In commemoration of International Women’s Day celebrated every March 8th, UMWA was pleased to host the Danish Delegation of newly elected parliamentarians at its premises in Kisaasi. The delegation was led by Lise Bech, Chairperson Foreign Affairs Committee (URU) and representative of the Denmark Democrats.
We engaged on our key contributions towards impactfully empowering women in/through the media in Uganda. Among which; capacity building of media on gender sensitive reporting, training women especially politicians on utilizing media as platform for expression and contributing to decision making processes, research, training manuals on gender and media and established a women focused radio station Mama FM which has offered platform for issues of women and other marginalized groups sidelined by main stream media.
Dr. Patricia Litho, the Board Chair UMWA reflected that the impact of UMWA towards empowering women in media are nothing but commendable efforts.
“We have proudly, over the years enhanced women’s visibility as news sources, subjects in media to 24% according to a 2020 GMMP Report and enabled a fairly accommodative environment has been created for women to flourish in/through the media,” said Dr. Litho
Support from diverse development partners among which Denmark has enabled realization of such fruits for enhanced women empowerment and social justice.
Helle Bonnesen, representative of the conservative party, one of the Danish Delegates observed that establishments like Mama FM, a women-focused station that prioritizes women voices and issues in media and an enabler to decision making processes is an exemplary means to gender equity.
“Stations like Mama FM are a good example of how to achieve inclusiveness of women in development agendas but also a wide platform to advocate for women rights by all stakeholders especially civil society in Uganda,” said Bonnesen.
As we mark the great achievements witnessed in women empowerment during this #IWD2023, UMWA continues to strongly advocate for opportunities that offer women equal utilization of the digital innovations and technologies for freedom of expression and enhanced socio-economic empowerment.
Whereas there has been leverage in increasing women’s visibility and participation, research indicates that there is a digital gender divide and increasing online gender based violence against women on digital platforms.
Findings of a recent UN survey of women journalists from 125 countries found that 73% had suffered online violence as they executed their work. Similarly, in 2018, Trollbusters and International Media Women’s Foundation discovered that 40% of women journalists said they avoided reporting on certain stories because of online harassment. 58% of the women reported to have already been threatened in person while 26% indicated that they had been physically attacked.
These revelations create an urgency for securing online platforms as safe spaces for women to thrive.
Therefore, UMWA under its Mission 2025 urges all key stakeholders; development partners, media managers and owners, regulators, government, academia and media organizations to join efforts towards eliminating violations against women especially in the digital spaces as we embrace equity through #DigitALL.
This would be through training women/journalists on secure and safe use of online spaces, media campaigns against online abuse and sensitization of public, policy and regulation of online gendered violations by regulators and media managers.
UMWA asserts that this would be the better means to witness innovations and technologies for gender equality, where women, especially female journalists inclusively and freely utilize digital spaces for access to information and expression.
