Gender Equality and Media Regulation – a Global Study by Sarah Macharia and Joan Barata Mir

Chapter 4: Conclusions and Recommendations

General

  1. The level of gender equality in the media is to some extent linked to gender equality in the society as a whole, specifically gender equality legislation and gender awareness in general in societies.
  2. A preferred method to promote gender equality in media would be to establish proper and efficient self or co-regulatory mechanisms, which can be promoted through appropriate media policies and legislation.
  3. Media regulators should ensure that consistent and comparable sex disaggregated data on the media is collected, related to gender equality in content and organisation.

Conclusions from the analysis of gender in media legislation

  1. Gendered disinformation is a form of harmful speech which can negatively affect gender equality and endanger public policies and the proper application of legislation in this field. However, restrictive measures would not be acceptable as remedies. The most powerful antidotes to gendered disinformation are gender-sensitive journalism and a well-informed and digitally literate population. (With access to multiple, diverse media and information sources, and multifaceted, multi-stakeholder approaches involving States, companies and civil society, including women’s groups.)
  2. Guarantee of the presence of women within the media, i.e., as journalists and other media staff, collaborators, experts, managers, or owners, is generally absent, in terms of compulsory provisions, in media legislation.
  3. Women media professionals face several gender-based challenges that contribute to limiting their right to freedom of expression, such as sexual harassment and gender-based violence. It is of fundamental importance to acknowledge the specific risks they face in the course of their work, and the importance of taking a gender-sensitive approach when considering measures to address the safety of journalists.
  4. Media legal frameworks generally focus on gender equality and women representation in media content, particularly when it comes to combatting or avoiding sexist prejudices and stereotypes. Proper and proportionate provisions might be considered in this area provided they do not interfere with media freedom.
  5. Intermediaries have become main actors in the process of dissemination and distribution of all types of content. Same legal and regulatory rules that apply to offline speech must in principle also be applied and enforced regarding online speech, including content distributed via online platforms. Platforms’ content moderation systems contain rules and standards aimed at protecting users against certain types of abuses, attacks, and other malicious actions including gender-based ones. However, several content moderation rules and policies established by online platforms may also be used to curtail women’s freedom of expression. It is important for civil society and academia to pay particular attention and increase research and advocacy regarding gender equality on social media. It would also be necessary to promote and/or regulate increased transparency of platforms with regards to the impact of their content moderation policies on gender justice. Normative interventions should be made by national, regional and supranational institutions balancing the self-regulatory-only measures present today.
  6. Gendered hate speech can only be banned and criminalised in cases where the requirements of the Rabat six-part threshold test on hate speech are met and an imminent danger in terms of hostility, discrimination or violence is created by the public promotion and dissemination of hatred. The test defines six parameters to check if a statement may amount to a criminal offence, assessing context, speaker, intent, content, extent of the speech, and likelihood of harm. At the same time, certain forms of hate speech do not reach the threshold of incitement but can still trigger legal consequences in the form of civil liability or administrative penalties.
  7. Even though legal restrictions would not be acceptable vis-à-vis merely offensive, shocking, or disturbing sexist or misogynist speech, policymakers, civil society, and other relevant stakeholders have the possibility to use a wide range of alternative positive policy measures to properly address possible societal risks.

On regulatory frameworks

Absence of gender policies or gender equality provisions within media regulatory instruments, goes against the undertaking that already exists in agreed supranational conventions, in Constitutions and in national gender equality policies at least. It is feminist movements largely that make effort to remind nations States – through the relevant government ministries and agencies – about their obligations, by lobbying for adoption and/or enforcement of gender policies for media, as can be seen in the experiences of numerous Latin American nations (c.f. Chaher, 2014). It is necessary for legislation and regulation to be based on international standards, to link gender justice to specific policies, and for access to information legislation to introduce specific gender provisions, among other recommendations. A pathway to bolster regulation and regulatory processes is proposed in Table 3 below.

Table 3. International and regional gender and media frameworks

Supranational level (UN bodies etc.)

  • Bodies responsible for gender equality and women’s rights
  • Bodies responsible for communication, media and freedom of expression
Measures
  • Integrate media-related provisions in gender policy across all thematic areas, affirming media’s centrality for the achievement of gender equality and women’s rights.
  • Include gender provisions in media and communication policy to protect communication rights of women and gender minorities. (Bodies responsible for communication, media and freedom of expression; UNESCO and…)
  • Considering that freedom of expression and gender equality are not mutually exclusive rights, always integrate non-discrimination on the basis of gender in FoE instruments.
  • Require States to implement conventions and actions regarding gender equality in the media and to report periodically against indicators and targets.
  • Verify the reports through civil society feedback, NGO shadow reports and commissioned research studies.

National level (state bodies etc.)

  • Those responsible for gender equality, women’s empowerment
  • Those responsible for communication, mass media, broadcasting, telecommunications, information technology
Measures

In view of media’s centrality for gender equality, integrate media-related provisions in national gender policies and strategies.

Licensing
  • Include gender provisions in regulations. Such provisions could include appropriate conditions for approval and continued tenure of licenses.
Monitoring
  • Ensure that sex disaggregated data on the media is collected (related to gender equality in content and organisation).
  • Establish dedicated committees to monitor and address compliance issues.
  • Encourage feedback from audiences and civil society observatories.
Compliance enforcement
  • Apply measures laid down in legislation to address non-compliance. For example, withdrawing the licences of media outlets that consistently fail to comply with the gender policy.

Media Industry Self-Regulators (including professional associations)

Measures
Policy development
  • Integrate gender provisions in ethics codes and editorial guidelines.
  • Define gender indicators and set progress targets. Establish routines and monitoring and compliance procedures.
  • Adopt equal opportunities and non-discrimination policies and anti-sexual harassment policies.
Internal capacity
  • Integrate gender training as part of staff professional development programmes.
  • Establish dedicated committees or staff positions to monitor and address compliance issues.
  • Involve researchers and feminist civil society in gender training and capacity-building.
Transforming organisational culture
  • Integrate in everyday conversation spaces (staff meetings for example), discussions about gender and diversity issues arising, anchoring the conversations in (self-)regulation.
Monitor performance against targets
  • Regularly monitor content. Make use of the methodologies, tools and networks in place. Engage audiences and work with civil society observatories in monitoring.
  • Regularly appraise institutional performance on all targets, for example, on gender equality in hiring and composition of boards.
Transparency
  • Publicise measures when these are adopted. Post the texts in the public domain where they can be easily accessed.
  • Regularly publish results on the indicators and targets (staffing, content, etc.) in the public domain on organisational websites, open-access reports.