Cameroon: Seminar on challenges of women in the media

The seminar was organised by the International Federation of Journalists, IFJ and Union of Professional Syndicates of Press in Central Africa, USYPAC, in partnership with Friedrich Ebert Foundation on the theme "Women in the media and their rights to syndicates in Central Africa"

A two-day seminar was organised at Sky Bonapriso to address the difficulties women face in the media.

Journalism is most often regarded as a profession for men and many see it as a strange world for women. In most media houses in Cameroon and abroad there is some degree of marginalisation. The political and economic articles are written by men and the soft news handled by women. Besides this, there are other situations which the female journalists face in their work places such as sexual harassment, among others. These observations were made by media analysts at a two-day seminar which recently took place in Bonapriso Douala.

The seminar was organised by the International Federation of Journalists, IFJ and Union of Professional Syndicates of Press in Central Africa, USYPAC, in partnership with Friedrich Ebert Foundation on the theme "Women in the media and their rights to syndicates in Central Africa".

Pamela Morinière, in Charge of Authors rights, gender equality and projects at the IFJ also said at the workshop that the main problem of journalists, generally is that their pay package is low. She added that women have a very low pay package and face gender inequality and are sexually harassed. These are issues, she said, which they seek to address. In handling these problems, she said they seek to raise awareness in media professionals to be conscious of this situation and to put in place structures that can tackle such setbacks, speak out against female journalists marginalisation.

The Country representative of Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Dr Klaus-Peter Treydte said the women are not alone in their fight saying they are out to support the women and to foster gender equality at the workplace. The Foundation presented a research which they carried out on gender equality in journalism.

Henriette Ekwe, coordinator of Central African branch of USYPAC presented the situation of female journalists in Cameroon, Central Africa Republic, Chad, and Congo. She pointed out that most women were not interested in becoming members of the USYPAC syndicate which could help them fight for their rights. She remarked that women are mostly found in the broadcast media as presenters and there are few in the print.

- October 20, 2009 by Effa Tambenkongho

.................

 Source: allafrica.com/stories/200910200626.html (accessed on 21.10.2009)