Last evening in Skopje, a discussion and promotion of the internal guide for gender-sensitive reporting, which "Sloboden Pechat" adopted for its own internal use, was held.

The guide for gender-sensitive reporting is a compass for navigating everyday journalistic tasks, creating media content in a way that pays attention to gender inequalities in society and strives for a fair presentation of women and men, that is, their identities and experiences.

It involves recognizing and addressing the ways in which gender affects the lives, roles and opportunities of individuals, as well as the wider social structures and power dynamics within which they exist. Inclusive reporting aims to create a media environment in which all individuals feel represented, valued and respected.

The need for gender-sensitive reporting arises because women continue to be underrepresented and often stereotypically portrayed in media narratives, reflecting persistent gender biases and inequalities. According to some analyses, 80 percent of the news covers men and only 20 percent women, and when women get their voice in the media, they are often cast as victims and vulnerable, while rarely as experts.

Gender-sensitive reporting is a powerful tool for promoting social justice and equality.

At the public discussion and promotion of the manual, "Sloboden Pechat" journalist Agnesa Chavoli emphasized, among other things, that the principle of gender-sensitive reporting has already begun to be applied in the editorial office, and the manual is only a supplement and help along the way.

- The new generations are slowly changing the ways of reporting and the objectification of women and the negative terms for a woman's point of view and how she is presented in the media and in the news are slowly changing. I think that we still need to work in that direction, said Chavoli.

The journalist Miroslava Simonovska said that the "Sloboden Pechat" editorial board decided to adopt such an internal guide because of that raising the level of awareness, and in accordance with European and world standards.

- Such guides are a practice in large media corporations both in Europe and America, in more developed democracies. It is true that the guide is a novelty in Macedonia, but it is not a novelty in the world. The manual is useful for us because of changing and improving the contents, including female experts in the contents, as well as to continue in the direction of being guardians and helpers and when reporting on topics where there is violence against women, to offer the solutions and the hope that others should be encouraged to report, Simonovska said.

Through workshops with journalists from "Sloboden Pechat", the internal guide was created by the organization PINA under the coordination of Christina Ozimec, president of PINA. The guide is one of the results that emerged from the project on regional cooperation and content production by women for women, as well as on female journalists and their working conditions, but also their physical and online safety. Sloboden Pechat was the host of this project, and PINA was a partner organization.

Ozimec believes that the adoption of the manual is a positive step forward in the Macedonian eco-system.

- The manual is for internal use of "Sloboden Pechat". What is important and interesting is that this handbook is one of the first of its kind in the country when it comes to media, as far as I know. Our media is a bit slow in that sense, in adopting the policies within the media. This manual is about gender-sensitive reporting, which is of great importance not only for "Free Press" which, by adopting the guide, raised the standard for gender-sensitive reporting, but also for freedom of expression, because it means that through this guide, journalists will get additional help with reporting, she said.