More work needed to empower Arab women — Ghunaimat

AMMAN — Minister of State for Media Affairs and Government Spokesperson Jumana Ghunaimat on Wednesday said that it is required for professional press to always see the difference between freedom of expression and peoples’ privacy.

Ghunaimat said that building societies cannot be through silencing peoples’ mouths, adding that the government is committed to improving laws regulating the conduct of media outlets, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The minister’s remarks came during a speech she delivered at the first regional conference of the Programme "Women in the Media" organised by the International Organization of Newspapers and Media Publishers (Wan-Ifra) in Lebanon.

The conferencewas attended by 160 journalists from Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, and the European and American continents.

Ghunaimat said that women in Jordan occupy various leading political and legislative positions in the government and Parliament, stressing the need for more political and economic empowerment of women in the region, according to Petra.

The minister explained that “woman in the Arab region do more work than man for she needs to prove herself and convince the other [man] that she is up to the role she is performing.”

“The woman is not an image but a mind, thought and cause she supports in the society and the press,” Ghunaimat, a former edito-in-chief of Al Ghad daily, said.   

She also called for organising similar summits to empower and qualify female journalists to meet the standards of press profession.

The minister also said that the government’s withdrawal of the cybercrimes and access to information laws from the Lower House aimed at improving the bills regulating the conduct of media outlets.