Women Journalists in Local Media: Major Struggles and Proposals for Solutions

"Media is one of the business sectors where women [in Turkey] experience the highest level of gender inequality."

This report shares the results of a situation analysis and needs assessment on the working conditions of women journalists employed at local media organisations in Turkey. Published by the Media Research Association (MEDAR), the report hopes to provide insight into the gender-based vocational obstacles and needs of women journalists, to contribute to efforts to ensure gender equality in the local media industry, and to offer guidance for future rights-based policies and legislation. The research covers the current working conditions, journalistic capacity, and vocational development opportunities of women journalists, as well as the gender-based discriminations and gender-related vocational obstacles that female journalists are facing at local media outlets.

The research, supported by ETKİNİZ European Union Programme, took place between July and September 2020. The research involved in-depth interviews with 30 women journalists who are actively working at local media organisations in various cities of Turkey. The participants included senior executives (owner, editor in chief, etc.) and mid-level executives (managing editor, news director, editor, etc.), as well as office and field workers. The average journalistic work experience of the interviewees was 10 or more years. The collected data were analysed by using the thematic analysis method, which allows researchers to identify similar concepts and themes in the data and to classify and categorise these concepts to reveal dominant trends.

As explained in the report, it is widely known that, as in other sectors of Turkish society, gender-based discrimination is widespread in the media industry. "Studies confirm that Turkish women journalists suffer from multiple forms of rights violations in all areas of the media due to their gender, including 'unfair wages, employment without contract or rights and benefits, unfair work load, excessive working hours, inadequate assignments, mobbing, sexual harassment and violence'." In local media outlets, this situation is exacerbated due to the increasing economic pressures experienced by local media outlets. Yet, local media represent the majority of printed news output in Turkey and "play a key role in overseeing democracy, human rights and freedoms in local communities as the main practitioners of the rights of communication, expression and information." However, as stated in the report "the violation of vocational rights of women in local media is not duly recognized in the public space due to a lack of research and data on this issue." This report seeks to address this gap and to create greater awareness of the obstacles women face.

The study results outlined in the report cover a range of issues such as: the working conditions in local media, including hiring and recruitment of women, organisational understanding of gender issues, and gender equality in local media; employment contracts and social security and benefits of women journalists; working hours, workloads, and assignments; wages, promotions, and vocational development; issues related to mobbing, wrongful termination of contracts, and pay cuts; and political and economic pressures and censorship and self-censorship in local media. It also looks at gender-based obstacles when it comes to reporting in the field. Findings are accompanied by direct quotes from the interviews.

Overall, the research finds that "women journalists in local news outlets are subjected to gender-based obstacles and discrimination in their work, and the specific working conditions in these organizations effectively result in gender inequality." More specifically, the report highlights the following key problems and obstacles that were experienced by the majority of respondents:

• The recruitment policy in local media is not based on gender equality, and, therefore, women are not offered equal conditions in the sector.
• The financial problems and deteriorating organisational capacity in local media have an adverse impact on vocational development and working conditions for women in journalism. Underpayment, understaffing, the use of small teams for multiple tasks, disproportionate workload, overtime, technical challenges, and many other problems pose significant challenges for women in their occupational activities.
• The widespread sexist mindset and bias in local media against "women in journalism" restricts access of women to specific areas of reporting or field duties. Even if they find a way to overcome these restrictions, women journalists are often subjected to undervaluation and gender-based pressure about their occupational capacity or competencies. When considered in the context of socially constructed gender roles of women, these problems add to the existing pressure on women in local media and hinder their vocational development.
• Women journalists also face gender-based bias and discrimination, as well as gender-based violence and safety threats, in their work-related interactions with local actors.

Participants were asked to make recommendations to address the challenges they face. In their responses, all interviewees emphasised that gender equality in local media can only be ensured by introducing comprehensive structural regulations and sanctions on professional ethics and conduct in the sector. The following are some of the key recommendations highlighted in the report:

• Sectoral rules should be laid out to improve the working conditions in local media, and supervisory boards should be created to ensure the implementation of regulations. Rights violations should be eliminated by establishing complaint and support mechanisms.
• The prohibitively restrictive rules and regulations in the press advertisement system should be revised to alleviate the financial problems of local media outlets (e.g., easing the criteria for publishing advertisements, improving pricing, increasing amount and frequency of advertisements, facilitating loaning and borrowing procedures, etc.).
• New regulations, vocational training, and experience should be a precondition for obtaining broadcasting and publishing licenses and ownership in order to increase the number of local media organisations offering quality content.
• Regulations that prescribe vocational training and experience for new employees should be improved to increase the number of qualified employees in local media outlets, and the curricula of media and communication departments of universities should be expanded to include vocational practices and specialisation.
• Legal frameworks should be improved to increase the number of women employees and executives in organisations for ensuring gender equality in recruitment processes.
• Intra-sectoral complaint and support commissions should be created to address gender-based rights violations, and vocational sanctions should be introduced against organisations and individuals in breach (e.g., revoking of broadcasting and publishing licenses, dismissal, etc.).
• Compulsory training modules on gender, gender equality in media, and rights-based journalism should be developed for media and communication faculties to improve professional ethics on gender equality.
• Vocational unions and civil society organisations should be created to empower and improve occupational solidarity among women in journalism.

Click here for the 45-page Turkish version of this report in PDF format.