JEDDAH, 26 May 2003 — In February this year, the minister of information announced that a Saudi Journalists Association would be established soon, and in March the editors-in-chief of all Saudi newspapers and some magazines held the first meeting in Riyadh to lay the groundwork for this association. Absent from this meeting was any Saudi female journalist or editor representing the women’s perspective on what they expect the association to achieve, how they propose it might function and what they assume their role in it will be.
Membership applications have been distributed to the men and women working in all the newspapers and magazines, with fees of SR1,000 for full-time Saudi journalists, SR800 for part-time Saudi journalists and SR500 for non-Saudi journalists. Seeing how keen the female journalists are to apply for membership, Arab News gathered some of their thoughts on the association.
“The idea of establishing an association for Saudi journalists is great. But does it have a program to improve the profession and, more importantly, does it have the authority to implement this program?” asks Salwa Khamis, a journalist at Okaz newspaper.
“We know that the association is still in its early stages but it’s not clear how it will achieve its goals and whether we will receive equal treatment, equal benefits and equal rights with the men,” said Khuzeima Al-Attas of Okaz.
After their first meeting, the editors announced that the female journalists will be treated equally with the male journalists but did not elaborate. In the application form, it says that the goals of the association include improving the standards of the profession, organizing its activities and protecting the rights of the journalists. “We have been asking for such an association for years, and female journalists need an effective organization that will address our issues and concerns,” said Khuzeima.
“I don’t think the association will help us much unless we have an active role in it,” said Manal Al-Sharif of Al-Watan. “We must be able to attend the general meetings of the association and we need to have female representatives on the board of directors,” she said. “Because the women’s department is separate from the men’s, that creates problems for us in addition to the problems we share with the men,” said Salwa.
She explained that being in a separate department made women distant from the decision-making headquarters, distant from the editors, and distant from the daily meetings for journalists. This added to the difficulties and barriers women encounter. “We have to have a representative who will speak on our behalf,” she said.
Manal suggested establishing a women’s committee as part of the association where women can meet regularly to discuss their issues and elect female representatives for them to the board of directors.
“There should be a branch for the association in all the major cities,” said Khuzeima. “The women’s committee or association should be independent from the men’s even if it’s linked to them, and it should have enough authority to be effective in protecting the rights of female journalists,” said Fatimah Al-Saeedi of Al-Madinah newspaper.
Khuzeima said the membership fee was high. “Some of the women working here part-time have very low salaries and it’s their only source of income. I don’t think those who set up these fees took that into consideration.” But Salwa thought that it depended on the services the association will provide. “If it is able to deliver on its promises and achieve its goals, then the amount is appropriate and maybe even low.”
“I think one of the important things the association should have is a legal adviser who will act on protecting the rights of the journalist,” said Khuzeima. Salwa pointed to other issues that the association should persuade the media institutions to uphold such as providing proper training, the necessity of having specialized reporters and outlining clear rights and obligations of a journalist.
“They are more concerned about quantity than quality in filling up the pages,” said Salwa. “Female journalists’ rights are generally ignored or sidelined, most of them, even full-time journalists, cannot depend on this job as a source of income and many of them quit,” said Fatimah.
Manal raised an important question that summed up the concerns of many in journalism. “My question is: Even if the association can guarantee us our rights, can it enforce the decisions it takes on the institutions?”
