Workshop Participants of “Asia Women Journalist for Media Freedom” with Communication Science Lecturers at FISIP Undip, Wednesday (10/26)
Reporter: Almira Khairunnisa, Student of Journalism and Multimedia Concentration
Today, being a female journalist is not without its challenges. One of the most common challenges faced by women journalists is their vulnerability to violence while carrying out their profession. This is illustrated by a national survey initiated by PR2Media. In a survey conducted from 2021 to 2022 involving 1,256 women journalists as respondents, 880 people, or 70% of respondents, admitted to having experienced physical and digital violence. Meanwhile, 99 respondents reported experiencing digital violence, and 98 others reported physical violence. The remaining 174 respondents stated that they had never experienced any form of violence. In the digital realm, women frequently experience violence in the form of death threats, insults, hacking, body shaming, being targeted by misinformation, receiving unpleasant sexual comments, and the dissemination of personal information without consent, or doxing.
In response to this, the Department of Communication Science at the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences (FISIP), Diponegoro University (Undip), organized an international workshop entitled “Asia Women Journalist for Media Freedom” from Wednesday (10/26) to Friday (10/28). The workshop, held at the auditorium and senate room of FISIP Undip, was a collaboration between the Department of Communication Science at FISIP Undip and the Asian Center for Journalism (ACFJ) at Ateneo de Manila University. Funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Philippines, the event was attended by 15 women journalists from various Asian countries, including Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, India, Singapore, and Nepal.
Luz Rimban, Executive Director of ACFJ, Ateneo de Manila University, at the “Asia Women Journalist for Media Freedom” Workshop
Luz Rimban, as the Executive Director of ACFJ at Ateneo de Manila University, revealed that this activity aimed to bring together journalists from Southeast Asian countries to discuss issues that are not commonly raised in the public sphere, particularly those related to women journalists’ challenges. This aligns with the workshop’s goal of strengthening solidarity among journalists and voicing the issue of media freedom for women journalists.
“The purpose of this event is to bring together (journalists) from different Southeast Asian countries to talk about issues we don’t usually discuss. So, represented by the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Nepal, and India, we essentially talk about whatever is there — a safe space — considering the many problems women journalists face while carrying out their work,” explained Luz in an interview last Friday (10/28).
The workshop was held over three days. On the first day, three speakers presented materials on gender equality in newsrooms and cases of sexual violence against women journalists. The speakers included Sunarto, a Lecturer in Media and Gender at Communication Science FISIP Undip; Luviana Ariyanti, a gender activist from the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) and CEO of konde.co; and Masduki, a researcher. At the end of the session, participants took part in a discussion forum on the situation of women journalists in their respective countries. On the second day, participants received material on the principles of safe spaces delivered by Dr. Mira Alexis Ofreneo, Head of the Ateneo Gender Hub, followed by a focus group discussion (FGD) session based on the material presented. The workshop concluded with a discussion session on resolutions and future plans for women journalists as a follow-up to the activities that had been conducted.
According to Luz, the workshop ran smoothly thanks to the provision of a safe space for participants to discuss the issues experienced by women journalists, facilitated by FISIP Undip.
“Undip played a very important role in our conference. They were generous in providing us with a space — actually a physical safe space for us — a space to freely discuss issues from our respective countries. We are pleased that Undip’s world-class facilities made it easy for us to do our work smoothly. We are glad that the (Department of) Communication deployed students and lecturers so we could carry out our work well. Our event, our workshop, successfully achieved its goals, and we are very happy to have had this place for the past two days,” she said.
Nurul Hasfi, Head of the Department of Communication Science at FISIP Undip, who is also an alumna of ACFJ, stated that this activity is part of the educational institution’s commitment to supporting gender equality issues in mass media. This activity is a manifestation of the institution’s commitment to the Tri Dharma of Higher Education, specifically community service at the international level.
“We are delighted to be involved in this activity, and we hope it becomes a discussion space that fosters broader solidarity among the community of women journalists in Southeast Asia,” said Nurul.
To ensure the sustainability of the activities, Luz expressed her intention to hold regular online meetings to maintain communication with the participants. Moreover, she hopes participants will share their understanding of safe spaces with fellow journalists.
“At the very least, we will hold regular online meetings. We have also assigned ourselves some tasks. We will convey questions we want to ask other journalists directly about safe spaces and what we can do to address them,” Luz concluded.