33 SOUTHERN AFRICA PRESS FREEDOM REPORT 2019-2020 women also have little voice in media content both as news subjects and sources of news. Press freedom can only be realized to its full extent when all citizens have equal access to the media (40), and gender research in Southern Africa has shown that in the case of women, no country in the region has as yet achieved this goal. ASSESSMENT references (1) See ‘MISA Gender Policy and Action Plan adopted in November 2001’ https://genderlinks.org.za/ wp-content/uploads/imported/articles/attachments/10352_misa-draftpolicy-actionplan.pdf [Accessed 07 April 2021] (2) See ‘Whose news, whose views? Gender and Media Progress Study 2015’ https://genderlinks.org. za/shop/conclusions-and-recommendations-gmps/ [Accessed 07 April 2021] (3) See ‘What Has Gender Got to Do With Media Freedom?’ http://www.ngopulse.org/article/whathas-gender-got-do-media-freedom [Accessed 08 April 2021] (4) See ‘Guideline for Gender Responsive Media’ https://www2.unwomen.org/-/media/field%20 office%20africa/attachments/publications/2020/gender%20and%20media%20guideline%20-%20 english.pdf?la=en&vs=3854 (5) These key gender equality indicators borrow from ‘The Missing Perspectives of Women in COVID-19 News’ https://www.iwmf.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2020.09.16-COVID-REPORT_ exec_summary.pdf [Accessed 07 April 2020] (6) According to the SADC Gender Protocol 2018 Barometer, the proportion of women sources is the single most important measure of women’s voice. https://genderlinks.org.za/wp-content/up- All SADC countries guarantee the right to freedom of expression, according to the SADC gender protocol 2018 barometer, yet gender inequalities in and through the media persist. loads/2018/08/Barometer-2018-Executive-Summary.pdf [Accessed on 07 April 2021] The rights envisioned in Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) which states that every individual shall have the right to receive information and every individual shall have the right to express and disseminate his/her opinions within the law, are not yet enjoyed by women as they are underrepresented and misrepresented in and through the media. (11) Ibid The prevalence of ‘tabloidisation’ of the media, weak ethical practices, entrenched male dominance, violations of women’s rights, and failure by the media to implement gender mainstreaming are some of the factors impeding realization of gender equality in and through the media. The slow rate of change within the regional media and delay in transforming its editorial content, work practices and institutional cultures account for the Southern Africa media’s failure to comply with the provisions of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Gender and Development, particularly expressed through Article 29. The regional media needs to promote gender equality through adopting exemplary institutional practices and systematically taking gender considerations into account in all dimensions of its work, in order to conform to the letter and spirit of the press freedom values of a “pluralistic press”; “reflecting the widest possible range of opinion within the community” espoused in the Windhoek Declaration. (7) See ‘Highlights of the Gender and Media Progress Study 2020’ https://genderlinks.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/GMPS-2020-VCfin.pdf [Accessed 07 April 2021] (8) Ibid (9) See ‘Gender Equality in the Media Sector’ https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/ STUD/2018/596839/IPOL_STU(2018)596839_EN.pdf [Accessed 07 April 2021] (10) See MISA Gender Policy and Action Plan adopted in November 2001 https://genderlinks.org.za/ wp-content/uploads/imported/articles/attachments/10352_misa-draftpolicy-actionplan.pdf [Accessed 07 April 2021] (12) See ‘#JournalistsToo - Violence against women journalists’ https://en.unesco.org/news/journaliststoo-violence-against-women-journalists [Accessed 08 April 2021] (13) See ‘COVID-19 effects on freedom of expression