Gender and Media
In accordance with the 2012 Law on Equal Opportunities of Women and Men, the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services has been preparing annual analyses of the treatment that gender-related issues receive in the daily information programmes and the way in which the programmes of the national television services in the Republic of North Macedonia portray women and men. In line with the above Law, once a year, the Agency submits a report to the Parliament of the Republic of North Macedonia on the way of portraying and depicting women and men, as well as the gender-related issues in the broadcasters’ programming concepts and contents.
Since 2013, the Agency has been dedicating special attention to gender-related issues. On 11 November 2013, a public session was held, dedicated to gender and media. A month later, a workshop was held on strengthening the capacities of media professionals in gender equality issues.
Gender in Children’s Programmes in the Spotlight of AAAVMS’ Public Meeting – 30.06.2020
The Agency usually publishes the results of the annual gender issues analysis
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Workshop Held on Gender-Based Violence and the Professional Journalistic Reporting Standards
Skopje, 09.06.2022 – Today, the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services organized, in cooperation with the Margini Coalition and the National Network to End Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, a workshop on “Gender-Based Violence and the Professional Journalistic Reporting Standards”. The event was held at the Agency’s premises.
In his welcoming speech, Agency Director Zoran Trajchevski, PhD, dwelled on the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, known as the Istanbul Convention. Today’s workshop was realized as the regulator’s obligation under the Action Plan for this Convention’s implementation. More…
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Gender in the Sports TV Programmes in the Spotlight of the AAAVMS’ First Public Meeting in 2022
Skopj
e, 28 March 2022 – Today, the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services held its first public meeting for this year, at which Agency Director Zoran Trajchevski presented an overview of the activities the Agency had carried out in the past three months, in line with its Annual Work Programme.
Those attending had an opportunity to hear about the activities relating to the supervisions conducted over the broadcasters, operators of public electronic communication networks, print media publishers, the imposed public warning measures, the conducted surveys, and activities in the field of international cooperation. More…
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Online Debate on Media Literacy Held by AAAVMS and RESIS
Skopje, 30 November 2021 – As part of the Media Literacy Days 2021, the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services and the Resis Institute held an online debate yesterday on the topic of “Gender Analysis in Children’s TV Programmes: Are We Building Critical Awareness in Children?” The discussion covered several segments, from what the psychological impact of children’s programmes on their growth and development, to the way in which media policies and the programmes intended for children should be created.
After the introductory address, Agency Director Zoran Trajchevski went on to point out that, according to the findings, the Public Broadcaster had been pursuing a planned and well-thought-out programme policy regarding the children’s population, but this conclusion applies much more to MRT1 than to MRT2. As regards the programmes of the commercial television stations, the findings show that there is no well-thought-through or careful editorial approach in the selection of shows intended for different age groups of the juvenile audience. More…
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Online Event Held on “Gender-Based Violence in the Media: State of Play, Guidelines, Monitoring”
On 11 November 2021, an online event, dedicated to “Gender- Based Violence in the Media: State of Play, Directions, Monitoring” was held jointly by the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services (AAAVMS), the MARGINI Coalition and the Healthy Options Project Skopje (HOPS), with the support of the Programme Office of the Council of Europe in Skopje (as part of the JUFREX 2 Project). Given the fact that, during 2021, a number of documents were prepared and published by various stakeholders regarding gender-based violence (GBV) and media reporting, the Agency initiated, envisioned and carried out this special online event as an opportunity for all interested stakeholders – media workers, employees of the AAAVMS, representatives of the Council for Media Ethics (CEMM), state institutions, as well as a number of civil society organizations – to become acquainted with the issue of reporting on gender-based violence from several aspects. More..
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AVMS Guidelines Adopted on Monitoring the Implementation of Reporting Standards in Cases of Gender-Based Violence in the Media
Skopje, 9 November 2021 – At today’s, 32nd session, the Agency Council adopted the Guidelines of the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services on Monitoring the Reporting Standards in Cases of Gender-Based Violence in the Media. The document was prepared by an expert hired by the Council of Europe within the frameworks of the project on “Freedom of Expression and Freedom of the Media in North Macedonia” – JUFREX 2, implemented by the Council of Europe and the European Union.
The Guidelines, among other things, aim to provide the media and all stakeholders with the information needed to grasp the issue of reporting on gender-based violence in general, which is why they present an overview of the situation in this regard in the country, explain the importance of both regulation and self-regulation, provide an outline of the most important relevant international documents and domestic legislation, underline the good practices to be followed in reporting, and provide a list of questions to help analyze, during the monitoring, the item/programme suspected to have failed to follow the standards applicable to cases of gender-based violence.
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Gender in the 2020 Election Campaign in the Spotlight of AAAVMS’ First Public Meeting in 2021
Skopje, 25 March 2021 – The Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services held a public meeting today. Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the meeting was held using video conference connection. At the meeting, the Director of the Agency, Dr. Zoran Trajchevski, presented a summary of the activities implemented in the past three months in line with the Agency’s Annual Work Programme. More…
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Оnline workshop for the Agency for audio and audiovisual media services and Council for media ethics in Macedonia for regulation, self-regulation and monitoring of the application of the media reporting standards, covering gender-based violence cases in the media
On 4 december 2020, the EU and Council of Europe joint action on “Freedom of expression and freedom of media in North Macedonia”, organised in Skopje an online workshop for the media regulatory authority, the Agency for audio and audiovisual media services and the self-regulatory body, the Council for media ethics in Macedonia.
