Daily Times

President Arif Alvi has refreshed his resolve to motivate the media to create awareness about issues like women empowerment. During a meeting with a delegation of the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors, he gave the impression that he believes that the print media is more serious about these issues than the electronic media. He also asked for fake news to be stopped at all costs. Adviser to the Prime Minister on Information Firdous Ashiq Awan, also present on the occasion, endorsed his views.

Seldom has the president’s resolve for the empowerment of women through mass media been too visible. It was not until 2002 when the then president Pervez Musharraf unlocked the potential of electronic media that women started getting the kind of coverage on media they are getting today – even if it is a lot less than their due.

President Musharraf also formed the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority and allowed private businesses to operate TV and radio channels. Almost every segment of society then got a chance to get more media coverage. Women politicians were no exception. President Musharraf also enhanced the number of seats reserved for women in the parliament and in other representative institutions.

The greater media coverage and the enhanced representation in the parliament created an impression of women empowerment that is rather illusory.

The number of women politicians in representative institutions might have increased but the quality of such represented was not strongly correlated to the strength. In some cases the way they were represented on media served only to consolidate the unfair stereotypes about them. A constant complaint by women politicians has been that looks continue to trump the substance in TV channels’ choice of guests in their shows. Credible studies have shown the complaint to be factual.

Women are also expected to play the second fiddle to their male colleagues. In terms of media coverage this means that in many instances they are invited to talk shows only after some male participant fails to make it. At the same time, the media has cemented class barriers as women politicians from influential families and big cities hog most of the coverage.

The contribution women parliamentarians make towards legislation is often ignored. Reporters do not bother asking Environment Minister Zartaj Gul about the good she has done to protect the environment. Her statements about the prime minister, however, attract a lot of limelight. Women elected to reserve seats are treated as lesser parliamentarians regardless of the fact that many of them have been more active in standing committees than their male counterparts.

President Alvi has the right idea. He needs to raise these points every time he meets the editors. *