in Southern Africa, 2020’ https://www.usaid. gov/sites/default/files/documents/INTERNEWS_EFFECTS_OF_COVID19_ON_FREEDOM_OF_EXPRESSION_IN_SELECT_SADC_COUNTRIES_2.pdf [Accessed 08 April 2021] (14) Ibid (15) See ‘The Missing Perspectives of Women in COVID-19 News’ https://www.iwmf.org/wp-content/ uploads/2020/11/2020.09.16-COVID-REPORT_exec_summary.pdf [Accessed o8 April 2020] (16) Ibid (17) Ibid (18) Ibid (19) See ‘COVID-19 effects on freedom of expression in Southern Africa, 2020’ https://www.usaid. gov/sites/default/files/documents/INTERNEWS_EFFECTS_OF_COVID19_ON_FREEDOM_OF_EXPRESSION_IN_SELECT_SADC_COUNTRIES_2.pdf [Accessed 08 April 2021] (20) See MISA Gender Policy and Action Plan adopted in November 2001 https://genderlinks.org.za/ wp-content/uploads/imported/articles/attachments/10352_misa-draftpolicy-actionplan.pdf [Accessed 07 April 2021] (21) See ‘Lowe Morna, C (2018) Glass Ceiling: Women in South African News Media’. Johannesburg, South Africa: Gender Links. (22) See ‘Airing out Laundry: Gender Discrimination in Zambian Media Workplaces’ http://library.fes. de/pdf-files/bueros/africa-media/13709.pdf [Accessed on 08 April 2021] (23) State of Press Freedom Lesotho 2019 – 2020. (24) State of Press Freedom Zambia Country Report 2019 – 2020. (25) See ‘Airing out Laundry: Gender Discrimination in Zambian Media Workplaces’ http://library.fes. de/pdf-files/bueros/africa-media/13709.pdf [Accessed on 08 April 2021] (26) See ‘‘Swept under the carpet’: violence against Zimbabwe’s women journalists’ https://www. opendemocracy.net/en/5050/violence-against-women-journalists-zimbabwe/ [Accessed 08 April 2021] (27) See ‘Power, Patriarchy and Gender Discrimination in Zimbabwean Newsrooms’ https://www. mediamonitoringafrica.org/images/uploads/Power_Patriarchy_and_Gender_Discrimination_in_Zimbabwean_Newsrooms.pdf [Accessed 08 April 2021] (28) See ‘Report on violence against women journalists’ https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Women/ SRWomen/Pages/VAWJournalists.aspx [Accessed 08 April 2021] (29) See ‘Airing out Laundry: Gender Discrimination in Zambian Media Workplaces’ http://library.fes. de/pdf-files/bueros/africa-media/13709.pdf [Accessed on 08 April 2021] (30) See ‘COVID-19 effects on freedom of expression in Southern Africa, 2020’ https://www.usaid. gov/sites/default/files/documents/INTERNEWS_EFFECTS_OF_COVID19_ON_FREEDOM_OF_EXPRESSION_IN_SELECT_SADC_COUNTRIES_2.pdf [Accessed 08 April 2021] (31) Ibid (32) Ibid (33) Ibid (34) See ‘Southern Africa: COVID-19 a pretext for surge in harassment of journalists and weakening of media houses by states’ https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/05/southern-africa-covid19a-pretext-for-surge-in-harassment-of-journalists-and-weakening-of-media-houses-by-states/ (35) See ‘The Missing Perspectives of Women in COVID-19 News’ https://www.iwmf.org/wp-content/ uploads/2020/11/2020.09.16-COVID-REPORT_exec_summary.pdf [Accessed o8 April 2020] (36) Ibid. (37) See ‘COVID-19 effects on freedom of expression in Southern Africa, 2020’ https://www.usaid. gov/sites/default/files/documents/INTERNEWS_EFFECTS_OF_COVID19_ON_FREEDOM_OF_EXPRESSION_IN_SELECT_SADC_COUNTRIES_2.pdf [Accessed 08 April 2021] (38) See ‘Online violence Against Women Journalists: A Global Snapshot of Incidence and Impacts’ https://www.icfj.org/sites/default/files/2020-12/UNESCO%20Online%20Violence%20Against%20 Women%20Journalists%20-%20A%20Global%20Snapshot%20Dec9pm.pdf [Accessed 08 April 2021] (39) See ‘COVID-19 has increased gender inequalities in the media, IFJ survey finds’ https://www. ifj.org/media-centre/news/detail/category/press-releases/article/covid-19-has-increased-gender-inequalities-in-the-media-ifj-survey-finds.html [Accessed 08 April 2021] (40) See ‘Media Systems, Equal Rights and the Freedom of the Press: Gender as a Case In Point’ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265225583_MedIa_Systems_Equal_RIghts_and_the_ Freedom_of_the_Press_Gender_as_a_Case_In_PoInt [Accessed 08 April 2021]