The Uganda Media Women’s Association (UMWA) has urged media regulators to issue guidelines for digital platforms as an agenda towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Mrs Carol Beyanga a media consultant and editor said that the challenge remains that media is accountable depending on who they were including those that subscribe to the Uganda Media Center and others to UCC.
Mrs Beyanga thus emphasizes that media can never determine who gets what, but can only rise the issue according to these statistics or data but can not insist on the government to make awareness progress since they have no mandate to do many things
“I think if we keep on reminding the people and telling them what our role is that will be helpful. By using our stories to explain what we have done, achieved, and still needs to be done, and how the public can be part of it then they will know,” Beyanga said.
Research on SDGs indicates that by 2020 the media had increased women’s contribution to 23% compared to 15% in 1995.
Training by UMWA on public speaking has also been able to help women voice their concerns and thus manage their businesses, and engage in politics through better communication which cuts their biases. However, while the role of media can never be underestimated in achieving the SDGs, media can only do as much as create awareness, informing the public on what SDGs are, where they stand as a country, and how they could be achieved.
Ms Patricia Akankwatsa a journalist with the Independent, noted during a media dialogue at the People’s SDGs festival on media’s contribution towards achieving SDG 5 that while people may differentiate between content conveyed on digital platforms and that on mainstream, they were not familiar with which kind of online platforms to get credible information.
“Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. While there has been a need to transition to the new media, the mushrooming digital platforms have proven a gap shaping more stereotypes, especially through hate speech and misinformation,” she said.
Akankwatsa added that as media they can only do as much as sensitizing the masses on where to get the right information but can not halt such platforms from conveying insensitive information.
“Right now there are very many websites but very few news websites . the many l call blogs since a lot of them have content that does not align with media ethics and integrity,” she noted. Adding, “So I think the regulator, Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) should come in and regulate these digital platforms so that we have authentic news platforms otherwise it’s going to be a mess.”
The regulations, however, leave the question of how qualified are the journalists who work on such platforms, especially since many are only interested in creating content rather than the kind of content.
Joanitah Sanyu Nakya, a media monitoring officer at UMWA and also present stressed the need for media to understand the SDGs with a critical mind including their indicators such as gender-based violence for SDG5.
Nakya said that once journalists understood the SDGs they would not only give clear reports but also report responsibly, especially since all SDGs are aimed at solving a particular challenge and therefore media campaigns including stories could be aligned in this manner.
