Stop degrading women - Mayende-Sibiya

Friday, March 5, 2010

Pretoria - The Minister of Women, Children, Youth and People with Disabilities, has called for an end to the projection of negative and degrading images of women in the media.

Noluthando Mayende-Sibiya was speaking at the United Nations' Session on the 15 Year Global Review of the Beijing Declaration in New York.

The declaration calls upon the media to refrain from presenting women as inferior beings and exploiting them as sexual objects and commodities

"Pornographic media products are negatively affecting women and we call upon the media to refrain from presenting women as inferior beings and exploiting them as sexual objects and commodities," she said.

Mayende-Sibiya also called for the protection of the rights of children and women, adding that she was concerned about children accessing pornographic materials on television.

"Protection of rights of children and human dignity of women should be the primary consideration in any decision to feature pornographic material on television.

"We are already faced with a challenge of children accessing these materials through cell-phones and computers, we have to reduce rather than increase the risk of exposure for children," said Mayende-Sibiya

She added that it was critical that women all over the world support each other and remember what women in Beijing fought for in 1995.