On July 21st 2010 a roundtable on institutionalizing gender-sensitive reporting within media was held on the joint initiative of the Inter-Agency Council on Domestic Violence and the UNFPA/Georgia at the hotel Courtyard Marriott, Tbilisi.
The roundtable aimed at introducing the initiative on mainstreaming gender in the Georgian Public Broadcasters’ Code of Conduct, the Broadcasters’ Code of Conduct and the Journalists’ Ethics Charter and adopting professional standards to ensure gender sensitive reporting.
The participants discussed sexism and lack of gender sensitivity within media. The special emphasis was made on the need to establish media standards on covering sexual and domestic violence issues, to ensure confidentiality and safety of victims. Eka Khoperias’s TV talk show on domestic violence aired on Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) on July 20th was widely discussed as an example.
As a conclusion, a working group was set up supported by UNFPA/Georgia to elaborate professional standards for media to ensure media refrains from reinforcing gender stereotyping and exercises due caution while covering sexual/domestic violence cases. The final product is projected to take a form of an amendments package to be incorporated in the Georgian Public Broadcasters’ Code of Conduct, the Broadcasters’ Code of Conduct and the Journalists’ Ethics Charter.
Leading media experts, representatives of the TV/Radio channels, journalists and editors, representatives of NGOs and civil society participated in the roundtable discussion.
The roundtable was held within the framework of the UNFPA Georgia implemented regional project “Combating Gender-based Violence in the South Caucasus”.
