The Sri Lanka Press Institute in association with UNESCO, New Delhi organized an online discussion on “Women in the Media and Safety” on 16th of November 2020. This discussion was conducted via zoom technology and started at 10 am and ended at 12.30 pm. The discussion was held in Tamil and was attended by Editors, News Editors, Journalists and CSOs from the electronic and print media. 

Mr. Kumar Lopez, Chief Executive Officer of the Sri Lanka Press Institute presented the opening remarks and clarified the purpose of the discussion. These workshops were organized to bring out the challenges and problems faced by female journalists in their media careers and to make them clear and aware of how to face and recover from it.  

Following his speech, Ms Menaka Lekamwasam shared information on the challenges faced by female journalists and the impact on their personal lives, based on the findings of a study conducted by UNESCO New Delhi at the invitation of the Sri Lankan Press Institute on “Women in the Media in Sri Lanka”. She added that “evidence of gender discrimination in Sri Lanka is less prevalent in the English media than in the Tamil and Sinhala media”. 

This was followed by a discussion on Gender Sensitization in the media. Conducted by Mr. Velusamy Weerasingam. About 16 human resource managers, editors and members of civil society participated in this event. This was a very successful discussion.