Number of women journalists in leadership role still low

The number of women journalists in leadership role in Nepal is yet to increase owing to various reasons, a report prepared by the Working Women Journalists (WWJ) showed.

The study conducted among 500 working women journalists in 45 districts of Nepal has unveiled that only 7 per cent women journalists were assuming the role of editors while 54 per cent of them were working as a reporter. It was found that five of them were executing jobs holding multiple positions – reporting and editing simultaneously. The study showed that 67.6 per cent of the women journalists have chosen women and children beat for reporting while 41.2 have been writing on education beat and rest 48.7 per cent the health beat.

The statistics have evidently spoken the volume that the majority of the women journalists have taken up the beats deemed relatively ‘easier’ for reporting rather than the risky or challenging beats such as ‘politics’, ‘adventure’ and ‘sports’.

At a programme organized here to launch the report, National Information Commission’s Chief Commissioner Mahendraman Gurung said that the WWJ had brought up important report, shedding light on various aspect of the female media persons working in various capacities across the country. Urging the women journalists to actively exercise right to information, he said the Commission was conducting study on how many women in Nepal were exercising the right to information.

Press Council Nepal’s Acting Chairperson Kishor Shrestha was of the view that more and more women journalists should take up challenging beats.

Similarly, Federation of Nepalis’ Journalists (FNJ) Secretary-General Ramesh Bista asserted that the media houses need to recognize the newly launched report since it has clearly mirrored the state of the working women journalists in our country.

Likewise, former General Manager of Rastriya Samachar Samiti (RSS) Shreeram Singh Basnet argued that there was nothing called a ‘good beat’ or a ‘bad beat’ for the reporters.

Nepal Television Chairperson Dr Mahendra Bista expressed his confidence that the gender-friendly guideline, initiated while he was the FNJ’s chairperson, would come into effect very soon.

Senior journalist Shree Acharya said the fact finding on the state of working women journalists should be brought to the knowledge of the media houses and deliberations on the same should be held among the media house owners.

WWJ founding president Sangita Lama explained that the study was conducted to bring out the facts about working women journalists in the country. She spoke of the need to find out the reasons why women were not assigned for the beats deemed tough and important.

Researcher Yogendra Napit described that the study was based upon the availability of the resources for working women journalists and their own availability for the study.