ISLAMABAD: With elections 2018 only a few weeks away, do we see women or their issues being taken up by our media? Do we see women as experts, opinion-makers and commentators discussing these issues? Do we get in-depth reports on how women are going to contest elections in areas where previously they were not allowed to vote? What about stories on whether or not there are more women contesting elections compared to previous elections? Or, an analysis of how did women parliamentarians of the last five years perform in the upper and lower houses? The answer is no. If one goes by the 24/7 news channels or even most of the print media, then elections in Pakistan are being run by men, for men and of men. Women only appear when there is a mention of alleged monitory corruptions of political party/ies, or moral corruption of a leader heading another party, or some dispute over tickets distribution. All the time and space is taken up by content that is important no doubt, but overly discussed. Why? Through our regular media monitoring, it is evident that men dominate news and current affairs programmes as subjects and carriers. Though there is now a sizeable number of women anchors and newscasters, men continue to be the ones who select and decide what all is carried as news and views. Hence it is easy to side-line Women’s issues. Those who constitute almost half of this country’s population somehow remain under represented. It is therefore, that Uks calls for a united effort, inclusive of all those involved in the production and presentation of skewed and many a times gender blind content in media, to initiate a conscious, concerted work to produce gender-neutral and gender-sensitive media content. This is part of a yearlong initiative, Gender Equality in Media launched in May, 2018. Uks’ gender sensitive Code of Ethics, which has been voluntarily endorsed by many and implemented upon by some media organisations, will be used as a yardstick. Uks also aims to utilise its 20-year long experience of sensitising the media in Pakistan by activating the first-of-its-kind Women’s Media Complaint Cell for more gender-aware and proactive media consumers who would play their role actively with self-responsibility in ending sexism in news media through this cell. The role and responsibilities of Pakistani Women’s Media Network would also be enhanced. Uks formed this network of women journalists in 2008 across the country to push for adoption of gender-responsive/equal practices and policies – provisions on safety, harassment and redressal system in their respective organizations. All this will be done with the help of communication tools; A Media Gender Equality Scorecard, #EndMediaSexism Instagram campaign and ‘This is not OK’ letter-writing campaign, to engage the media producers and consumers to take forward the campaign to conclusively address sexism in news media in Pakistan. Through this initiatve, Uks aims to enhance media’s role as key influencer in creating positive perceptions on gender-equality. Uks through all the measures described above, will try to eliminate/minimise the projection of stereotypical images of women as well as prevalent sexism in news and newsrooms. Uks foresees a very challenging scenario vis a vis women’s presence, portrayal and projection in hundreds of news and views programmes on national and regional language television channels, plus in the print media. Uks would be monitoring the media from July 1 – August 15, to analyse and discuss absence or presence of gender-balance, equality, biases as well as misogynistic content. This initiative would focus on sexism in news media especially in news related to politics, sports, and gender-based violence including ‘honor’ crimes. Uks would be engaging universities and media houses across Pakistan in these awareness-raising campaigns. Published in Daily Times, June 29th 2018.