New campaign for gender equality in the media and safety of journalists and media workers

The Association of Journalists of Macedonia and the Trade Union of Journalists and Media Workers in cooperation with the Balkan Fund for Democracy worked on a video campaign to raise awareness about the situation of journalists and media workers, where the emphasis was on the safety of journalists and gender equality in the media.

For the needs of the campaign, videos were made where journalists, victims of attacks and verbal threats were interviewed, as well as experts in the field who perform analysis in specific areas, and then videos were made in Macedonian, Albanian and English.

Zorana Gadzovska – Spasovska, journalist at Radio Free Europe and Ferikan Iljazi Arifi, journalist at Euronews Albania:

Dr. Ivana Stojanovska, Head of the Department for Support of the Work of the Director and Public Relations Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services and Nita Starova, Project Coordinator for Gender Issues at the Friedrich Ebert Foundation Skopje and author of the AJM analysis of gender in the media

The general conclusion is that although journalism is considered a “female” profession, gender equality is almost non-existent when it comes to management positions in the media. Ensuring gender equality in the media sphere is a necessity for a prosperous media environment in a democratic society, the media industry needs to be at the forefront of the protection of human rights and equality. Gender challenges are a key factor.

When it comes to security, we often witness sexist and degrading language in our country towards women, media workers, who make an effort to discredit them. Unfortunately, physical attacks are not excluded either. According to a survey by the International Federation of Journalists, the majority of journalists who have been attacked online have decided to self-censor and stop covering specific topics in order to avoid new attacks on their personalities. Attacking journalists in one country is an attack on the entire democracy.

The campaign was funded by the Balkan Democracy Fund, a project of the German Marshall Fund of the United States and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The views expressed in the videos do not necessarily represent those of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Balkan Fund for Democracy, the German Marshall Fund of the United States or its partners.