Conclusions of the Seminar

On  Violence against Women

Never Acceptable, Never Excusable, Never Tolerable

What Role can Media Play? *

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Background and Rationale:

In the era of globalization and convergence, media is all pervasive. People can easily access it in their homes and cars, on their personnel device and on the movie. Access to media brings many benefits to a society and those who create media must be aware of their responsibility to use it for the benefit of society. With violence against women still shrouded in secrecy and shame in most countries, it is imperative that media plays a positive role in ensuring that governments pass laws and offer support service which will bring about sustainable social change. This applies right across the spectrum of journalism, from responsible, sensitive and accurate reporting to providing information and messages that support women’s right to be free from abuse and ensuring gender stereotyping is not the mainstay of reports.

Acknowledging the impact media has in the strategy to end violence against women, the International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT), together with Sub-commission on Promotion of Equal Opportunity, National Human Rights Commission of Thailand and UNIFEM have organized the South East Asia Regional Conference entitled “Media and Violence against Women” on 31 May – 1 June 2008 at Grand Tower Inn, Bangkok, Thailand. This will be a public forum of journalists, women rights activists and NGOs, media practitioners and academics to discuss strategies and share their experience in order to document good media practice and successful media initiatives linked to raising awareness of ending violence against women.

Objectives:

1.      To share experiences among women’s rights activists, media producers, media distributors and academics in the issues of violence against women and role of media in making women’s concerns heard.

2.      To seek examples of good media practice and promote gender sensitive reporting in the media.

3.      To strengthen the connections between women’s rights activists and media in Thailand and its neighboring countries in South East Asia region with the aim of building a Thailand Chapter of IAWRT.

Activities:

a.      To organize seminar, panel discussions, case studies and group discussions.

b.      To collect network data of women’s rights organization, media producers, media distributors and others working in the area of ending violence against women for future cooperation and support.

Time and Venue:

Saturday 31 May – Sunday 1 June 2008

Grand Tower Inn, Bangkok, Thailand

Seminar Agenda

Southeast Asia Sub-regional Conference

Violence against Women

Never Acceptable, Never Excusable, Never Tolerable

What Roles Can Media Play?

Sunday 31 May – Sunday 1 June 2008

Ton Fa Room

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Conclusion of the Seminar on 31 May 2008

 Violence against Women:

Never Acceptable, Never Excusable, Never Tolerable

What role can Media play?

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Saturday 31 May 2008

Opening Remarks

Delivered by Lady Ambhorn  Meesook, National Human Rights Commission of Thailand

Good morning gentlemen and ladies! It’s a great pleasure to be here this morning and welcome all participants to our seminar on “Violence against Women: Never Acceptable, Never Excusable, Never Tolerable”. And actually, our Chairman, Professor Saneh Chamarik was supposed to be here but unfortunately he could not present here and I have substituted him. Actually, he should come to join us, since we need more men to help us to do our work.

Last night, I had a nice dinner with IAWRT Board members; I knew from them that IAWRT was established for more than 50 years, it’s very fantastic and very long history when we look back at its historical background.  I also look at the name lists of participants for this Seminar; we have 15 different countries represented here and mostly come from radio and television producers.

The Violence against Women issue is very important since it happens all over the world and most of them obviously started from their families. Most wives have to devote their life for families and when women get hurt by their families, they can not speak out! How can we change these attitudes not only among women? I myself have been working as psychological counselor for a number of years. I found that it hurts all family whenever the parent fight together, these are very serious psychological and physical problems, we have to educate them as long  as they have engaged with married life. We have to encourage women to help themselves, and also have to encourage the media to expose and cover this issue publicly. Issues of VAW can be pursued by women themselves, I hope then you will be able to do it! Anyhow, VAW is not only matter of women but it also engages with all family members and society. How come violence against women and children start from families? All have to be educated as much as possible, in our work we need a lot of information on every aspect. When we talk about role of media, we should talk about all concerned, especially in ‘discrimination and prejudice’ related issues. I wish you all very successful and enjoyable seminar here.

Introduction Remarks

Delivered by Olya Booyar,

President, IAWRT

Good morning, we were very excited by a number of participants and countries represented here. On behalf of IAWRT, I would like to welcome you all to our Seminar and thank those who contributed from IAWRT, NHRCT and UNIFEM to make this seminar happen. As Lady Meesook mentioned earlier, IAWRT was established for half a century to ensure that women could be seen and heard through the media perspective and to share strategies that contribute to the professional growth of women working in the electronic media. We work to empower women to not only know their rights, but have the skills to actively participate in lobbying for their rights in public and through government and the media.

