2019: Women, Hate Speech and the Imperative of Nigerian Media Code of Election Coverage
By Raji Rasaq
In September, 2018 alone, Civil Societies, media experts and development partners
in Nigeria and South-Africa have held series of workshops and conferences on the
menace of Hate Speech and its negative impact on Women’s political participation,
particularly in Africa; and, experts were unanimous that gender-related hate speech
is anti-development.
In a conference held in Gaborone, South Africa by the Commonwealth Women
Parliamentarians under the aegis of the 49th Commonwealth Parliamentary
Association African Region Conference, Cyber bullying was identified as major
impediment on the rights and privileges of female members of parliament.
As a take-home information on measures taking so far to stem the tide, a participant at the event, Stella Moroka, from the Attorney General’s Chambers in Bostwana was
reported to have mentioned that new provisions were being introduced to curb
cyberbullying and relating harassment. Other countries such as Zimbabwe, Uganda,
Kenya and Nigeria also have their new and revised enactment targeted at cyber-
related hate speech.
Also, in Nigeria, a just-concluded media roundtable, jointly organized by the
International Press Centre, (IPC),West Africa Network for Peace Building (WANEP)
and the Humanity Family Foundation for Peace and Development (HFFPED) and
funded by the PeaceTech Lab, was centered on the “Role of the media in Combating
Gender-Related Hate Speech Online”.
At the event, while sexist hate speech was identified as undermining human rights of women and girls, general consensus of the roundtable was that female politicians seeking political office should adopt a more aggressive strategy to engage the mainstream and social media for appropriate media visibility and objective narrative. So, more or less, hate speech is
global threat and needs to be tackled head on.
Putting in proper context, it can be argued that the kind of different measures being
put in place by several countries, particularly in Africa to curb hate speech would
not have been necessary if media had played its roles effectively. An integral part of
these roles is mainstreaming women issues in, and through the media.
Unfortunately, States’ laws enacted to curb hate related speech are now becoming
an albatross to the press freedom and free speech, and by extension, shifting women
more to the margin in the scheme of things. Whatever happens to media also will
rub off on women. In essence, media, not States, is well-placed to stem the tide of
hate speech, by striving very hard to re-tell negative narratives wherever they exist.
This position is in tune with that of Victor Bwire of the Media Council of Kenya,
having said in an event: “Journalists need new narratives…” Also, Khadija Sharife,
African Editor, Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), had
corroborated the stance, having said, “For members of the public to get the most out
of democracy, they must become conscious, and it is journalists who have the power
to awaken them by writing against official narratives”.
Sadly enough, greater percentage of these unchallenged narratives have had unquantifiable adverse effects on women, particularly in politics. In fact, empirical findings have shown that media consciously and, or, unconsciously, perpetrated hate speech against women.
How?
First, it is important to admit that underreporting women issues, in itself, is hate.
Two, trivializing, or being subjective about women issues is also gender-related
violence. Women, from time immemorial, have lost voice in the mainstream media
space because media coverage of women has always been defined by the error of
omission (what is left out) and error of commission (how it is reported). There are
questions that don’t get asked by the media.
For instance, there is National Gender Policy that guarantees 35% quota for women in politics. Yet, this policy is not backed by the Act of National Assembly because there is a clause in the Nigerian constitution that stands as a barrier to this policy. Today, a number of political parties are proposing quotas for women in politics. Whether this is changing the
number of women in politics is not reflecting in the media reportage.
Hate against women is a phenomenon occasioned by age-long socialization that is
romanced by our World with the instruments of culture, custom and religion.
Women issues are development issues, and as much as they constitute almost half of
our national population shows that, no meaningful development can take place
without mainstreaming their issues in, and through the media. But media is
patriarchal, it mirrors the society, through the lens of the dominant voices who ab
initio defined what features in the news, and what does not.
Women have never been part of these voices. That is why they are not interviewed as party leaders, spokespersons, newsmakers, experts. There are statistical evidence to these assertions. For instance, findings of the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP, 2010) reveals the existence of a male vision of the world on the part of the media and speaks of
worrying levels of exclusion of women in the media…Only 24 per cent of persons about whom one reads in the news as the subjects of information are women (in print media, radio and television).
Again, in its GMMP (2015) report, media coverage of women had remained static as
they stood at only 24% of people seen, read, or heard in the news. In news about
politics, it was also observed that women only made 16% of people in the news.
