Welcoming the “global movement” against sexual misconduct, abuse and harassment of women, the Kashmir Editors Guild said on Monday that it would continue upholding the rights and dignity of all its colleagues, especially women.
In a statement, a KEG spokesperson said: “The issue was discussed in a marathon meeting in which the members reiterated that the Kashmir media space shall continue to survive as a safe, equitable and respectful space for all; a place where our staff and volunteers, newsmakers and news reporters, will never be subject to discrimination or harassment in any form.”
The Guild puts on record the evolution of women as media practitioners in Kashmir, the spokesperson said, adding that the process “had taken off slightly before the 1990s. However, the situation prevented the women from choosing media as a career and those keen to do so, joined media outlets outside Kashmir. This situation prevailed for almost 20 years.”
“However, in the last 10 years, a number of women, mostly graduates from various universities, started taking interest in media. It also took the media organisations in Kashmir some time to open for them. Right now, the situation is that most of the major media organisations have a fair presence of women professionals in all the positions that exist in media spaces,” the editors’ body said.
“Over the years, the media has evolved as space where women media professionals can contribute, like their male counterparts. They have dignified spaces in which there is neither discrimination nor harassment. However, to make the systems better, the KEG members have started setting up in-house institutional cells led by women to function as sole systems to hear and decide on issues of misconduct, if any,” the spokesperson said, adding: “Some member organisations have already done it. The Guild would request the media organisations, outside the KEG, to also have such formal mechanisms in place.”