Women’s rights are human rights

Women in media - PFF Chair Monica Miller, centre, and FFA Media Officer Lisa Williams, left, with PINA President Moses Stevens, at the 2016 Pacific Media Summit.

PACIFIC FREEDOM FORUM·THURSDAY, 9 MARCH 2017

“I am making this plea to the women who go through any situation where their rights as workers and journalists are under threat, to please reach out and report these incidents”

ARCHIVE UPDATE :

Women journalists may appear to have a glamorous job, but reality behind the scenes includes bullying, sexual harassment and lower pay. Photo / RNZI / Johnny Blades

#IWD Message from PFF Chair Monica Miller

Women’s rights are human rights.

Reminding ourselves and our communities of that simple statement every March 8 is a call that is necessary for two reasons: we need to celebrate the achievements and progress that has been made.

Decent pay

And we need to recharge ourselves, organize, and act to rise up to the challenges that remain.

Pacific women in the media, through the promise of our Pacific leaders when they went to Beijing, China for the UN's action call on women in 1995, have a right to leadership and decision-making roles in the media.

They have a right to decent pay and working conditions while employers implement gender equality polices in newsrooms.

Fair, balanced

And as media consumers, we all have the right to fair, balanced news content speaking to gender balanced news content and values.

They a right to all these things not because they are women, but because they are human.

International Women's Day isn't about creating a space where our men and boys feel left out.

Threats

It's about addressing the spaces where our women and girls are left out.

This time last year, as we have in previous years, PFF issued an alert specific to the threats against women's voices and women's work in the news.

That hasn't changed.

Volunteer

Our media release this year highlights a focus issue of concern for balance in gender portrayal in news content, and calls on more Pacific newsrooms to support the Global Media Monitoring Project, to ensure results are more reflective of our realities.

PFF is a volunteer network, led by journalists for journalists on the Article 19 watchdog role at the core of our work.

I want to thank my co-chairs Alex Rheeney from PNG, and Bernedette Carreon from Palau, for their support and advisory role for the Melanesia and Micronesia subregions.

Violence

In the focus that PFF takes on industry-led, industry-focused solutions to the problems of violence, intimidation, and working conditions facing our Pacific women in journalism, there remains an insidious silence and denial that the problems women in media face are worth reporting.

I am making this plea to the women who go through any situation where their rights as workers and journalists are under threat, to please reach out and report these incidents.

About IWD The United Nations began celebrating International Women’s Day (IWD) on 8 March during International Women’s Year 1975.

United Nations

Two years later, in December 1977, the General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace to be observed on any day of the year by Member States, in accordance with their historical and national traditions.

International Women’s Day first emerged from the activities of labour movements at the turn of the twentieth century in North America and across Europe.

Since those early years, International Women’s Day has assumed a new global dimension for women in developed and developing countries alike.

Acts of courage

The growing international women’s movement, which has been strengthened by four global United Nations women’s conferences, has helped make the commemoration a rallying point to build support for women’s rights and participation in the political and economic arenas.

Increasingly, International Women’s Day is a time to reflect on progress made.

To call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their countries and communities.

NOTE:

PFF - registered in the Cook Islands - dateline today is 8th March, International Women’s Day #IWD

PFF HEADLINES ON WOMEN IN MEDIA

News leaders must stop bullying women https://www.facebook.com/notes/paci...

Stop assaults on free speech https://www.facebook.com/notes/paci...

Deadline looms on Papua Press blocks http://www.pacificfreedomforum.info/...

CONTACTS

Monica Miller
PFF Chair
News Director, South Seas Broadcasting American Samoa monica@southseasbroadcasting.com
+6842584197

Alexander Rheeney
PFF Co-Chair
President, Media Council PNG
Papua New Guinea alexander.rheeney@outlook.com
+67578045266

Bernadette H. Carreon
PFF Co-Chair
Palau
Correspondent, Guam Business
carreon.bernadette@gmail.com
+680779430

Netani Rika
PFF Coordinator
Communications Director
Pacific Council of Churches Fiji netrika66@gmail.com

ABOUT PFF

The Pacific Freedom Forum is a regional and global online network of Pacific media colleagues, with the specific intent of raising awareness and advocacy of the right of Pacific people to enjoy freedom of expression and be served by a free and independent media. We believe in the critical and basic link between these freedoms, and the vision of democratic and participatory governance pledged by our leaders in their endorsement of the Pacific Plan and other commitments to good governance. In support of the above, our key focus is monitoring threats to media freedom and bringing issues of concern to the attention of the wider regional and international community.

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