The Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) has commended TVC Communications for ensuring gender parity within its organisation while calling for intentionality towards achieving full parity in newsroom leadership and news. The commendation came during WSCIJ’s visit to TVC Communications Head Office in Lagos as part of its Report Women! News and Newsrooms House-to-House engagement on Thursday, 29 August 2024. The visit aimed to address the underrepresentation of women in Nigerian newsrooms and challenge TVC Communications to champion gender parity in leadership roles and news content with its recent report, “Who leads the newsrooms and news?”
In her welcome remarks, Oluwakemi Shonubi, Director of People, Culture, Experience & Operations, TVC Communications, commended WSCIJ for its commitment to driving change within the industry, particularly in sharing knowledge, emphasising the importance of initiatives like the Report Women! in transforming newsroom dynamics. Ibraheem Shitta, Senior Presenter, TVC Communications, moderated the session.
Motunrayo Alaka, Executive Director/CEO, WSCIJ, shared specific details from the WSCIJ’s report, which revealed that only 26.9% of management positions and 24.2% of the board in Nigerian newsrooms are held by women. The gap is more in print media. The gender imbalance in media leadership reflects the broader Nigerian society, with women representing 2.8% of the Senate, 4.2% of the Federal House of Representatives, 4.8% of state assemblies, 18.8% of ministers and 22.2% of deputy governors. She called for periodic gender balance audit in the media. She urged TVC Communications to conduct periodic gender balance audits to address this imbalance.
On her part, Bimbo Oloyede, Executive Director, Strictly Speaking, shared tips on how TVC Communications could benefit from adapting the mentorship strategies from WSCIJ’s Report Women! programme. She highlighted the need for senior female leaders to serve as role models, create a supportive environment for women to express themselves, and encourage female journalists to attend conferences and networking events for career development.
The interactive Q&A session addressed the challenges women face in balancing work and family life, particularly in leadership roles. Participants discussed how family responsibilities often hinder women’s career growth. Achieving work-life balance was seen as requiring careful planning and strong support systems. The need for women to support each other, set clear goals, and be intentional to break through the glass ceiling, recognising that failure is not an option.
Stella Din-Jacob, Director of News and Editor-in-Chief, TVC Communications, provided feedback from the organisation, reaffirming TVC’s commitment to supporting women in media. According to her, TVC Communications has done so much to support women—from setting up a creche to creating the TVC Women Network, and promotion of women to leadership positions. She hinted that 3 out of 5 promoted recently to senior correspondent level are women.
While giving the vote of thanks, Samson Ademola, Programme Officer, WSCIJ, acknowledged TVC Communications’ openness to feedback despite the strides they have recorded in including women in the leadership of their news and newsrooms. Over 65 members of the management and staff of TVC Communications joined the Report Women! House-to-House engagement. They include Uzonna Ononye, Head of News Operations; Ivy Kanu, Senior Correspondent; Sarah Ayeku, Head of Investigations; Olubukola Abdulsalam, Programme Director; Emem Okwoche, Chairperson, TVC Women Network; Esther Nwankwo, Presenter; Kenneth Omobhude, Head, Video Editing; and Adams Shabu, Head, Camera Unit.
The House-to-House initiative was designed to take training or advocacy on media matters to media houses to engage both their management and staff members. WSCIJ has used the initiative in the past to canvas for the creation of investigative journalism desk, gender policy and practices in the newsroom under the Report Women! project, and improved reporting for the energy desk.
The meeting at TVC Communications is a component of the Report Women! News and Newsroom Engagement project, which engages the management and staff of news media organisations to increase the representation of women as leaders in their coverage and newsrooms. The project is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The WSCIJ will visit more media houses in the coming weeks to share and engage on findings from the ‘Who leads the newsrooms and news?’ report and the project.