IAWRT has started as far back as the 1940s as a friendship and support network for women in Radio who were very few in those days and needed moral as well as professional support.  More than 50 years later, we are now a global organization with some 300 members in 53 countries and we still provide this support but now much more, through our various activities and programs worldwide.  IAWRT works through the electronic media to promote gender sensitivity in reporting and to ensure women’s voices and issues are presented in a fair and balanced manner.

For this Seminar, we focus on VAW, because it affects everybody. Violence against women transcends all physical boundaries, races, social standing and financial disposition.  When women get hurt in the home, on streets, in conflict as a weapon of war, society as a whole suffers.  Why did we look at media’s role? Because it starts with us, the media – whether we report it, how we report it, how we ensure those reports are accurate and free of stereotyping and how we ensure that women’s voices and needs are put at the forefront of reform. As the UN Secretary General said in his launch of a multi-agency campaign to end Violence against Women earlier this year, VAW should be never acceptable, never excusable and never tolerable.

We hope to join our resources over the next two days and learn from each other’s experiences to put together good media practice guides which will give you the necessary resources to use in your countries.  Together, we will continue to work towards a violence-free world for women.

Introduction to the Theme “Stop Violence against Women”

These scenarios were adapted and created from parts of real stories for stimulating and illustrating “what role can the media play?” in the seminar.

At the beginning of scenarios, Paisarn Likhitpreechakul, representative of LGBT network, explained that there have been many women victims of violence portrayed in the media. On television and in then newspaper, they are often photographed, shown, seen – but almost never heard. Although the many of them can not be here, let us give them long-overdue voices.

Then LGBT network volunteers, as a member of peer-to-peer network of NHRCT, conveyed their messages with lit candles.

Scenario I:  TV reporting of “Police raid an abortion clinic”   I don’t understand it! Why every time they show the police raid an abortion clinic, the TV cameras have to pan across the waiting area to let the viewers see all the women? Sometimes they even show the operation in progress with the patient still legs-up in the stirrups.   I believe that a woman must be going through a crisis in her life and must have gone through a lot of mental pain before she decides to have an abortion as the last resort. As if all these sufferings aren’t enough, the camera now stares at her like a pointing finger. The next day’s newspapers will be screaming “Loose women lined up to get rid of their baby problem”. When will our society stop blaming and offer better alternatives for these women?     ****************************   Scenario II:  Mother arrested for turning daughter prostitute to pay off debts   I love my teenage daughter. Even though, she has her own ways, I always try to be there for her. One day while we were out, we ran into someone she knew. She went over to talk with him. He gave her some money; she came back and asked me to keep it.  “I will go to apply for a job with my friend. I’ll be right back,” she said and left with him.   The next thing I know, a man stopped me and identified himself as a policeman. He used the banknotes as evidence to arrest me. I was charged with “procuring, enticing or transporting a child under 15 years of age for the purpose of prostitution regardless of the child’s consent”   Soon I was taken to re-enact the crime, I didn’t commit at a hotel where TV cameras and newspapers reporters were waiting. I was very confused by the whole things and was never given opportunity to explain anything. Everything was already set and staged.   The next morning I was all over newspapers headlines “Mother arrested for turning daughter prostitute to pay off debts”. I was condemned as an evil mother even before the investigation started.   My neighbors know that I have my own beauty salon to make an honest living and there’s no way I will ever exploit my child. But nobody can help me   ***************************

Scenario III:  No responsibilities whatsoever for the adverse effects resulting from the media.     I am a sex worker. I use the money I’m paid to give my children the best education possible. One day a TV program contacted me for an interview about my life. I agreed because I thought my story would benefit others. In addition to the interview, I also suggested that they talk to people in my community and record my daily life. When the tape went on air, the result wasn’t what I had expected. The people in my community turned against me. My children were scorned by their classmates for having a prostitute for a mother. And the TV program took no responsibilities whatsoever for these adverse effects on me resulting from their show.   ****************************     Scenario IV:  Good practice: what roles can media play?   I was a victim of the human trade. I was smuggled into Japan and forced into prostitution. Later, I was convicted for murdering the Mama-san. Thanks to a NGO which works to help victims of the human trade, I was released from jail for health reason. I was terminally ill from ovarian cancer.   During the little time I have left back in Thailand, I asked the same organization to help me tell my story so that other women will think twice before taking up job offers in a country they don’t know. When my story was told through the media, many people contacted me to give moral support. Some even donated money for my child’s education.   I must thank all these TV programs, newspapers and magazines for helping to prevent others from becoming victims. Although I’m no longer alive, I hope my story will live on to benefit other women.   ****************************

At the end of sentimental presentation, Paisarn reinforced that the lit candles they were holding represent the voices of women who weren’t allowed to speak for themselves. They also stand for the hope that no more women should fall victim to violence. Let us take one minute of silence to reflect on how we can help put an end to violence against women.

