Over a period of ten months, 4,500 sexist and homophobic articles were identified in the Croatian media, the most frequent of which were those that treated women as sexual objects. This was announced on Thursday at a round table on the prevention of sexism, homophobia and transphobia in the media.

Presenting the results of an analysis of such content in the media and the advertising industry in the period from 1 March to 31 December 2023, project leader Natasa Vajagic emphasised the importance of combating sexism and discrimination against women as well as homophobia and transphobia in the media.

“The most common form of sexism is the sexual objectification of women, followed by the condoning or promotion of gender stereotypes and derogatory or trivialising coverage of women’s appearance and behaviour,” said Vajagic. The reproduction and perpetuation of gender stereotypes in relation to victims of gender-based violence, misogyny and hate speech, and homophobia/biphobia/transphobia also make up a large proportion of problematic articles, the analysis shows.

The Ombudswoman for Gender Equality, Višnja Ljubicic, emphasised the extraordinary importance of education in preventing sexism and homophobia in the media.

She recalled the results of an analysis of media coverage of cases of violence against women from ten years ago. Of 3,500 media articles analysed, 33.4 % had a sensational headline, 47.7 % contained assumptions and 7.6 % blamed the victim.

Ljubicic emphasised the extraordinary importance of the regulatory authority Electronic Media Council (VEM) in punishing sexism, homophobia and transphobia in the media and also cited specific cases.

The chairman of the VEM, Josip Popovac, warned that in many cases the media supervisory authority “has no legal means to punish the perpetrators”.

“The problem of sexism is widespread and usually has to do with manners. The most common form of sexism is a lack of manners,” Popovac said.