[Strasbourg, 25 June 2010] In a resolution adopted today, the Parliamentary Assembly recommends a series of measures designed to combat sexist stereotypes in the media. It invites in particular the member states to set up regulatory and self-regulatory media authorities to reduce gender-based discrimination and to devise codes of good practice with partners in the profession to promote the balanced presence of women and men in the media.
At the same time, the Assembly encourages national parliaments to adopt legal measures to penalise sexist remarks or insults. However, as the rapporteur on this issue, Doris Stump (Switzerland, SOC), points out, media education also needs to be provided from an early age to teach young people how to decode images and messages.
Resolution 1751 (2010)1
Combating sexist stereotypes in the media
1. The Parliamentary Assembly notes and deplores the fact that women are the victims of sexist stereotypes in the media. On the one hand, they are under-represented, if not invisible, in the media. On the other hand, the persistence of sexist stereotypes in the media – confining women and men to the roles traditionally assigned by society, that is, women at home, men in the professional and political world, women as victims or as sexual objects, men as competent and powerful leaders or as sexually driven – is a barrier to gender equality.
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Read the full text of the Resolution here: http://assembly.coe.int/main.asp?Link=/documents/adoptedtext/ta10/eres1751.htm
Recommendation 1931 (2010)1
Combating sexist stereotypes in the media
1. Referring to its Resolution 1751 (2010) on combating sexist stereotypes in the media, the Parliamentary Assembly deplores the persistence of sexist stereotypes in the media, which impedes the achievement of de facto gender equality.
Read the full text of the REcommendation here: http://assembly.coe.int/Mainf.asp?link=/Documents/AdoptedText/ta10/EREC1931.htm
