This came out at Women’s Rights Forum stakeholders’ meeting held in the city last week. In an interview with The Zimbabwean on the sidelines of the meeting, Susan Makoni, from the Women in Action Zimbabwe said freedom of expression must be a guaranteed right.
“Media freedom should take the needs of the citizens into consideration and should recognise the right to freedom of expression and association of Zimbabwean women,” she said. Makoni added that women in Zimbabwe demanded the right to form and hold opinions.
“We should be able to have and express opinions without fear. Women should have the freedom of print, electronic and artistic media. The government has an obligation to guarantee these fully and encourage an environment that limits control and censorship,” she said. “Women are not being given the chance to express their views especially in the state media like Herald and ZBC. We are being sidelined by these state papers, as our views are perceived to be anti- Zanu (PF),” she said.
She added that media production houses must have a stipulated quota of women-related issues. “The Zimbabwe media commission should play the monitoring role on this issue,” she added.
Makoni felt that gender training should be introduced at all journalism schools to ensure that reporters were not gender blind in their reporting.
Post published in: News