Women reporters in Pakistan fell to four per cent in 2025, down from 16pc in 2020, according to the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP), the Uks Research Centre said in a statement on Wednesday, highlighting how progress on gender equality in the news has largely stalled in the country as well as in 94 others.

The GMMP takes place once every five years and captures a snapshot of news content from one global monitoring day. This year marks the fourth cycle in which Uks has served as GMMP’s national partner, monitoring and contributing Pakistan’s data to the world’s longest-running study on gender representation in the news.

GMMP 2025 was monitored around the world on May 6, 2025, a day on which Pakistan’s news agenda was dominated by India-Pakistan military tensions. The conflict shaped the media landscape that day and left very limited space for gender-related reporting.

“No women reporters were recorded in television, radio, or internet news on May 6,” the statement said, which was issued ahead of the release of the GMMP report and Pakistan’s National Report.

“The overwhelming focus on cross-border shelling, political statements, and military assessments meant that women’s stories almost disappeared from the news cycle. While the conflict skewed 2025’s data, the long-term trend still shows biases that continue to limit women’s visibility and voice in Pakistani media.”

Regarding news on gender-based violence (GBV), the statement said that “across all media monitored on the monitoring day, only one story on GBV appeared,” adding “the sole story focused on intimate partner violence, portraying the woman strictly as a victim.”

“No human rights lens or legal framework was applied,” it stated.

The statement further revealed that this year, women made only 13pc of news subjects, down from 18pc in 2020. “All stories that included women as subjects were reported by men.”

“These numbers show a clear reversal of progress made over previous cycles and highlight how deeply women’s representation is tied to editorial priorities and news routines,” it added.

It, however, added that the only area where women’s representation showed an increase in Pakistan was in social and legal news, where their presence rose to 20pc from 14pc in 2020.

Global highlights

Progress on gender equality in the news largely stalled across 94 countries, according to the statement.

“Women make up 26pc of people seen or cited in traditional news, and 29pc in digital news. These figures have barely shifted in a decade. The structure of news continues to prioritise male-dominated political and economic coverage, in both traditional and digital media.”

It added that women’s visibility improved over time in political and economic stories, but remained extremely low in sports (15pc).

“Women continue to be portrayed as victims at twice the rate of men, with 2025 showing a shift toward domestic violence and other crimes as the primary victim categories,” it said.

“Women remain underrepresented in expert roles, although digital news shows rising numbers of women experts. Stories by women journalists continue to feature more women sources and are more likely to apply a gender lens.”

Globally, it added, less than 2pc of news stories cover GBV. While the stories tend to apply a clearer gender perspective, the volume is too low to influence broader narratives.

“The 2025 findings show a media environment where change has slowed significantly, and existing approaches are not delivering meaningful improvements in gender equality,” it said.