Also, in an on-going media monitoring project being conducted by the International
Press Centre, (IPC), Nigeria, findings released for the month of July, 2018, showed
that women’s voices were heard only in 1.88% of all political reports published in
the print media. In addition, while women politicians made only 1.6% of people
mentioned in the news, male politicians made 23.6%.
A report was published in Nigerian Tribune (June 30, 2018) captioned: Which of
these PDP men can beat Buhari? Same photograph with headline was also on
ThisDay’s front page (August 19, 2018). The newspapers featured photographs of
notable male contestants in the opposition party, whereas, there are scores of
notable female politicians contesting for the same presidential position. They were
left out in the report. What does this simply tell us? It simply means, no matter how
many women contestants there may be, they are a crowd in an election rally. Media
has shown, so far, that what we think election result will be is what ‘men’ have
already decided.
This is nothing less than hate because it is a reporting that perpetrates sexism.
From the foregoing, it can be concluded that media so far has fallen short of the
established principle of engendering gender equality in our democracy, whereas
ethics of journalism beckons on the media to ensure equitable access to the media
space. As a platform for campaign and public forum during elections, media has the
capacity to explore the enabling professional instrument to provide balanced, fair,
and equitable representation of all strata of the society, particularly persons at the
margin such as women and persons with disabilities.
One major spectrum to reverse the trend of gender-based violence against women is
the imperative of a reporting style that pushes for a deliberate and conscious
editorial policy that targets quality coverage of women issues in the electoral
process. In the near absence of a widely acceptable media gender policy in Nigeria, this is the gap the revised Nigerian Code of Election Coverage (2018) aims to achieve.
The Code as Media Handbook
It is the newly revised Nigerian Media Code of Election Coverage (2018) recently published by the International Press Centre (IPC), Nigeria’s notable advocacy Center for media professionalism, with funding from the European Union Support for Democratic and Good Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN) under component 4b of the support for media.
The code was lunched in Abuja, the Nigeria Capital and was subsequently distributed to several media houses in Nigeria. Also, thousands of journalists, editors, and other media practitioners have received copies of the code. What makes the code more significant to the issues of gender equality is the section that demands equitable access to the media space of all contestants in the 2019 elections as well as their party platforms.
Section 1 of the Code on the Equitable Access states that: The performance of
campaign platform and public forum role of the media during elections requires
deference to the right of parties and candidates in elections to equitable media
access.
Section 1, sub-section 1.1.1 of code states that “A broadcast medium shall ensure
equitable allocation of airtime at specific but similar periods for all parties
contesting elections to present their manifestoes”;
Sub-section 1.1.2 states that: “A media organisation shall regularly apply the
principle of equity in the coverage and reportage of campaigns and other activities
of parties and candidates contesting elections”;
Sub-section 1.2.1 specifically mentions the role of the media to the coverage of the
under-represented groups that: “A media organisation shall, as a matter of
deliberate editorial policy, target under-represented groups…in the coverage of
electoral process”;
Sub-section 1.2.2 also states that “A media organisation shall consciously reflect the
views and perspectives of women, youths, persons living with disabilities and rural
dwellers in electoral reports”.
Interestingly, all the representatives of the Nigerian media organisations,
institutions, professional bodies and support groups adopted and agreed to this
code. If the Code insists on DELIBERATE and CONSCIOUS effort to report women
issues, it is to change narratives about these issues; and it should be mentioned here
that media organisations should also make DELIBERATE and CONSCIOUS use of the
code.
The letters of the handbook are very clear on how to tackle HATE SPEECH and STEREOTYPE against women. Women accounted for 49.32% of Nigeria Population
(according to World Population Review, 2018). As it stands today, over fifty-seven
presidential aspirants jostle for 2019 elections. Media should ask the right question
as to the percentage of women aspiring, and why they are so few.
Some critics have spoken of shyness on the part of women to speak to the media.
But who are these women who are too “shy” to speak on what and where the shoe
pinches? Why do reporters approach women that will not speak? It is quite
uninspiring to tag women too shy to engage media. It’s the responsibility of the
media to seek appropriate information about barriers against women, put these
information in the public domain. Of course, women confidence will boost if
consciously supported by the media. Reporters should go out, seek out women
that’ll speak and report appropriately.
