On the lead-up on Section J ...
With the aim of preparing on the theme of the media in the framework of the Fourth World Conference on women, more than 200 women media professionals met in Toronto, under the auspices of UNESCO, in March 1995 to determine recommendations and strategies aimed at encouraging "women's access to expression and decision-making in and through the media". At Toronto, a platform for action was set up and this in direct relation to the slow and difficult process of elaborating the text discussed and adopted in Beijing. This process was directed toward identifying obstacles to greater involvement by women in the media as well as drawing up recommendations and determining strategic objectives and urgent actions to undertake. The important work done at Toronto not only very clearly influenced the shape of that part of the Beijing platform concerned with the media, but equally the one devoted to violence and ways of combating it. More precisely, the Beijing text denounces images of violence with regard to women that are carried by the media, images which contribute to the trivialisation of that violence.
On Freedom of Expression ...
It is impossible to detail here the sometimes delicate content of the discussions surrounding the debate regarding the possible, hoped for or expected roles played by the media in support of women. It was almost inevitable that a fundamental question would be raised; that of respect for freedom of expression. It was necessary to reconcile the media's potential - to develop attitudes, to offer more diverse images of women: a debate all the more difficult and thorny when one thinks that this notion carries different meanings according to different social, political and economic contexts.
At Beijing the debate was shelved...for the time being at least. On the one hand the words "in accordance with freedom of expression" were inserted in numerous places in the recommendations, and on the other the choice was made to call on voluntary codes of good professional conduct rather than on means of regulation thought to be too authoritarian.
Having given this explanation, it is important to note that the two fundamental objectives regarding the media in the Beijing text are (proactive rather than reactive) - on the one hand, to allow women better and greater expression in the framework of the media and new communication technologies, and on the other to promote in the media realistic, diverse and non-stereotypical images of women.
Although since the First World Conference on Women, which took place in 1975, a number of States have taken legislative measures in the matter of equality between men and women, many discriminations still exist, and there is a great distance between law and deed ... Laws, however good they are, must be known and accepted by everyone; in this regard, the media seem well and truly to be an useful and indispensable if not irreplaceable resource for women in the frame of knowing, gaining and exercising their rights.
On the difficulties of putting Section J into practice...
A very concrete example to illustrate the preceding; The "news that's fit to print" whose determining and constitutive criteria are novelty, rapidity, geographical and psychological proximity, the sensational and unaccustomed, conflicts and violence, certain economic and political interests - and, obviously, commercial interests - and, obviously, commercial profitability via audience ratings. The nature of these criteria very often separate women from media headlines unless they transgress norms and taboos or they are victims or criminals. We need, therefore, to be vigilant. Active participation of a greater number of women able to decide news content could perhaps constitute a means of promoting other approaches that carry less penalty. Obviously, this implies that women who win through to means of expression and decision-making do not become alibis for masculine values and discourse, that they do not become "asexual".
I would like to underline here the importance of networks as a strategic tool. Organised in networks, women can break out of their isolation, benefit from solidarity, work to vindicate their authenticity, communicate, exchange experiences, and motivate each other by describing their successes. They can also encourage each other to succeed and support each other in difficult situations. Networks are also places of research, reflection and action. They can equally contribute to the process of forming (or at least informing) women, especially about their rights. They can bring together powerful pressure groups to obtain, especially from governments, steps to assure equality of opportunities. They can also establish economic and commercial self-help groups, co-operatives for buying materials and paper, for example.
But one is perhaps entitled to expect some concrete and beneficial results if women adopt a constructive critique with regard to communication practices, if they think about communicating among themselves, if they engage, specialise, innovate and diversify their subject. For that, they can no longer under-estimate themselves: they must resolutely become aware of their possibilities.