Current Situation of Violence against Women

Speaker: Associate Professor Pawadee Thonguthai

Faculty of Economics, Thammasat University, Thailand

Professor Pawadee spoke about the relationship of VAW in terms of human rights framework and raised some questions that how can knowledge of human rights help to prevent VAW and also how media can play a role. The long and crucial movement of women in the world helped to shape some safeguards for promoting and protecting women’s life. These aim to fulfill women’s rights by empowering women to engage with a number of international norms and standards. But it still has a big gap and loophole of enforcement and irregular matters! Within the line of these international standards, the State is obliged to prevent, eradicate and punish whoever violated these rights.

Anyhow so far, women are not still empowered, but disregarded! The blanket discrimination still covers their rights. The patriarchy doctrine and man-dominated culture are inherited and maintained this sexual discrimination. Some women in some countries were beaten and raped without any prohibitions and provisions of redress and remedy. The enormous concerns are raised and mobilized by the global community and caused recently, situation of VAW becomes more visible, women start up to speak out and work on this issue together!

And according to a number of researches done in Thailand, VAW is still found in different sectors, some are immediately rectified, but some still emerge, inherit and disguise into different forms. Moreover, consequence of VAW is still badly reported by the media; i.e. raped women in newspapers were always exposed through the Thai media with a focus on sexual preference and the perpetrators tentatively gave interviews that all solicited acts have been done by the women first and then they raped these women.  Hence, women, communities and families have to be engaged to resolve VAW. Negative consequences and all forms of VAW have to be investigated by State vigorously. End of impunity of VAW should be considered. The perpetrator/violator has to be penalized in due process.

How can we link VAW with the role of media?  We have to look at the system of VAW which well-elaborated for a long history and already proliferated and embedded to variety of arenas. The media should pay more attention whenever it has to use images and voices of affected women. All have to be done in a sensitive way and should be considered whether they will reproduce violence against these affected women again or not. The gender-sensitivity approach should be dedicatedly applied with the media production. The media has to be aware that it plays the vital role towards VAW, several Thai soap operas still show the actions of VAW and express that these are ways to show how much they love each other i.e. Sawan Biang (Distorted Heaven) melodrama of Channel 3, Thailand. Once, the media adopts the industry standards, gender-sensitivity approach, especially eradication of VAW, should be automatically elaborated. Media should be a guiding lamp for the public. At least, more problems could be solved and other key sectors of society should be educated to realize their important roles to achieve this goal together.

At the end of session, 10-minute was afforded to Q and A and open discussion. A number of participants shared information and feelings regarding VAW. It happens world-wide and deeply embodied into the culture of global family. The indirect VAW is still found in every areas i.e. education, access to jobs and remuneration.

Media: How does it present VAW? Experiences from Journalists, Media Practitioners and Women’s Human Rights Activists

Moderated by Dr.Waraporn Chamsanit

Office of Human Rights Studies and Social Development,

Mahidol University, Thailand

Ms. Gunilla Ivarsson, Sweden, Secretary, IAWRT

Gunilla shared her experiences on media production for elimination of VAW. The stop-VAW advocacy activities were conduced through a number of media in Sweden i.e. 3 radio stations, 25 television programs, telephone discussion and online survey. Most of data were provided to these channels and tried to encourage women, as the affected persons, to protect themselves and also persuade the society members to understand and help to eliminate VAW. Sometimes, women victims could express themselves to the public, in case they already overcame all fears. There was a debate about VAM (Violence against Men) at that time as well, but it’s still a tiny number. As a journalist, it’s very important to address and introduce this issue into the programs. We should look inside our selves and empower ourselves, then spell it out “no more VAW”.

The new technology gives more interactive ways to access the media i.e. e-mail or telephone discussion. And as a media producer, we have to give more concerns to the way to propose and generate our ideas widely, we should seek the ways to encourage all ordinary people to access the media themselves. Identification and rationale have to be used to develop media to tackle VAW.

