The Project observed that female journalists are increasingly facing a double burden of attacks based on the profession and gender as a result of being journalists and women. These attacks present both in the physical and online spaces within which they execute their duties and are perpetrated by both media colleagues, duty bearers/powerful figures, sources and general public.
Majority of the trained female journalists are undertaking investigative stories on corruption, extortion, sexual exploitations and peer-peer knowledge sharing in their journalists networks/newsrooms.
The Symposium was made colorful by the dinner awarding ceremony of women media practitioners who have overtime done impactful and life changing works. These distinguished ladies in media were selected from academia, research, management, civil society, mentors, managers, researchers and trainers.
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.
The study also realized a gender selective reporting where there is a relationship between the sex of the reporter and the proportion of female and male news subjects appearing in print news stories. Female reporters covered more female news subjects and quoted more females in their stories as opposed to the male reporters. In equal measure, male journalists gave more audience to male sources but also within talk shows of purely male presentation, women suffered a low engagement under similar likelihood.
The Observer Team on December 12, 2016 wrote about Namuganza-Nantaba’s “ugly quarrel” in the story titled “Ministers in ugly quarrel”. The publication gave space to both females to accuse and counter accuse each other, creating the image of two women who cannot stand each other.
Do these women have the spine for harsh criticism or they are simply easy targets for bullies within parliament, social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and TikTok? What have they done to cope with the criticism, bullying or unflattering light?
This is where Uganda Communications Commission-UCC comes in. The regulator needs to use its Content Committee, established under Section 14 of the UCC Act, 2013 to enforce fair gender representation and gender sensitive content.
“There should be reemphasis of linking the discussion of gender sensitivity to the journalism principles of diversity, truth and balancing stories. Let’s change the narrative to equitable equality. Where it is a 50% for male, so should it be for females and at worst 50-49%,” said Dr. Patricia Litho, UMWA Board Chair
Pioneering a new categorical in the decade of media growth in Uganda, Mama was the first community broadcaster and unique to its nature, a women-focused radio in the country, Africa and second globally.