Situation of Women Reporters is Not Any Different Than the News They Report

Click to read the article in Turkish / Kurdish

We are reading and seeing new reports about murder, rape, abuse, harassment and violence against women on TVs, newspapers and various media outlets every day. While reading those articles, have you ever wondered who reported those news? Wonder about the world of those who cover these news... do women journalists encounter such incidents, what do they feel when writing these news stories?

While I was drafting this piece, I read a news about the lawsuit brought by a journalist woman, who worked at a local radio station in Bursa, after she was raped. The court of appeals sentenced the defendants, who were released by the local court, to 23 years of imprisonment each. Now the case is at the Supreme Court of Appeals.

Women constitute 38.6 percent of the journalists working in the sector. About one-third of the members of Journalists' Union of Turkey (TGS) are women. The percentage of women in the sector and their rate of unionization is not very high. This rate does not change much when we look at individual workplaces either. There is no woman editor-in-chief in any of the nationwide media outlets in Turkey. The number of women in decision-making mechanisms is also very little.

Journalists' Union of Turkey has taken, albeit insufficient, steps on this issue. At its General Assembly held in 2013, it amended its bylaw by adding the following articles: "It is the core principle of TGS, to ensure that the grassroots have a say in all union activities, and to enable and safeguard all sorts of equality, foremost gender equality, as well as democracy and democratic rule of law in every field. It struggles against all forms of violence (harassment, rape, beating, mobbing, etc.) and discrimination against women and generates policies to this end. In cases of dispute during the implementation of these policies, the decisive vote is that of the women.

Effort is made for the highest possible representation of women in every organ of the union, in all decision-making mechanisms, at the general assembly, working groups and commissions, and the election of delegates. (...) [The union] puts in effort to resolve the issues of LGBTI workers, adopts and puts into practice measures of positive discrimination to resolve the issues of these workers who are subjected to discrimination, and forms commissions for this purpose".

Even though some of our men and women administrators put their foot down during the discussion of these articles, it was achieved to a large extent. The most frequently voiced objections were, "Why do we discriminate? If women don't want to be executives, these quotas will be obstacles before us. Are we going to waste our time on this while journalists have more pressing issues?" When we refused to back down, these amendments were made to the bylaw.

Thus, women journalists constituted 50 percent of the Headquarters, Ankara and İzmir branch administrations, and 40 percent of the İstanbul branch. The number of workplace representatives was brought in line with the 50 percent quota. TGS established a Women and LGBTI Commission. TGS strives to address and resolve the women journalists' issues separately by means of this commission. Even though it is not yet operating at an adequate level, it has been a huge step for TGS.

Among the unions operating under the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions, TGS is the only union in which a woman serves as chair. Surely, this is not enough. Having only one woman chair throughout its 65-year history is neither acceptable nor explainable for TGS. Over the last few years, TGS has been exerting extra effort for women journalists to take part in the administration of the union; it should continue these efforts also for women to serve as chair as well.

As a male chair, I must candidly say that during the last general assembly I made an extraordinary effort for a woman to become the chair of TGS. That is when I realized that this would not be possible until the problems encountered by women journalists in their private and professional lives are solved. Our friend, whom we offered the position of chair, has children and an intense work schedule which was the biggest obstacle. It is difficult for parents and especially the mothers to take firm steps in life as long as the state does not provide any protection for the children. I have seen and experienced this as the father of a 15-month-old girl. Our months long search for a babysitter was only recently concluded when my sister saw on TV the incidents of violence against children committed by the babysitters!

As we often experience during our organizing efforts as well, it is usually the women journalists who say, "The child is waiting at home", or "I need to pick up the child". Throughout my nearly five years in office, I have yet to hear a male journalist say, "I need to go home to look after my child". It is not very different in my case either. I have the responsibility of looking after the child only on the weekends. These are some of the steps that have been taken and need to be taken by TGS.

When we turn to the sector, we see that the professional discrimination faced by women journalists just because they are "women" has no limits. They are subjected to violence and discrimination mostly by their colleagues and superiors. Do not ever think that such things do not happen in the lives of learned, educated people. These things do indeed happen.

The biggest problem of women journalists is that the sector is becoming increasingly masculinized. Have you ever seen a camerawoman or how many times have you seen one? Or do you think that the women reporters and presenters who appear before the cameras are happy with the obligation of putting on makeup every single day so as to bind their audience to the screen? These are some of the things expressed by the women journalists we have spoken with one-on-one. And there is also their fear of being fired from their jobs. Even though there is no dramatic difference between the wages of women and men journalists who do the same job, women journalists are discarded more easily. Why you ask?

1- Marriage: Managers do not view the marriage of women and men in the same light. When it is a woman who gets married, the manager asserts that "she will give birth anyway". And there is also the issue of flexible working hours and trips to other cities. Managers assume that women cannot survive in the sector. But is that the case with men? No matter when a news might be breaking, men can go and report it but women cannot. Men can go out of town, but women cannot. Most of the time, women journalists do not get married so as not to leave their professions.

2- Children: Another important topic is children. Considering the maternity leave, illnesses and nursing breaks, the manager has already put that woman at the top of the list of people to be let go. Let's say the woman began working after her maternity leave. Will she be able to withstand the flexible working hours we mentioned earlier? The answer is no. The woman journalist has already been pushed out of the sector. She has raised her child with difficulty and now it is time to find a kindergarten. We know how much money the journalists in the sector make. The woman is compelled to say, "Instead of giving all this money to a kindergarten or a babysitter, I will raise my child myself". Kindergarten is already a problem in the private sector; it is of even greater importance for women journalists. For women journalists, having a child = becoming unemployed.

Lastly, I would like to address the situation of women interns. There is exploitation in every sector, everybody is subjected to exploitation in one way or another, but the situation of women interns in the media sector is different. As they graduate from the faculties of communication they are told, "In this sector, you will not only serve tea-coffee, but you will be a slave to your boss and your editor."

An intern who takes in this statement says "OK" to whatever she is told and does whatever she is asked, she has to. The rates of unemployment in the media sector are already high. Should her career be over before she even gets a job? It should not of course, but it is not clear how long this period will last. Women journalists experience harassment the most during their internship periods. They are subjected to the harassment of almost all their male colleagues, ranging from the reporters, to the chiefs and managers.

A couple of weeks ago, TGS Women and LGBTI Commission conducted a survey on women journalists. The results of the survey have shown that;

* 6 out of every 10 women journalists in Turkey say, "I face/d discrimination in my professional life because of my gender".

* 55 percent of women journalists state that they do not receive equal pay for equal work with men.

* 87 percent think that having a child has / might have adverse effects on their professional lives.

* 60 percent say that they are subjected to psychological violence and mobbing. The ones who inflict the most violence on women journalists are their managers and colleagues, respectively.

As we leave behind yet another 8th of March, the statements of the women journalists who participated in this survey present an occasion for all readers to question themselves one more time... (GD/APA/SD/TK/IG)

* Images: Kemal Gökhan Gürses

CLICK TO READ ALL "52 MEN 52 WEEKS" ARTICLES