Report: No women guests appeared on 77 percent of discussion programs in six months

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The Association for Support of Women Candidates (KA.DER) has released its report on women's representation in the media

It reviewed 2,089 program episodes broadcast on 13 TV channels between July 1, 2020 and January 1, 2021.

According to the report, only 582 of the 6,114 guests were women and all guests were men in 77 percent of the programs.

Women's representation was 2 percent on Bloomberg HT, 4 percent on CNN Türk, 6 percent on TVNET, Ulusal Kanal and Haber Global, 8 percent on Ülke TV, 9 percent on A Haber, 10 percent on NTV and Tele 1, 11 percent on Habertürk, 13 percent on TRT Haber, 16 percent on TV 24 and 21 percent on Halk TV, the report shows.

KA.DER Chair Nuray Karoğlu said, "We have documented what the eye sees with the results of the research. This is the document of the inequality on the screen. The reflection of inequality in every division of life on the media.

She said all media outlets should take into account the report's findings and ensure equal media representation.

"According to the results of the research, even on Halk TV, which had the highest number of women guests, only one out of every five guests is women and four are male, which we regret to see.

"This is an unacceptable result for women, who make up half of the society. While we are fighting for equal representation and 50 percent in every field, especially in the parliament, the gap in the media is of course a shame.

"When we share these results with TV channels, they either turn a deaf ear to us or say, 'We can't find women guests.'

"This is the verbal form of the male-dominated mentality, like political parties saying that 'We are looking for female candidates but we are having difficulty finding them.'

"However, there are many expert women in every field such as economy, defense, environment, politics, health, law, communication, education, engineering."

She further said that the association was preparing a guide for women experts and was ready to support all TV channels about increasing women's representation. (EKN/VK)