ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan women media complaint cell has been launched to promote and ensure gender responsiveness within media houses and journalists.Established with the efforts of Uks Research Centre and the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW), the cell will work to improve the status of women in the country and will try to discourage negative projection of women. The cell will start functioning from March 1 as a pilot project for three months and may be extended afterwards.

The executive director Uks Research Centre said the PWMCC aimed at responding to the 2010 Global Media Monitoring Project’s findings.

“The GMMP results show that there is growing concern for gender responsiveness in journalistic practices. Now it is perhaps the best time to start working for the rights of females who suffer because of news published by media groups,” she said.

The PWMCC will use Gender Sensitive Code of Ethics designed for this activity as the guideline. The cell will be an independent body that will hear the concerns or complaints of the public against the print and electronic news media. The cell will also be responsible for the self-regulation of the news media through the gender sensitive code of ethics for media, she said.

“The cell will not be entitled to deal with a complaint or impose any penalty or adjudicate compensation in an issue that is sub judice. The decisions and findings of the cell will be published and broadcasted,” she said.

The cell is divided into two committees - Media committee and public committee. Kishwer Naheed, Tahira Abdullah, Amir Mateen, Ali Imran and Quatrina Hussain are part of the cell whereas Khawar Mumtaz, chairperson NCSW, will be the overall chairperson of the committees.

She said that the cell was established in collaboration with various public sector universities (Fatima Jinnah Women University, Urdu University, Islamia University Bahawalpur) and volunteer students.