Jakarta – Research by the Aceh Working group of the National Commission on Violence Against Women shows women are still objectified by the print media.

The group studied two nationally distributed daily newspapers, Kompas and The Jakarta Post, to see how they covered female Aceh refugees after the tsunami, including during the reconstruction and rehabilitation process, the disbursement of humanitarian aid, the peace building process between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement, as well as the implementation of sharia law in Aceh.

The research was conducted to determine whether women were being treated as subjects, meaning they were interviewed directly and allowed to make their own statement, or as objects, meaning that their situation was reported, but they had no direct voice in the coverage.

The group chose the topic because the situation in Aceh was sensitive and needed special attention. The women in Aceh were under a great deal of pressure, living in a disaster zone with limited facilities in the shelters provided.

The two newspapers were selected because The Jakarta Post readers were among those working for International Non-Governmental Organizations in Aceh, while Kompas was selected because of its influence on public policy.

The group studied 24 articles clipped from the two newspapers between January 2005 and December 2005 using a critical approach and methodology that interpreted the reportage article by article. The results showed that only 18.30 percent of The Jakarta Post's represented the voice of women, while just 8.9 percent of the reportage in Kompas accommodated women's points of view.

A researcher, Dewi Yuri, said mass media as a tool for building public opinion still depicted women as victims and dependent human beings. "In one article from The Jakarta Post, about a woman who had to give birth in a shelter, the husband gave the statement representing the wife," she said.

She added that a direct quote was very important in order to give women the opportunity to represent themselves in newspapers so that there would not be a bias in the news. "When women's statements are less important then men's, the newspaper shows that men have a higher social status than women," she said.

She said the two newspapers still objectified women and depicted them as victims. "In human interest stories, women as victims can attract more readers because readers are more interested in reading how women could have survived the tsunami," she said.

Dewi said the problem could not be separated from economic and political interests in newspaper circulation. "Newspaper companies have to survive by competing. That fact makes journalists in newspapers sometimes neglect second-class citizens such as women," she said.

She said after studying the two newspapers researchers had found women were not presented as policy makers, but only as victims. "The two newspapers had little coverage about women in political matters," she said.

Dewi said the smaller number of women than men representing themselves in newspapers showed women had limited access to the public arena. "The print media have a very important role in influencing public policies and, therefore, journalists must be sensitive to gender issues," said Dewi.

She said the government should formulate a law that obliged mass media companies to be more socially responsible. "The press must work freely and also be responsible as a voice on human rights issues."