This is good journalism!
In September, 2018 alone, Civil Societies, media experts and development partners
in Nigeria and South-Africa have held series of workshops and conferences on the
menace of Hate Speech and its negative impact on Women’s political participation,
particularly in Africa; and, experts were unanimous that gender-related hate speech
is anti-development.
In a conference held in Gaborone, South Africa by the Commonwealth Women
Parliamentarians under the aegis of the 49th Commonwealth Parliamentary
Association African Region Conference, Cyber bullying was identified as major
impediment on the rights and privileges of female members of parliament.
As a take-home information on measures taking so far to stem the tide, a participant at the event, Stella Moroka, from the Attorney General’s Chambers in Bostwana was
reported to have mentioned that new provisions were being introduced to curb
cyberbullying and relating harassment. Other countries such as Zimbabwe, Uganda,
Kenya and Nigeria also have their new and revised enactment targeted at cyber-
related hate speech.
Also, in Nigeria, a just-concluded media roundtable, jointly organized by the
International Press Centre, (IPC),West Africa Network for Peace Building (WANEP)
and the Humanity Family Foundation for Peace and Development (HFFPED) and
funded by the PeaceTech Lab, was centered on the “Role of the media in Combating
Gender-Related Hate Speech Online”.
At the event, while sexist hate speech was identified as undermining human rights of women and girls, general consensus of the roundtable was that female politicians seeking political office should adopt a more aggressive strategy to engage the mainstream and social media for appropriate media visibility and objective narrative. So, more or less, hate speech is
global threat and needs to be tackled head on.
Putting in proper context, it can be argued that the kind of different measures being
put in place by several countries, particularly in Africa to curb hate speech would
not have been necessary if media had played its roles effectively. An integral part of
these roles is mainstreaming women issues in, and through the media.
Unfortunately, States’ laws enacted to curb hate related speech are now becoming
an albatross to the press freedom and free speech, and by extension, shifting women
more to the margin in the scheme of things. Whatever happens to media also will
rub off on women. In essence, media, not States, is well-placed to stem the tide of
hate speech, by striving very hard to re-tell negative narratives wherever they exist.
This position is in tune with that of Victor Bwire of the Media Council of Kenya,
having said in an event: “Journalists need new narratives…” Also, Khadija Sharife,
African Editor, Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), had
corroborated the stance, having said, “For members of the public to get the most out
of democracy, they must become conscious, and it is journalists who have the power
to awaken them by writing against official narratives”.
Sadly enough, greater percentage of these unchallenged narratives have had unquantifiable adverse effects on women, particularly in politics. In fact, empirical findings have shown that media consciously and, or, unconsciously, perpetrated hate speech against women.
How?
First, it is important to admit that underreporting women issues, in itself, is hate.
Two, trivializing, or being subjective about women issues is also gender-related
violence. Women, from time immemorial, have lost voice in the mainstream media
space because media coverage of women has always been defined by the error of
omission (what is left out) and error of commission (how it is reported). There are
questions that don’t get asked by the media.
For instance, there is National Gender Policy that guarantees 35% quota for women in politics. Yet, this policy is not backed by the Act of National Assembly because there is a clause in the Nigerian constitution that stands as a barrier to this policy. Today, a number of political parties are proposing quotas for women in politics. Whether this is changing the
number of women in politics is not reflecting in the media reportage.
Hate against women is a phenomenon occasioned by age-long socialization that is
romanced by our World with the instruments of culture, custom and religion.
Women issues are development issues, and as much as they constitute almost half of
our national population shows that, no meaningful development can take place
without mainstreaming their issues in, and through the media. But media is
patriarchal, it mirrors the society, through the lens of the dominant voices who ab
initio defined what features in the news, and what does not.
Women have never been part of these voices. That is why they are not interviewed as party leaders, spokespersons, newsmakers, experts. There are statistical evidence to these assertions. For instance, findings of the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP, 2010) reveals the existence of a male vision of the world on the part of the media and speaks of
worrying levels of exclusion of women in the media…Only 24 per cent of persons about whom one reads in the news as the subjects of information are women (in print media, radio and television).
Again, in its GMMP (2015) report, media coverage of women had remained static as
they stood at only 24% of people seen, read, or heard in the news. In news about
politics, it was also observed that women only made 16% of people in the news.
