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The second meeting of the Egyptian Women & Media Forum

مايو 6, 2014
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(Cairo, April 18th, 2014) ECWR held its second meeting of the Egyptian Women & Media Forum to discuss two of the most important issues women face today – Violence against Women and Occupational Safety for Journalists. This meeting comes as part of ‘The Egyptian Women and Media Forum’ Initiative that was launched by ECWR last month. This initiative aims to make available all information, data, and statistics regarding women’s issues and civil society.
Mrs. Nehad Abou El-Komsan, ECWR’s Chairwoman, put forward policies to combat sexual harassment in educational institutions and the work place, particularly since sexual harassment now pervades every corner of Egyptian society, most commonly at work and in education.
Mrs. Abou El-Komsan reiterated the need to establish departments within workplaces and educational institutions specifically to combat sexual harassment by receiving and verifying complaints of sexual harassments whilst maintaining the privacy of the complainant, as well as providing technical and financial support to complainants.
Mrs. Nehad ended her speech by saying penalties acts as a deterrent when they are applied and not necessarily when they are severe. There are existing civil penalties to deal with this problem of sexual harassment in the form of community service penalties which, if applied, would provide services to society as well as act as a deterrent to would-be offenders.
Mrs. Amina Shafik in her speech stressed the need for measures to ensure occupational safety for media professionals. She said it was imperative that media professionals, whether broadcasters or journalists, pull together in the same direction and work towards the same goal. They should agree on a set of specific demands and work together to push them through. In addition, the Syndicate of Journalists and the Syndicate of Media Professionals should work with government to set up a suitable system of protection for journalists and media professionals and to devise training courses for all those providing media coverage of dangerous events. Also, suitable protective clothing such as such as bullet-proof flak jackets and helmets clearly marked with ‘PRESS’ should be provided to all media professionals covering violent and bloody incidents.

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