Women broadcasters

(February 13, 2014)

Today is a special news broadcasting day, as decreed by UNESCO, and the BBC Arabic covered it. I think that is nice. I don't think a lot of news organizations in the US will mention that UNESCO has declared today a holiday.

And they in particular declared it a holiday for women broadcasters.

This lady from UNESCO said something along the lines of: only one third of the staff amongst the major broadcasters in the world are women. And how can the news be fair and inclusive if it is told by only half the population on earth?

Today was chosen for the holiday, because today is the anniversary of the UN's first radio broadcast, back in 1946! That is amazing!

They showed footage of the radio and news workers from back in the day:

And pointed out how back in the day, the only role for women on the news were to be off the news, as secretaries and such.

And finally, they spoke over the phone with an Egyptian lady, who said something like: Egyptian television was the very first to have a female presenter, second only to the BBC, so Egyptian women have been part of the media for decades and decades!