‘EU Gender Talks’ about women and the media in Kosovo

The second ‘EU Gender Talk’ took place on the 27th of February at the EUICC in Pristina.

‘Women and the Media was the next topic to be discussed within the talks that are very often chaired by the Head of EU Office/EUSR or her representative.

Annete Fath-Lihic, EUSR Chief Political Adviser/Executive Coordinator opened up the discussion by presenting all the women journalists who joined her in this talk.

“In Kosovo, like elsewhere in the world, media are agents that can shape ideas and trigger changes in the society. The multiplier effect of the media has the risk of making inequalities acceptable. To prevent this, media in Kosovo should continue using its leverage to further contribute to women’s advancement, present women as leaders and role models, and abandon stereotypes” said Fath-Lihic in her opening remarks.

Jeta Xharra from BIRN – Balkan Investigative Reporting Network remarked that women in Kosovo are not so badly represented in fields other than politics, meaning sport, music, journalism, media or arts.

“To be honest with you, listening to all of what is being sad today, I am happy and satisfied that there are not a lot of women in politics nowadays in Kosovo. I am so embarrassed by the politics here, by the dialogue process. In this constellation as it is, women would only be a number, a picture, a nice photo and they wouldn’t be allowed to even make their remark in the dialogue. I am happy to say we are women are in the places where change is happening” stated Xharra.

Besa Luci from Kosovo 2.0 mentioned the fact that when it comes to media, a lot of news you see and read about women are usually about women in entertainment, showbiz, women gather to talk about women issues, and usually women in relation to a man symbol.

Antigona Baxhaku from TV21 in Kosovo stated out that a lot of women usually hesitate to participate in different debates on TV because of the stereotypes or the feedback they might encounter.

Majlinda Lulaj Sinani, Deputy Ombudsperson, mentioned the Law on Gender Equality which should make responsible every public institution to apply the quotas, which afterwards will allow women and girls to be part of the decision making processes as well.

Reyes Charle Cuellar, EUSR Gender Adviser, pointed out that women speakers/politicians need training, money for posters to be properly represented in public, and that is another problematic issue of the whole aspect of women in the media.

‘EU Gender Talks’ happen every month with a different topic, ranging from Gender in Sports, Political Participation of Women, Inequalities in Business and so on.