After the Training of Journalists on Gender sensitive reporting conducted by Uganda Media Women’s Association, Byamukama Patrick, one of the participants and an editor at Liberty Fm in Hoima shared his experience.
I had worked with the media for over ten years before getting an opportunity to participate in the UMWA training sessions on gender sensitive reporting. Before then, I’d source comments from those people who are fast and important in society. These happened to be men and key persons in government (Civil servants, the Police, Members of Parliament, and Local Council Five Chairpersons). But this has since changed after participating in the UMWA/DGF training sessions. Now I have to plan and deliberately ensure that my stories are inclusive of women’s voices, and those living with disabilities. It does not matter if they are slow, because I learnt to be patient and appreciate their living circumstances. After the training, I plan to report differently through inclusion of women’s voices and other marginalized groups to ensure their voices are heard, I also plan to prioritize women issues in News and programs.
Already a number of products have changed for women politicians in my media house, especially during this electoral period that is digital based. For instance, our products have been subsidized for the women politicians. DJ mentions and announcements for example, which used to cost between UGX 25,000 – UGX 15,000 now costs UGX 10,000 and the radio has also been encouraging women politicians to participate in political meetings, the number of rallies and dialogues. These are prerecorded and aired out on our radio. As a result of these initiative, our performance has improved greatly, thanks to UMWA/DGF. The reduction in the cost of announcements and DJ mentions has led to an increase in the number of announcements by about 60% (who are mostly women candidates). This has in return generated more revenue to my media house.
I have also noticed that, UMWA’s strategic engagements with the media and women politicians in Hoima district, has contributed to building self-confidence among the Project women leaders and strengthened the relationship between women leaders and the media. More women offered themselves for various leadership positions. They have also started to use other platforms other than the radio talk shows to reach their communities. I have seen some, who were not initially on social media but now using Facebook to campaign, I also received phone calls from some ten women politicians requesting for media coverage. This was not the case before. I therefore request UMWA/DGF to continue with the good work they are doing since change of attitude/mindset requires time and persistent.
