BY MIRIAM MANGWAYA SWEDISH ambassador to Zimbabwe, Asa Pehrson has urged female journalists to take a leading role in ensuring balanced coverage of both men and women to promote gender equality. Pehrson said this last Friday in an address to more than 100 female journalists from Zimbabwe and other African countries during a virtual launch of the 2021 WAN-IFRA Women in News (WIN) Accelerator Programme which is conducted every year to capacitate female journalists with leadership skills. “All of us have a responsibility to stand up for gender equality and democratic values in order to counter shrinking democratic spaces and authoritarian tendencies across the globe. I believe that our co-operation and the Women in News programme is a great example of how we can do that together,” Pehrson said. “Female media workers in Sweden have fought a long battle for recognition, for their skills and reporting and to be properly acknowledged at management level. Today women in the media constitute half of media staff in middle and top management.” She said the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development depended on the full participation of women and men in all areas of society, including the media. “Today online hate speech, harassment and threats are rampant and have become part of the everyday lives for many women and girls. Online hate speech is seriously inflicting and violating the freedom of expression for many women and girls.” This year, Zimbabwe joins other countries across the globe in recognising the women’s month set aside to be celebrated in March to ensure social, economic, cultural, and political achievements for women. It is being commemorated under the theme, “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world”. WIN executive director, Melani Walker said women constituted more than 50% of the global population but they were under-represented in media management posts and coverage. “The media industry has a long way to go when it comes to giving an equal platform to and representing, women. On average, women are cited as expert sources, appear in bylines, or are featured as subjects in the news just over 25% of the time, despite making up more than half the global population,” Walker said.  Follow Miriam on Twitter @FloMangwaya

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