. It may not be the absolute end of the conflict in the region, but it is a reason for renewed hope.

It has been two decades of bitter civil war in Sudan, the southerners bearing the burden of massive destruction which has left an estimated 1.9 million people dead and four million displaced, according to United Nations agencies.

Although many of the estimated six million living in South Sudan are daring to expect a new dawn, the effect these expected changes will have, particularly on women, remains to be seen.

In many African countries women are in the majority, and South Sudan is no exception, with the national report on Millennium Development Goals revealing that women make up 60 percent of the population.

“Despite democracy being understood to be a government of the people and by the people, the role that women can play in both the democratization process of South Sudan, and the sustenance of this democracy, is still not clear,” says Alice Michael, executive director, Voice for Change, and a member of the Women Union, a movement which began in the 1970s and commands a massive following.

“Media coverage of the coming elections (scheduled for April 2010), for instance, is usually supported by pictures of men seemingly caucusing, perhaps to create the impression that they are deep in serious political discussions.”

This, says Ms. Michael, makes politics appear very masculine—and when it becomes a general public perception males find it difficult to view women as equal counterparts.

Her remarks are echoed by Mary Sadia, another member of the union. “The manner in which the media represents us (women) is key in deconstructing the perception that our roles are in our homes, to bear and rear children.

“A few months ago a woman leader worked so hard to put together a public forum, but when we watched its news coverage that evening, male politicians had been accorded centre-stage at her function, and she was reported only to have been there.”

But the director-general in the ministry of Information and Communication in Eastern Equatorial State, Hon. Alex Locor, counters these claims, “There have been deliberate efforts to accord women as much media space as men, particularly in this highly charged political atmosphere.

“There are few media outlets. In Eastern Equatoria State we have only 97.5 FM, which means the media are still acclimatizing themselves, and may not meet all expectations, but there are clear efforts towards equitable gender representation.”

Pauline Luguma, a journalist, adds that women are under-represented in media institutions as practitioners. “This has also compromised the manner in which women are portrayed in the media.”

She said that out of the 11 journalists in Eastern Equatoria State, only two are women. “Women therefore are assigned ‘soft news,' on subjects such as lifestyle, while men cover ‘hard news,' such as the economy and politics.”

The outcome, she says, is a very visible and imbalanced gender disparity, with men appearing as sources and key newsmakers while women are depicted as objects.

John Kennedy Okema, editor-in-chief of 97.5 FM, said although there were challenges in changing from patriarchal news making angles to more gender-representative ones, “there have been initiatives to drive this much-needed paradigm shift, such as deliberately incorporating women's voices in key headline news. But it is not a change that can happen overnight.”

The editor's remarks are echoed by the minister for Information and Communication for Eastern Equatoria State, Bernard Loki. “It is indeed a process that takes a bit of time. In my ministry, for instance, there is a lot of discontent on gender representation because of male dominance.

“The South Sudan story is more complex than this. We are talking about media that only just recently rose from the ashes of war. With time women will take much more media space than they do now.”

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