Female Journalists urged to strive for challenging positions in their organizations

Linda Asante-Agyei, Vice-President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), has asked female media practitioners to upgrade and equip themselves with skills that would push them into higher positions of challenging tasks, in their respective organizations.

They must be assertive and brace themselves up to confront the difficulties associated with the profession, while proving to be outstanding in their practice as well as protecting their rights, as women in the profession.

Mrs. Asante-Agyei was addressing female Journalists and Photographers at a two-day workshop, on Gender Safety and Equality Workshop, organized by the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), in Collaboration with the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).

The two-day gender specific capacity building event, which took place in Kumasi, received sponsorship from the Norwegian Union of Journalists.

The Journalists were taken through topics such as Accepting Differences and Dealing with Discrimination, Journalists Rights and Gender Agreement at the Work Places, Combating Sexual Harassment at the workplace and Dealing with Safety on the Field of Work.

Mrs. Asante-Agyei said the GJA acknowledges the important role female journalists played in executing the core functions of the journalism profession, which was mainly dominated by men.

She noted that GJA has put together a legal team to defend journalists when their rights are abused.

The GJA vice Chair, advised female journalists to take up precautionary measures in their line of duty and make sure that they were always alive to tell their story.

Mrs. Alice Tettey, an IFJ trainer and the Central Region Chairperson of the GJA, urged female Journalists to make sure they were safe both inside and outside the newsroom.

Also the Central Regional Manager of the Ghana News Agency, Mrs Tettey insisted that victims of sexual harassment must report to the higher authorities, males who harassed them sexually and not to succumb to their advances while ensuring that their rights and privacy were respected.

Madam Georgina Ama Ankumah, the Ashanti Regional GJA Secretary, also an IFJ trainer, who took the participants through “Dealing with Discrimination”, said Journalists must not be subjected to unnecessary arrest, detention and torture.

She said female journalists, in particular, must not be discriminated against on the grounds of gender.

They must be assigned important roles and given equal opportunities just as their male counterparts.