Ms. Tasneem Ahmar, Women’s Media Forum, Pakistan

In Pakistan, there are a number of media engaging with VAW.  As a woman media producer, Tasneem worked with editors who mostly are men and deeply embedded with the patriarchy doctrine. Over the past ten years, the media in Pakistan devoted their endeavors to overcome VAW through various activities, especially policy lobbying and public-awareness raising activities, etc. Gender-bias discrimination was deeply rooted within Pakistan culture; some laws have been proposed to amend or abolish bias. A lot of cases have been publicized and asked for public pressure to eradicate the blanket discrimination. Cross-cutting issues have been used to ‘seek’ the positive ways to enhance the social cooperation for prohibition of VAW. The issues-based television programs were introduced increasingly and gender-sensitivity approach was applied to them.

In case of Pakistan, access to water is a very important issue and women are the ones to walk for hours to get it for their family which causes serious health problems for them that are not addressed. Withholding money from women is another form of abuse. A positive message was launched through the media to build basic understandings of women’s rights.

Alternative media programs and some specific activities were created for policy advocacy through diverse sources and dialogues i.e. female millionaire who faced a problem of visa issuance. The media can get women out from under this blanket.

Ms. Thongsay Thipthavong, Deputy of Technical Division, Laos Women’s Union

Several radio and television programs as well as newspapers have been created to cover “Stop VAW” campaign.  Women are educated about the VAW-related laws. Several meetings have been set up for constructive dialogues to enforce and monitor these laws. In Laos, 90 % of programs are devoted to family issues. Several women and violence cases were found i.e. Thai women who illegally migrated to Laos could be identified as ‘trafficking victims’ and considered within gender-sensitivity approach without criminalization and victimization, which the media has to work on carefully.   

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Chalidaporn Songsumpun, Thammasat University, Thailand

Dr. Chalidaporn is not a media producer, but as a media consumer who watches and studies how VAW is presented by media. As an academic she is always concerned with gender-equity issues and she freely criticizes and monitors the media.  She has found that the ways that media portrays VAW also plays to the Thai society’s preferences i.e. ‘romantic rape’ in soap-operas. These entertainment programs capture majority audiences and have a huge impact on them. Such “plot lines” should not be dramatized as they normalize this behavior and lead it to being tolerated by Thai society.  

At the present time, many journalists in Thailand have been trying to inform, educate and expose the phenomena of VAW. It illustrates that situation of VAW was seemingly identified and is becoming exposed.  Within journalistic presenting styles, some VAW cases are too complicated, so when they were produced and translated into the usual way media reports, they were simplified and sometimes missed important points. Dr. Chalidaporn feels that people in Thai society are quite familiar with VAW issues but Thai media should improve its ways for presenting VAW cases in detail. She still hopes that the Thai media will give more spaces for allowing different voices to be heard and seen. We should contest and we need public space for contesting.

At the end of session, a number of queries and discussions are shared i.e. Nepal - in mainstream media 80-90 % are dominated by high-rank position men. We should creatively design the ways to tackle VAW i.e. periodical monitoring media, award for most gender-sensitivity media; Bhutan - shared her experiences regarding family programs. Counselors came to visit the programs and gave some advice to improve the media. Hence, she tried to simplify and find a proper way for women to access to the media. Vietnam - shared points of view regarding how media, especially ‘Game Show’, will be in the line of gender-sensitivity approach. Thailand - suggested a way to ‘influence’ media to keep in the line of gender-sensitivity by ‘sponsor lobbying’. And Philippines - proposed that awareness raising activities should be created to access and consolidate the wide group of people.

Presentation of Radio and TV News and Documentary Films on Violence against Women from participating countries

Presented by: Representatives from IAWRT, Burma, Philippines, Pakistan, Norway, Thailand, etc.

Moderated by: Ms. Jai Chandiram, Managing Trustee, IAWRT, India Chapter

Chawida Watinchai, news reporter, Channel 9, Thai Television is a well known reporter who closely works with the gender-sensitivity issues for several years. She selected her work on 3 issues related to VAW to present to the conference as: (1) the documentary film of young parent and VAW. It was a real story of young family who always fought and accidentally caused their child’s death. Husband was arrested. (2) The second film was a story of young women who got pregnant without being married. Some had to have abortions and caused serious damage to themselves and sometimes death. They could not seek any help from their immediate families, ran away from homes and stayed with emergency aid centers. (3) The third story was about Bua, a trafficked Thai woman in Japan. First time she was taken to Japan