!".?%v:%&25-%:.%&'73QO$+"&#3:%2B%&6=":%& ?"?H!".?%v:%&6=":%!H#3:%2B%&6=":%& '$+/,&<$H&#/5P=/5 '$+"&8-B%<@= 8$:%>*Q L="&>*Q2)<B%S k:%&#/5P '<:%&'!B%&'6G&$+"&I #=?%-1G:%693&6(3&6.8*:%&>)/$>)/-:% $<Q=3Q6-S !".?%v:%&25-%:.%&'73QO$+"&#3:%6>" ?"?H!".?%v:%& 6=":%!H#3:%-1 $H0H?"62"=>)/ '$+/,&<$H&$+"&=/5 6!":%&6-&<B;% '73QP*3Q$+"&$>)/6<&6-S ?:%&</5P '<A45#%67"%68-"9/5*3:;%$>)/<87:;% $H0H?"=/5?%!"&2)?%$+"&$)" 6?"=%+"&N+".?%2!%$+"&():;%<" <=%9/5:%6<" '6L=":%&'>".?%-?%>-%$+"& =/5 'e/=4"&25-%6.>(/5:%-1<B%S Z<56#<. 6#3O>)/*+=%'>$@ $B%<B;%!".?%v:%&25-%:.%&'73QO$+"&#3:%$) 2/:%<D"GR&!"&6-& !H$A*+=%$+"& $>)/6<&6-S Issue 3: Women journalists are ‘protected’ rather than empowered. Journalists face the risk of violence, particularly when reporting from conflict areas. Participants were concerned that this risk doubly affects women, who risk the additional threat of sexual or gender-based violence, from state to non-state actors. Unfortunately, however, rather than seeking to empower and enable women to practice journalism in such difficult circumstances, women have instead been ‘protected’ by those around them. Media companies often restrict women journalists from working in potentially dangerous areas instead of creating safeguards that would enable them to work safely. Media companies sincerely believe they are protecting women by preventing them from working in difficult or dangerous areas. One participant, a senior media worker said, “Men are sent to conflict regions to collect news rather than women. Media companies need to think about the sexual safety of women and that’s why women are not sent to such dangerous places as men are.”133 Unfortunately the aim to ‘protect’ women has the effect of further preventing them from expanding their experience, and denies them new challenges that would enhance their careers. Such ‘protection’ also serves to remove the voice and view of women from public discussions on armed conflict. Participants agreed that media companies have done nothing to encourage the gender-based protection of those women journalists who want to work in difficult and dangerous areas. Women journalists often face pressure from their families. One of the key pressures placed on women journalists is a social expectation that they should work in a safe environment like an office. Participants reported that family members actively dissuade women from journalism as a career due to the need to travel, proactively collect information and investigate. Responding to a discussion on women journalists in difficult or dangerous areas, one male journalist participant said, “I don’t want my sister to work as a journalist”.134 Even when women do become journalists, they often face on-going pressure from their families and society’s conservative attitudes. One participant stated, “I am a woman and that’s why my family gets worried all the time that I am travelling to collect news. Sometimes I have felt anxious and this feeling has disturbed my concentration at work.”135 ARTICLE 19 - Censored gender: Women’s right to freedom of expression and information in Myanmar - Page 42