By Brenda Namata, Communications and Advocacy Officer, Uganda Media Women’s Association
Dear Esteemed Reader,
The Other Voice is now a click away!
UMWA is thrilled to welcome you to this inaugural e-issue of the historical newspaper, The Other Voice (TOV), henceforth re-publishing as an E-paper with support from the Royal Danish Embassy; to whom we are grateful. This publication has been operated by the Uganda Media Women’s Association since 1998. Previously, issues were released based on availability of resources until 2014, when we closed shop. We are excited to be back, this time just a click away online!
Today, we are proud to unveil our groundbreaking digital news site dedicated to championing women’s rights, empowerment and gender equality. With a resolute commitment to amplifying women’s voices and addressing gender disparities, our platform seeks to spark positive change and inspire a world that celebrates diversity and inclusion. This editorial heralds the birth of a powerful medium for women’s equity and showcases the vision and mission that drive us forward.
This inaugural issue is offering coverage on the recent social outburst of DNA testing and the related gendered issues including fueling of domestic and gender based violence. Though sadly, little attention was given to the children caught up in this DNA conflict. Other articles will focus on profiling transformational stories of women, sexual reproductive health and HIV/AIDS mitigations mechanisms and opinion articles amongst others.
For 12 years, Ugandans awakened to a newspaper pull-out in the New Vision that amplified women’s voices. We have reawakened this initiative digitally by highlighting voices of women, Persons with Disability, children, youth and the gender based issues they face, least portrayed by mainstream media.
TOV is an analytical and in-depth news platform that aims at enhancing women visibility through increased coverage of women issues that are largely marginalized by mainstream media. It also targets inclusion of women voices in decision making processes in bid to leaving no one behind, towards gender equality and social justice.
Through a two-monthly based issue, The Other Voice shall publish stories on women and gender topical areas on national topical dialogues; legislative agendas, budgetary allocations, service delivery, public interest agendas, Economic affairs; business, taxation and revenue generation, Gender Based Issues and, transformational stories: Profiling of inspirational transition stories of women.
The Other Voice will maintain its coverage of issues affecting women and other marginalized groups; PWDs, Children and Youth which are otherwise given limited attention by the mainstream media. We shall focus on providing information on development processes necessitated for inclusive social change. These issues include but are not limited to; women voices on national topical discussions to bridge their involvement in decision making processes, gender based violations least shown by mainstream media, transformational stories of women towards empowerment.
Evidently, media in its evolving landscape has persisted with least representation and irresponsive portrayal of women and the associated issues affecting them. Women are continuously presented in a stereotypical, sexiest and passive form through media content.
The establishment of TOV in 1998 was a responsive initiative to the aforementioned gender gaps in media and invisibility of women voices. Twenty-six (26) years later, the 2020 GMMP report reflects that despite marginal improvement in women’s visibility. Current statistics indicate that women’s visibility in media is just at 24%. Gender gaps of sexism, stereotypes, discriminatory inclusion and gender irresponsive media laws still facilitate these low figures.
Inevitably, new media through digital transformation for the internet, online news and online platforms has created an alternative platform for information consumption and freedom of expression. Digitalization has created boundless space of interconnected interaction and visibility and this is much witnessed on social media platforms in Uganda.
Whereas this is a positive achievement worth celebrating, not many women have socio-economically transformed, the strong gender digital divides still persist. The traditional media gender gaps that The Other Voice sought to redress have now greatly translated in the new media; which have also presented new challenges
In 1995, Uganda was a signatory to an international protocol; The Beijing Platform for Action that through its recommendations, emphasis was put on the role and need of the state and diverse stakeholders including civil society and media to enhance equal and equitable visibility of women in both mainstream and new media. The protocol urged that this would be a viable mechanism of increasing women participation in decision making processes.
Premised on the above reflections, TOV is relaunching digitally to provide an inclusive and responsive platform to enhance rightful representation of women, limiting issues, the wins of gender equality and equity. Also, to counteract cross-cutting gender gaps that diminish women and their ability to inclusively thrive in development and democratic processes in Uganda.
We look forward to your unconditional support towards our epaper The Other Voice and the issues it seeks to address. Here, we shall focus on a path of enlightenment, education and empowerment. Let us join hands in lifting each other up for a more equitable tomorrow. Together, we can pave the way for a more equitable world, where every one’s potential is realized and celebrated and equity reigns supreme.
Margaret Cho, an outstanding women rights activist once stated that, “The power of visibility can never be underestimated”. Please leave a comment for UMWA to see that the unseen about women is more visible through each Edition we put out.
Take a deep dive into the stories of this inaugural Issue. THANK YOU
