By NAKUBIANA SHABONGO –

THE Non-Governmental Coordinating Council (NGOCC) has called on the media to improve the status of women in society through their work.
NGOCC executive director Engwase Mwale said this yesterday when she officially opened a gender sensitive and responsive reporting workshop.  She said women and men needed to be covered equally.
Ms Mwale said though there were improvements in the reporting of women issues, more should be done.
She expressed concern over the continued negative reporting about the female folk in some sections of the media
“The media need to play a critical role, messages in gender and media advocacy can best be framed using the key media principles of accuracy, fairness, balance, diversity and fair representation,” Ms Mwale said.
It was unfortunate that women’s access to the media and their voices had remained low in Zambia.
Ms Mwale was sad recently, the reporting pattern by the media had not been gender sensitive.
She said the objective of the workshop was to equip media practitioners with best practices of gender mainstreaming and reporting in their coverage of gender issues.
Ms Mwale said as part of the International Women’s Day celebrations this year, NGOCC launched the media awards in recognition of the  important role that the media played in promoting gender in the development agenda of our country.
She said the awards would coincide with the 16 Days of Gender Activism against Gender Based Violence on December 10th which is a human rights day.
Ms Mwale has urged the media to continue working with NGOCC member organisations to ensure that gender equality is attained at all levels.