UN Women unveils new Media Compact

AMMAN – UN Women on Tuesday launched in New York an innovative partnership with leading media houses to galvanise attention and concrete action towards the 2030 Agenda.

At the United Nations Headquarters, during a packed side event of the 60th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, the campaign was launched under the motto “Step It Up for Gender Equality” Media Compact, according to a statement sent to The Jordan Times.

The UN Women statement said the compact brings together a broad coalition of media outlets from all regions of the world, representing print, broadcast and online news media “to ensure wide reach and robust efforts towards women’s rights and gender equality.”

”Recognising the influential role media can play in driving women’s empowerment and gender equality, the Step it Up for Gender Equality Media Compact facilitated by UN Women will function as an alliance of media organisations who are committed to playing an active role in advancing gender issues within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals,” the statement said.

It added that the outlets will implement the compact by scaling-up the focus on women’s rights and gender equality issues through high-quality coverage, complemented by gender-sensitive corporate practices. 

Leading up to the launch event, more than 35 leading media outlets, including The Jordan Times, signed up as founding members of the Media Compact, said the statement. “From grass-roots to national and international media players, the diverse group of initial members reach millions of readers and viewers in Africa, Arab States, Asia-Pacific, Europe and Latin American regions.” 

“Media have great influence over how we perceive and understand the world around us. That influence has many dimensions. Even when reporting is entirely factually accurate, if it is reported predominantly by men, about men, it is actually misrepresenting the real state of the world. At UN Women, we want to address this through partnership to change the media landscape and make media work for gender equality,” said UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. “This level of support and leadership from media houses and newsrooms alike is what is needed to ensure that we can achieve gender equality and women’s rights by 2030,” she added.  

By signing up to the Media Compact, the outlets are committing to a range of concrete change actions: championing women’s rights and gender equality issues through editorial articles; ensuring inclusion of women as sources in stories produced, aiming for gender parity; adopting a gender-sensitive Code of Conduct on Reporting; ensuring women journalists are provided mentors and guidance for career advancement, and many others. 

Speaking at the New York launch event, which was moderated by the under-secretary-general of the UN’s Department of Public Information, Cristina Gallach, media representatives from South African Broadcasting Corporation, Good Housekeeping and TV Azteca, all founding members, were unanimous in their support of the newly launched partnership, underlining that they will engage continuously through the Media Compact to push for gender equality in their news coverage and their newsrooms.

The Jordan Times is one of the founding members of the initiative.