කාන්තාවන් පිළිබඳව වාර්තා කිරීමේදී, ඒකාකෘතික කිරීම්, කොන් කිරීම්, අනවශ්‍ය බාහිර රූපය ඉස්මතු කිරීම්, 'ගණිකා' වැනි යෙදුම් භාවිතය සහ මාධ්‍ය ආචාර ධර්ම

Abstract

During the months of February in 2023, the newspapers, Lankadeepa, Aruna, Dinamina, Mawbima, Ada and Sandella published several articles which were discriminatory towards women. To elaborate, the following violations were spotted in relation to highlighting gender in negative contexts: Dinamina on the 3rd of February reported of a motor accident highlighting the gender of the driver who was a woman; Mawbima, Ada, Lankadeepa and Dinamina on the 6th of February reported of an arrest during a party by highlighting the gender of the women who were arrested; Ada on the 13th of February reported of an arrest during a party by highlighting the gender of only a female among those arrested, while Lankadeepa reported the same story without highlighting only women; On the 23rd of February, Dinamina, Mawbima and Ada reported of an arrest at a betting center by highlighting the gender of only the women among those arrested. Additionally, on the 9th of February, Dinamina, Lankadeepa and Ada reported of an arrest of a group of women who are told to have worked as sex workers in order to pay for higher education, while using terms such as 'surupiniyan' 'roomath tharuniyan' and 'ganika vurthiya' which are all either irrelevant or stigmatizing terms. Mawbima reported this same story using a better term 'lingika shramikayo' but also used the derogatory term 'anga wikinu' in the headline. Moreover, Sunday Lankadeepa's Sandella, on the 12th of February, published an interview with an actor which included a number of stereotyping and sexist questions related to skin color.