Dialogue on Gender-Responsive Reporting 

Azuka Ogujiuba

Media executives have committed to giving Nigerian women more visibility in order to increase their participation and representation in leadership positions. This commitment was made on September 1 in Lagos during a National dialogue on Gender Responsive Reporting.

The executives analysed the gender inequality gaps and underscored the need for a balanced media representation of women.

 Recognising the important role of the media as gatekeepers in democracy and critical stakeholder in sustaining Nigeria’s growth and development, UN Women Country Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Ms. Beatrice Eyong urged the media executives and editors to ensure women journalists are given similar opportunities as their male colleagues.

Eyong further charged the media to “Champion women’s rights and gender equality issues through editorial articles, features, and news coverage; and adopt a gender-sensitive Code of Conduct on Reporting.”

She emphasised the need to include women in decision-making processes in Nigeria to achieve Sustainable Development Goals.

A female media executive, Toun Okewale-Sonaiya appealed to her colleagues to consider a 50:50 approach to the number of guests, analysts, commentators, speakers with an ultimate aim of a 50:50 representation of women and men at news gathering and reporting stages.

She called for primetime positions for women on television, radio and front pages in newspapers and magazines.  

Okewal-Sonaiya also called on the media to interview, profile and feature female candidates for the 2023 elections on primetime and front pages like their male counterparts.  

Speaking on the Trends and Issues in Media Coverage of Women at Elections, Lanre Arogundade of the International Press Centre, noted that the voices of women and other marginalised stakeholders should be adequately reflected and accorded as much visibility and prominence as equal stakeholders in the society: ”Women can only unleash their potentials and contribute to politics, electoral process and governance when their voices are heard and not subjugated in the media.”

The media executives agreed to meet quarterly to review their commitments in giving prominence to women’s stories while reporting women as equal stakeholders in Nigeria.  

On the sideline of the National Agenda was a 2-day training for political reporters on Gender Sensitive Reporting. Resource persons were Motunrayo Alaka, Executive Director, Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism, who presented the “RUSH” model (Report Until Something Happens) to underscore the need for journalists to follow up on gender-based stories until justice is served.  

Dr. Oluseyi Soremekun, National Information Officer, United Nations Information Centre (UNIC), drew participants’ attention to unconscious gender bias and charged the journalists to avoid stereotypical comments and generalizations in their reports.

Ene Ede, Gender and Media Strategist urged reporters to intentionally amplify the voices of women in a male-dominated Nigeria to balance the reports. 

The National Media Dialogue was organised by UN Women in collaboration with Women Radio, and support from the Canadian government.