Also, in an on-going media monitoring project being conducted by the International
Press Centre, (IPC), Nigeria, findings released for the month of July, 2018, showed
that women’s voices were heard only in 1.88% of all political reports published in
the print media. In addition, while women politicians made only 1.6% of people
mentioned in the news, male politicians made 23.6%.
A report was published in Nigerian Tribune (June 30, 2018) captioned: Which of
these PDP men can beat Buhari? Same photograph with headline was also on
ThisDay’s front page (August 19, 2018). The newspapers featured photographs of
notable male contestants in the opposition party, whereas, there are scores of
notable female politicians contesting for the same presidential position. They were
left out in the report. What does this simply tell us? It simply means, no matter how
many women contestants there may be, they are a crowd in an election rally. Media
has shown, so far, that what we think election result will be is what ‘men’ have
already decided.
This is nothing less than hate because it is a reporting that perpetrates sexism.
From the foregoing, it can be concluded that media so far has fallen short of the
established principle of engendering gender equality in our democracy, whereas
ethics of journalism beckons on the media to ensure equitable access to the media
space. As a platform for campaign and public forum during elections, media has the
capacity to explore the enabling professional instrument to provide balanced, fair,
and equitable representation of all strata of the society, particularly persons at the
margin such as women and persons with disabilities.
One major spectrum to reverse the trend of gender-based violence against women is
the imperative of a reporting style that pushes for a deliberate and conscious
editorial policy that targets quality coverage of women issues in the electoral
process. In the near absence of a widely acceptable media gender policy in Nigeria, this is the gap the revised Nigerian Code of Election Coverage (2018) aims to achieve.
The Code as Media Handbook
It is the newly revised Nigerian Media Code of Election Coverage (2018) recently published by the International Press Centre (IPC), Nigeria’s notable advocacy Center for media professionalism, with funding from the European Union Support for Democratic and Good Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN) under component 4b of the support for media.
The code was lunched in Abuja, the Nigeria Capital and was subsequently distributed to several media houses in Nigeria. Also, thousands of journalists, editors, and other media practitioners have received copies of the code. What makes the code more significant to the issues of gender equality is the section that demands equitable access to the media space of all contestants in the 2019 elections as well as their party platforms.
Section 1 of the Code on the Equitable Access states that: The performance of
campaign platform and public forum role of the media during elections requires
deference to the right of parties and candidates in elections to equitable media
access.
Section 1, sub-section 1.1.1 of code states that “A broadcast medium shall ensure
equitable allocation of airtime at specific but similar periods for all parties
contesting elections to present their manifestoes”;
Sub-section 1.1.2 states that: “A media organisation shall regularly apply the
principle of equity in the coverage and reportage of campaigns and other activities
of parties and candidates contesting elections”;
Sub-section 1.2.1 specifically mentions the role of the media to the coverage of the
under-represented groups that: “A media organisation shall, as a matter of
deliberate editorial policy, target under-represented groups…in the coverage of
electoral process”;
Sub-section 1.2.2 also states that “A media organisation shall consciously reflect the
views and perspectives of women, youths, persons living with disabilities and rural
dwellers in electoral reports”.
Interestingly, all the representatives of the Nigerian media organisations,
institutions, professional bodies and support groups adopted and agreed to this
code. If the Code insists on DELIBERATE and CONSCIOUS effort to report women
issues, it is to change narratives about these issues; and it should be mentioned here
that media organisations should also make DELIBERATE and CONSCIOUS use of the
code.
The letters of the handbook are very clear on how to tackle HATE SPEECH and STEREOTYPE against women. Women accounted for 49.32% of Nigeria Population
(according to World Population Review, 2018). As it stands today, over fifty-seven
presidential aspirants jostle for 2019 elections. Media should ask the right question
as to the percentage of women aspiring, and why they are so few.
Some critics have spoken of shyness on the part of women to speak to the media.
But who are these women who are too “shy” to speak on what and where the shoe
pinches? Why do reporters approach women that will not speak? It is quite
uninspiring to tag women too shy to engage media. It’s the responsibility of the
media to seek appropriate information about barriers against women, put these
information in the public domain. Of course, women confidence will boost if
consciously supported by the media. Reporters should go out, seek out women
that’ll speak and report appropriately.
This is good journalism!
Raji Rasaq, head of media
monitoring, IPC (rajirasaki2015@gmail.com)
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