Yaounde, Cameroon Africa. (Cameroon News) – Reporters Without Borders requests for protection of female journalists in Cameroon.

Female journalists in the country have been regular victims of gender discrimination having to face various kinds of mental and physical torture at their workplaces.

Nkondengui - Yaounde, Cameroon Central Polical Prison

In spite of a lot of the female journalists fraternity feeling that gender does act to their advantage in many instances , the fact is that most of then face various types of discrimination in the field as well as in office, according to a new report released recently in Cameroon.

Reporters Without Borders, an international organization that voices the concerns of the journalists across the globe regarding press freedom.

The organization had previously released a report called “News Media: A Men’s Preserve That is Dangerous For Women,” on Monday to commemorate the International Women’s Day on Tuesday.

The report commences with a reference to CBS News reporter Lara Logan, who was sexually harassed by a group of hooligans in Egypt as the whole world shook at the news of Hosni Mubarak’s resignation. The report stated that the attack was “symptomatic of the risks women run when they work as journalists.”

The report continues with a whole collection of horrifying experiences from female journalists around the world about the trials and tribulations that they faced while getting on the process of compiling information. Rosine Nkonla Azanmene, who works for Radio Tiemenie Siantou in Cameroon, notes the “more or less perverse attitude of certain sources which sometimes go so far as to negotiate information … tending to orient the relationship towards sex.”

She also mentioned social barriers that hassle the smooth functioning of female reporters in her country, such as certain religious territories being barred from female presence, , or women being prohibited from wearing trousers in certain government offices.

French war correspondent, Anne Nivat, brings to the notice of the world that Afghanistan is specifically notorious for the way it treats female journalists.

“The few women working as journalists in Afghanistan are regarded as worthless sluts,” she said. “Afghanistan continues to be a country where women do not have the right to speak.”

Nivat, however, also points to some benefits of being a woman when reporting on war-torn regions like Chechnya, Afghanistan and Iraq.

“It has been easier for me as a woman to do my work because women count for nothing in Iraq and Afghanistan and no one pays them any attention. You can see without being seen. Unlike our male colleagues, a woman journalist can pass relatively unnoticed. She can get through checkpoints. No one mistrusts her. But it is all to do with my method of working, total immersion in the local population,” she said.

Other reporters are also in total agreement to the opinions voiced by Nivat.

The report also talks about dictatorial regimes in Rwanda, Eritrea, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Iran, China, Vietnam and Thailand, where female reporters often have to be victims of brutal violence coupled by even jail sentences.

It quotes numerous examples, including four reporters abducted in Sierra Leone in February 2009 by members of Bondo, a secret society that indulges in insane practices like female genital mutilation, and Thai journalist Chiranuch Premchaiporn, who was forced to spend close to 70 years in prison for having been open in her coverage of the political confusion in Bangkok in 2010.

The report also talks in great detail about the journalistic glass ceiling, pointing out that in spite of women doing admirable work in press reporting and going to great extents to cover truthfully even precarious and dangerous reports there are very few who could actually make it to the top grades in the professions with just a few occupying the ranks of executive and editorial positions.

“Women in many sectors, including the press, are often just part of the decor. On radio and TV, they are good for reading press releases, for women’s magazines, or for covering the beauty or health. Those who talk about politics, the economy, science or technology are rare,” said Agnes Taile, a radio journalist from Cameroon.

Women also have to regularly battle barrier when it comes to impartial coverage, the report states, comprising of barely 17.7% of all people quoted in news reports.

In view of the report’s observations regarding the unjust treatment meted out to female reporters and journalists, Reporters Without Borders opine that there should be stringent guidelines laid out and focused programs to be put in place to ensure that the rights of female journalists are totally protected.

The report also asks for greater synergy between women’s rights organizations and press freedom organizations so that the injustice that women journalists and reporters face in the field and at their workplace are addressed adequately and recommendations are made.

It is not just enough to make suggestions but is also equally important to guarantee that the suggestions are also implemented with string emphasis on ensuring gender equality at the workplace and also to guarantee safety of the female fraternity who work in war stricken zones.

It is also important to equip journalists to fight against physical attacks and to put a firm tab on incidents of violence and sexual overtures that they regularly face even in the most developed nations of the world.

“A great deal of effort is nonetheless needed to ensure real equality in a profession still largely dominated by men. The place of women in the media is still a reflection of their place in society,” said Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Jean-François Julliard.