The number of news articles related to women in Bangladesh has decreased by 10% in 15 years, according to a recent study.
The Sweden-based Fojo Media Institute in cooperation with local organizations conducted the study, titled “Global Study: Gender Equality and Media Regulation”, in five countries, namely Bangladesh, Rwanda, Somalia, Zimbabwe and Sweden.
The Bangladesh part of the study was conducted by Management and Resources Development Initiative with journalist and researcher Qurratul-Ain-Tahmina at the helm, and its findings were unveiled at a webinar in Dhaka on Tuesday.
Gender equality is internationally recognized as a fundamental human right, and gender discrimination is also prohibited in the constitutions of most countries around the world.
The research was conducted to find out what measures had been taken to ensure the right in terms of national policies or voluntary action of the media.
The research said stories related to women accounted for 26% of articles in 2005, compared to 16% in 2020.
The percentage of comments from female experts in different fields remained unchanged at 9% in those 15 years.
The findings emerging from responses from employees of 18 media houses said maternity leave, provision of separate toilets and nighttime drop-off services were the main concerns of female staffers.
The study also suggested that sexual harassment or abuse at the workplace was not properly registered or addressed. Besides, the High Court’s 2009 directives regarding ensuring a harassment-free workplace were not being followed.
Of the outlets that participated in the research, five had codified gender-related guidelines for content, while five others had verbal guidelines.
The research found that in women-related reports in Bangladesh the main focus was sex crimes and the topic least reported on was gender equality.
Inequality in the media reflected the societal values perpetuating inequality, the study said.
The researchers also found that overall no significant measures had been taken to address those inequalities.
Each country in the study had one thing in common: there is still no independent general monitoring system for ensuring gender equality in the media.
The researcher of the Swedish part, Maria Edström, an associate professor at the University of Gothenburg, said in her presentation that Swedish media laws specifically mention gender equality, and that the Gender Equality Agency (2018) monitored the Beijing Platform for Action.
However, there was still no independent media monitoring system for ensuring gender equality in Swedish media, she noted.
In Sweden, news articles related to women were 38% in 2020, up from 31% in 2000, the research mentioned, adding that stories that had comments from female experts rose to 21% from 19% in those two decades.
The Somalian part of the study noted that the country’s 2020 media law did not recognize gender equality.
The study observed that the country’s Media Law 2020 did not recognize gender equality and Somalia did not have a national policy on gender in the media, with the exception of Puntland.
In Zimbabwe the implementation of policies on gender equality and women empowerment in general is low. There is a lack of accountability among most non-gender regulatory bodies, including the media.
But women-related articles saw a 3% increase there – from 22% to 25% – between 2005 and 2020.
