On 17 May, CCLS Indonesia, India, Italy Alumni Chapters held a Focus Group Discussion on Misogyny on the Internet and in Media.
Firdausi Firdaus (CCLS Indonesia Alumni Chapter Co-chair and CCLS alumnus, Computer and Communication Law LLM, 2013) outlined the premise of the webinar: “Women continue to experience abuse and harassment both online and offline, all across the world. The majority of the studies demonstrate that rates of online sexism, in particular, are rising internationally. This was the driving force behind organising the CCLS Alumni Joint Chapter Webinar ‘Misogyny: The Internet and Media as a Double-Edged Sword’ was arranged at the appropriate moment and with extremely inclusive and instructive material. Misogyny places considerable barriers in the way of women's equal participation in public and daily life.”
This event was opened by Ms Aisyah Allamanda (Energy and Climate Change Law LLM, 2014), Foreign Service Officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia as the host. The first session was moderated by Dr Tianruo Gao (Intellectual Property LLM, 2013), Legal & Compliance Analyst at Rule LTD. Ms Ayu Mawar RINI (Comparative and International Dispute Resolution LLM, 2020), Lawyer at Mahendra & Co.Law Firm, was the first panellist and gave a detailed view on misogyny in media and internet from an Indonesian perspective (Culture, Law, Policy), particularly in Javanese (Central Java) culture. The second speaker was Ms Natasha Bali, Associate Partner at ZeusIP Advocates LLP, who addressed misogyny in media and the internet in India. The presentation from the two panellists was followed by a Q&A session with the audience.
The second session was moderated by Dr Sezen Kama Isik (Human Rights Law LLM, 2013), Assistant Professor of Istanbul Medeniyet University's Constitutional Law Department. This session consisted of two speakers with a Q&A session conducted separately after each panellist finsihed their presentation. The first speaker was Ms Inna Poliakova (Computer and Communications Law LLM, 2015), Senior Legal Experts in Technology, Media, and Telecommunications from DLA Piper, who presented her perspective on misogyny in media and internet in Ukraine (Culture, Law, and Policy). She provided a critical analysis and recommendations on how media law and internet law could be approached to minimize misogyny. The second speaker was Mr Firdausi Firdaus (Computer and Communications Law LLM, 2013) Researcher in Information Communications Technology at the University of Barcelona, who demonstrated a critical analysis of misogyny in the media internet (Culture, Law, and Policy) including ethics, education, male perspective/reaction, and other relevant multidisciplinary approaches.
The informative and comparative webinar concluded with a Q&A Session and closing remarks.
Many of the attendees expressed their appreciation and gave positive feedback, including those who were unable to join the webinar, already asking for a recording link to watch.
“I truly appreciate the opportunity to be part of this event. The topic is an issue that has a profound impact on our daily lives. The presenters provided us with insights into the current state of misogyny in their respective cultural background. I particularly noted down from their presentations the shared difficulty of legislating against misogyny and how media and online content can be more effective but also more destructive to the effort of tackling misogyny.” (Tianruo Gao, Intellectual Property LLM, 2013).
"It was an honour to moderate a portion of such an extensive and educational webinar. I'd want to thank Queen Mary CCLS for bringing this problem to light at a time when misogyny is on the rise everywhere, especially online. Furthermore, the panellists offered both local and global viewpoints in a clear and concise manner. The challenge of regulating misogyny legally in both the internet and offline worlds, as well as the importance of adding multidisciplinary approach in the solution, were successfully presented. Hope to see you many more events! Stay tuned!" (Sezen Kama Isik, Human Rights Law LLM, 2013).
Watch the event