Meeting stresses media’s role in addressing gender inequality

Hanoi (VNA) – Participants at a meeting in Hanoi on October 21 discussed gender-related issues and the media’s awareness in this regard, highlighting the role of the press in addressing gender inequality.

The event, held by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA), the ASEAN Secretariat and the UN Women, was part of a series of activities on the sidelines of the 3rd ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Women in Hanoi.

It was reported at the meeting that as 74 percent of ASEAN’s population has accessed the internet via mobile phones, an urgent need at present is raising the media’s awareness of gender-related issues and solving gender biases that negatively affect women and girls.

Deputy Secretary General of ASEAN for ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Kung Phoak said the media plays an important role in addressing gender inequality. The important thing is that women are depicted positively in the media, and girls can realise that they are a strong factor of changes. It is even more important that men can consider women an equal partner with leadership capacity.

Pham Ngoc Tien, Director of the MOLISA’s Department of Gender Equality, emphasised that considering men and boys as a factor of changes in solving gender biases is still important to the fight for gender equality.

The meeting aimed to realise the ASEAN Committee on Women’s goals of improving the awareness of gender equality among media workers, aside from agencies working on women-related issues.

The committee said it pledges to continue integrating gender equality into other ASEAN agencies, especially those working on communications, information, culture and arts such as the ASEAN Senior Officials’ Meeting Responsible for Information and the ASEAN Senior Officials’ Meeting for Culture and Arts.

At the event, singer Hoang Bach, the ambassador for the HeForShe campaign in Vietnam, shared his experiences while holding this post. –VNA