UNESCO WPFD series

Being a Journalist & a Feminist
By Maggie Boyle


Can I be a Journalist as well as a Feminist? That’s the question I was posed with recently while attending the Pacific WAVE media network workshop as part of the UNESCO World Press Freedom Day.

A little background if you please, W.A.V.E is an acronym for Women advancing a vision of empowerment. It’s the latest on-line non-governmental organization that’s looks like an integrated feminist movement with media practitioners incorporating mainstream media, civil society, academia, and community and advocacy media.

As part of the WAVE delegation, I along with 19 other feisty women from around the Pacific convened on the University of Queensland’s School of Journalism and Communications with literally a thud of Pacific flair.

Picture this, 20 Pacific women complete with floral head dresses, colourful sulu and chambas, bright bold splashes of pacific color on brown beauties whose laughs littered a startled student and faculty body UQ’s Lotus campus.

To say, the WAVE delegation made an Entrance could quite possibly be an understatement!

Back to my question of course, ‘Can I be a Journalist as well as a Feminist’? I suppose I should define a Feminist, since really a Journalist in its simple form is a story teller and one whose role it is to tell the story of the current day through whatever medium to all and sundry that would bother to listen.

Ah yes, the definition of Feminist, well according to the Collins English Dictionary, Feminist is the adjective for Feminism which means advocacy of equal rights for women.

Feeling empowered already in the presence of these regional whose who on the media front, the first glance of these sturdy woman was enough to ensure your feminism was truly entrenched.

But discussions, during our plenary sessions brought about healthy debate. On the question, there was a divided concensus.

On the one hand, you had one group in the Yes category where you embrace your practice as a journalist with the interests of a feminist tucked comfortably within your armour.

On the other, to be a journalist meant to be completely neutral to approach your work in an objective manner that did not choose feminism or male ism if such a word exists, but instead maintain a fair, accurate and balanced aspect to the story being covered.

Hmmmm, Food for though indeed!

As I listened to the to and fro of the discussions, I pondered personally my own approach as a journalist.

And quite frankly, I’m sitting on middle ground here, undecided.

But if you will, I’ll throw in some arguments and I admit I should declare their possibly inherited bias, after-all these are all women, so naturally protecting your flock is as instinctive as protecting your own child.

Lisa Lahari Williams is a founding member of the Pacific WAVE media network, she’s being in the industry longer than I’ve been born and that’s a long time. She’s a Cook Islander by birth, married to a Papua New Guinean and quite possibly keeping a lover when it comes to her media exploits.

In short, she’s a woman who has an opinion and I’ll stake it an educated one, on most every topic.

Close to her heart are the rising cases of HIV/Aids in the region and particularly the media coverage about it. She’s also an advocate for freedom of information and heeding the call of responsible journalism and the need to continually learn and up skill.

Currently based in New Zealand, she’s stuck like the best Velcro to her laptop and laments to any eager ear about the beauty of Technology, the digital enhancer and the literal understanding of everything at the click of your mouse or keypad whichever you’re using.

“You know, I’ve done it myself, you come into a story and you say, I’m here as the news journalist, I just want to be the journalist, not the Pacific woman whose got a really keen interest in HIV or climate change or violence against women or gender. You just want to approach it as a journalist.

But here’s the thing, in our communities we wear so many different hats, we are related the people behind the issues or the people making the decisions. We are too close, you know to try and pretend to be neutral or objective. I think, what we’ve got to do is not only develop the skill for asking questions, but we’ve got to acknowledge our closeness to the people behind the issues and than take all that closeness and acknowledgement and try and separate it and put it aside and be able to communicate”.

Another advocate and heading the newest wave of the Women’s movement in the development of community radio through Femlink Pacific is Sharon Bhagwan Rolls.
Centered on the UN resolution 1325 which mandates peace and security, Rolls is no stranger to making the stand.

As the first to pipe up on Can a Journalist be a Feminist, Rolls had this to add,

“A woman is a very complex person. I think the point I was trying to make is that there are different parts to us. So if you talk about your faith context, your ideological context, being a feminist, being a communicator and being somebody whose a Christian as well is the sum of all parts that we are.

Umm, this is something that needs to be addressed a lot more because I could also argue that when a woman’s viewpoint is not bought in, how can you say you have a balanced story? So this is the beginning I think of all that broader dialogue that can happen through the types of women’s networks that are there, like the Pacific WAVE media network”.

Well you’ve heard from these ladies, make up own mind on whether a journalist can be a feminist.

As for me, I’ll borrow a line I heard recently,

“Women belong in the house... and the Senate.”