LAOS: Getting Women in the News Takes Much More than Policy

• by Vannaphone Sitthirath (vientiane)
• Thursday, January 21, 2010
• Inter Press Service

Readers can hardly find women and gender stories on widely read daily newspapers such as the English-language ‘Vientiane Times’ and Lao-langue ‘Vientiane Mai’ (New Vientiane) and ‘Paxason’ (The People’). Apart from the women’s information department of the Lao Women’s Union (LWU), most media organisations do not have a section or page for women and gender stories.

Most media organisations in Laos are state-run and fall under the Ministry of Information and Culture. The state runs 11 daily newspapers and newsletters while 64 magazines are run both by government and private companies.

‘Vientiane Times’, a well-known newspaper, tends to carry the voice of male government officials in its pages. 'The media tend to interview those people of high-ranking ministers and chief of departments, but most of them are men. Therefore, we see voices of men more than women in newspapers,' said Phonesavanh Thikeo, ‘Times’ feature editor.

She added that women’s voices usually only come into the picture when they are involved in stories related to politics and economics. 'Personally, I like to support women’s voices and I like to interview them even though they are not high-ranking (people),' she said.

Even with state policy to improve the coverage of women and gender issues, news stories do not automatically improve because journalists do not understand these and how to include them as viewpoints in their stories, explains Douangdeuane Bounyavong, a well-respected author and scholar who has founded several magazines.

'They do not know how to apply the policy into practice. I feel as if the perception of the Lao journalists toward gender issues is not quite right,' Douangdeuane said. 'They do not understand.'

At the government level though, the LWU is clear in its mandate. Its women’s information department, which has been around since 1980, produces a women’s magazine, newspaper, television and radio programmes and aims to use these to promote gender equality and protect the interests of women and children.

'During the last 30 years, we have published articles on the annual National Women’s Congress that always focus on promoting political ideology for women and advancing women’s capacity and knowledge so that they are encouraged to engage in national security and social-economic development,' said Phuilavanh Luangvanna, director general of the women’s information department and editor-in-chief of the ‘Lao Women’s Newspaper’. 'We have to adopt the articles and develop them in our working plans every five years and annually,' she added.

Phuilavanh said it is the duty of women’s information department to raise the voices of Lao women by promoting government policies and laws on women to the public because no other newspaper has taken on such a role. But its material usually carries announcements or government regulations, leaving out news stories on pressing issues and problems that affect Lao women daily.

Douangdeuane is not quite satisfied with Lao media’s portrayal of women. As an example, she cited a radio spot on children and vaccination that implies that the mother does not know when and how to get her child vaccinated.

'The information is distorted. In reality, when women are pregnant, they have to see a doctor during their pregnancy. The doctor usually gives advice to the mother on what to do after giving birth and how old the baby has to be to get vaccinated. But in this spot, it is the husband who tells his wife to take the baby to get vaccinated. This is not so true,' Douangdeuane pointed out. 'This does not only give untrue information but also minimises the role of mothers and women.'

Practical skills on reporting better through the use of gender sensitivity would help more interesting stories get published, she says. 'They (journalists) can avoid reporting stories that hold back the role of women if they understand gender issues,' she added.

Officials from the women’s information department explain that when it comes to the matter of gender-sensitive language, it uses common everyday terms in reporting women’s issues. 'We just use the language that is used by the public. The policymakers just inform us to use our Lao language correctly and make the public understand the language used,' said Phuilavanh.

Douangdeuane went further to say that no one pays attention to the use of language in stories related to women and gender. 'The use of language in media is weak in general so the use of gender-sensitive language in media is even weaker,' she added.

The editors at ‘Vientiane Times’, however, say they have become concerned about the use of language in news copy and have adjusted some terms when writing or editing stories. For example, the newspaper avoids using the word 'prostitute' and prefers 'entertainment worker' instead.

There is a also need for more skills in investigation and in-depth reporting. Moreover, few media practitioners studied journalism in school and many say that they are cautious about doing stories that might displease authorities or offend cultural sensitivities, including articles on violence against women, husbands having affairs and multiple sexual partners and unwanted pregnancies among young women.

'We want to report about rape or violence against women, but society cannot take this and do not accept this. So we choose not to report it, otherwise the policymakers would blame us,' Phonesavanh said.

Journalists end up writing mostly ‘positive’ news stories about women. ‘Vientiane Times’ focuses on stories highlighting women and business, in line with the government’s thrust to promote small enterprises to reduce poverty by 2015.

'Since 2006, we have focused particularly on how to help women reduce poverty. So we bring up stories of women and business a lot. We explain how women can live out of poverty and—how they can earn more income and so on. Women’s role has to be strengthened because they can play important role in country development,' Phonesavanh said.

Many stories around women and gender report on policies and pronouncements, highlight women’s achievements and cite the results of conferences or meetings. 'They (some journalists) just do stories when they are told to do them. They do not have their own creativity to write their own stories or how to tell people about the government policy in creative way,' Phuilavanh said.

Meanwhile, women’s magazines that have cropped up in the media market carry stories mainly on fashion, beauty and cosmetics. Lao media 'do not push the role of women up and instead use women to be a commercial tool without considering the truth and appropriateness', Douangdeuane observed.

As in other countries, there are many women journalists but most editors, managing directors and chiefs in media organisations are male. Journalists also value the view of male editors more than that of their female counterparts. Phonesavanh said although she has maintained good relationships with her male colleagues in the 14 years she has worked in ‘Vientiane Times’ , she believes that most of them value the opinions of their male editors more than hers.

Ounkeo Souksavanh, a former ‘Vientiane Times’ journalist and now a radio producer and announcer, noted that journalism is not considered the perfect job for women even if there is not much difference in the ability of male and female journalists in Laos.

Women in Laos are still seen as 'fragile 'and 'not strong,' qualities that are seen as not making good journalists, he explained. According to Ounkeo, many believe that journalism can be demanding, adventurous and require frequent travelling — activities that women cannot and would not like to do. 'I cannot imagine a woman carrying big cameras and staying overnight in remote areas for a few nights by herself. Not many women would like to do that,' he said.

Ounkeo’s view is reflected in the small number of female journalists at the ‘Vientiane Times’. Out of its 25 reporters, one two are female. Douangdeuane, however, stressed that the number of male or female journalists does not matter as long as write in a gender-sensitive way. 'It depends on the editorial boards —how they would look at the issues,' she added.

© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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