During the meeting the participants discussed key facts and challenges related to the regulation, self-regulation and monitoring of the application of the media reporting standards, covering gender-based violence cases in the media. More information to the link.
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“Gender in the 2020 Election Campaign: Analysis of Gender-Related Issues and the Manner of Presenting and Portraying Women and Men in the National Television Stations’ Coverage of the Elections”
Once a year, the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services prepares analyses about the presence of gender issues in the media and the manner of presenting and portraying women and men in the programme concepts and contents of the broadcasters.
This analysis was conducted to this same end, and issued in the form of a publication in the Macedonian language, with the aim of establishing how gender issues are treated in the reports during the election campaign in the media and how women and men are presented in the programme content during the election campaign. The publication “Gender in the 2020 Election Campaign” also offers a set of conclusions and recommendations for improving the current situation in order to promote gender equality in the media.
The Agency has prepared a short summary of the Analysis of Gender-Related Issues and the Manner of Presenting and Portraying Women and Men in the National Television Stations’ Coverage of the Elections. The summary is available in Macedonian, English and Albanian.
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“Analysis of the Gender Pay Gap in Broadcasting Industry in 2019” Published
The Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services is seriously committed to introducing the gender issue in the mainstream media and constantly strives to provide relevant data on the status of gender in the media, which can then be used in the development of state policies and the formulation of editorial policies. In addition to conducting regular analyses of the gender structure of employees in the broadcasting industry, the Agency prepared, for the first time, an Analysis of the Gender Pay Gap in the Broadcasting Industry in 2019, which has been published in the form of a publication, into Macedonian, Albanian and English. The analysis of the gender pay gap in the broadcasting industry, with a special focus on gender structure, does not include data on the level of education, nor on the ethnicity of the employees in the media.
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Publication on “Gender on TV and the Radio: Who Makes the Decisions and Who Implements Them?” Released
The Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services has released a publication titled Gender on TV and the Radio: Who Makes the Decisions and Who Implements Them?, which covers the gender structure of the owners and the employees of the radio and television stations. The Analysis offers data on the ownership of the television and radio stations in 2019, as well as data on the structure of employees of the television and radio stations in 2018, including comparative data with those of the previous years.
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Analysis of the Gender Aspects in Children’s Programmes on the National Terrestrial TV Channels – 2019
The Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services has published the annual survey on gender in the media, in which for the first time in the country, a quantitative and qualitative analysis has been made of the treatment of gender in children’s shows. The survey covers 520 shows for children, of both domestic and foreign production, broadcast in the period from 15 September to 15 October 2019, on seven national terrestrial television channels: MRT1, MRT2 – Programme in the Albanian language, Alfa TV, Kanal 5 TV, Sitel TV, Telma TV and Alsat M TV.
The gender analysis was performed on a total of 4,553 characters, of which 2,657 were female, 1,842 were male, while the rest had no gender markers (e.g. animals).
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Publication on “Gender on TV in 2018: On-Screen and Off-Screen” Comes Out of Print
In 2019, the Agency released a publication titled “Gender on TV in 2018: On-screen and Off-screen”, which portrays the state of play concerning women and men’s participation in the TV media sphere behind the scene at all levels, from the owners to the logistical support staff, as well as the results of the analysis of the TV programmes of the First and Second Channels of the Public Broadcasting Service and the commercial terrestrial television stations at the state level, in terms of the presence and treatment of gender-related topics and the portrayal of men and women.
The publication is printed in the Macedonian, Albanian and English languages.
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Agency Launches Its Publications on Gender in the TV Programmes
At its first Public Meeting in 2018, held on 28 March 2018, the Agency launched several publications dedicated to gender issues in the TV programmes. The compilation contain annual research results speak about the presence and depiction of genders in the programmes of the national television stations in the period 2012-2016, and are printed in Macedonian, Albanian and English. They contain the results of five surveys and one meta-analysis that indicates the trends concerning gender and media.
Also launched at this event was the publication dedicated to gender in the television programmes in 2017, which consists of two analyses, one of which shows if, to what extent and in what way gender-related issues are present on TV, while the other presents the way in which genders are depicted and portrayed in the TV programmes. This publication was also printed in Macedonian, Albanian and English.
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New Tool on Gender Equality in the Media
As part of its efforts to continuously provide media professionals and other interested stakeholders with tools for raising the awareness about media’s role in achieving equality between women and men, the Agency translated into Macedonian and Albanian the Recommendation on Gender Equality in the Audiovisual Sector, which the Council of Europe had adopted in September 2017.
Recommendation CM/Rec(2017)9 of the Committee of Ministers to the Member States on Gender Equality in the Audiovisual Media Sector is available at this link
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Agency activities related to gender in the media
Analysis of the Gender Gap in the Broadcasting Industry in 2019
Analyses of gender in television programmes
Employee structure analyses in the audio and audiovisual media industry