"This is an Egg!" winners: press service of police, "Radiotrack" and others

On December 7, public organizations presented the third anti-award "This is an Egg" for sexism in public statements and the media. The nominees were MPs, officials, local media and national media.

The winners were selected by voting from a short list of candidates in three nominations: "Sexist remark", "Sexist story" and special awards "Preacher of the Year". 

Sexist story

This year's Anti-Award "This is an Egg" in the nomination "Sexist Story" is presented to the Rivne online edition "RadioTrack" for the Maksym Rozenko’s story " Did he raped !? "A young handsome choreographer, followed by a covey of schoolgirls".

Liza Kuzmenko, head of the Women in the Media NGO and a member of the Commission on Journalistic Ethics, told a press conference at Ukrinform that the author called the student "Kryvyi Rih's Monica Lewinsky" and idealized the potential offender. "This evidences not only the journalist's wish to cast a doubt on a minor girl’s testimony, but also the fact that he accused the girl of behavior that contributed to possible rape ," said Lisa Kuzmenko. 

She added that the media not only provide access to information, but also act as a social player with special positions on socially important topics, such as countering the spread of coronavirus, covering the Russian-Ukrainian war or ensuring gender equality in society. "That is why we will continue to award anti-sexism prizes to those media outlets that forget about their social mission ," said Lisa Kuzmenko.

Also in this nomination they distinguished the online edition "Komentari" for the story “for the story "Kommentari” launches poll "The sexiest Ukrainian female MPs - TOP-25". The associate professor at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and gender expert for Helsinki Human Rights Union (UHHRU) Tamara Martsenyuk is convinced that such an initiative is sexist and spreads gender stereotypes about women as men’s jewel in the parliament. "In this case, we also see an example of lookism - discrimination by appearance, sexualization and objectification of politicians, " said Tamara Martsenyuk. “It is a pity that instead of drawing attention to the real success of women in politics, as well as the problems they face (lack of resources, stereotypes, cyberbullying, etc.), the presence of women in politics is reduced to "jewel". 

• The shortlist of the "Sexist Story" nomination also included some TV channels: Ukraina TV channel and author Oleksandra Krasnovska for the story"On talk show "I bring you beauty" men spoke of how they do react to voluptuous breasts and  special project of TV channel "1 + 1" "Access Code". "Unfortunately, our television is regularly spreading sexism and stereotypes about women and men in their programs. In particular, in those (programs- n/tr) presenting the transformation of women, the so-called experts and female experts dictate how they should dress to suit the tastes of men" , - said the editor of Detektor Media Gala Sklyarevska. 
• Another nominee of the Anti-Prize in this category is the "Novyny Transcarpathia" and the author Vasyl Sochka for the story "Transcarpathian forests got a new beauty-leader ".Yana Mashkova, a media analyst at the Institute of Mass Information, noted that not only national media, but also local ones are "ill” with sexism, and this is even more pronounced in province. "In the incident that happened at" News Transcarpathia ", the authors wanted to draw attention to the new director of forestry Transcarpathian Victoriya Belousova. However, journalists somewhat fell short of target and employed sexism, sexualization and discrimination against women by means of depreciation of her profesionalalism," - said Yana Mashkova. 

Sexist phrase 

• In the nomination "Sexist phrase" the winner became the Secretary of the Korostyshiv City Council in Zhytomyr Region Yuriy Sarapiychuk (Strength and Honor Party) for insulting woman MP Yulia Yuzefovych. Anastasiya Bagalika, Gender Coordinator of the Campaign Against Sexism in Media and Politics project and the Respect for Women is 50% of Ukraine's Success platform, said that Yuri Sarapiychuk's case was so evident that it was widely condemned by society and NGOs and led to dismissal of the person."For the first time, an official was fired for his sexist remarks. The fact that Yuri Sarapiychuk told publicly to MP Yulia Yuzefovych is beyond mere sexism: these words violate all permissible rules of conduct and statements of an official in office. I don't know if Mr. Sarapiychuk would say something like that to a man with a deputy mandate, but I am convinced that the systematic nature of his behavior towards Yulia Yuzefovych is not least dictated by stereotypes and sexism, "said Anastasia Bagalika. 

This nomination also included who commented on the speech of the woman MP Mariana Bezugla on the SBU reform bill and called her a girl. Iryna Tyshko, head of the Women's Alliance's Public Alliance, said that MP Serhiy Rudyk had not held accountable for his remarks and has not even apologized for his remarks. "His statement contradicts the norms of civilized behavior of the parliamentarian. But, worst of all, the parliament itself did not punish the deputy: he did not suspended him from parliamentary sittings, thus legitimizing such behavior ," said Iryna Tyshko.” Frankly speaking, there are many sexist rows in Ukrainian politics, but there was no real punishment for those who resorted to sexism. It is very unfortunate that the parliament is not willing to  make the definition of "sexism" into Ukrainian law and punishing it. " 

Preacher of the year

Special category "Preacher of the year" was given to the press service Kherson police, he press service of the Kherson police, which reported that a report was drawn up against the mother for the fact that the father brought the child to the playground and left her there for several hours without supervision. Yelyzaveta Sokurenko, a journalist with the ZMINA Human Rights Center, said that such publications from the National Police were not rare, but law enforcement officers themselves did not see them as sexist: they said that those who came to take the kid, he was pointed at in the administrative report.  "Indeed, such reports are replete with phrases with accusations against women because of deep-rooted gender stereotypes that a child should be cared for primarily by a woman ," she said. “The way the police present such news only helps to establish and justify the image of a "helpless father". I advise law enforcement officers to watch our latest video about responsible fatherhood instead". 

This year, Oleksander Dedyukhin, a Poltava priest and MP, got on the scoresheet by calling women defend the right to dispose of her body, "underdeveloped personalities"  "Sexism has place neither in the church, nor in the parliament. We, as a society must condemn sexist statements and emphasize that we all have the right to be treated with dignity ," said Timur Levchuk, a human rights activist and executive director of the NGO Point of Support. 

All nominees included in the short list of anti-awards can be found at the link .

It will be recalled that the Anti-Award "This is an Egg" is awarded by media NGOs as a non-profit initiative since 2019 and launched by NGO "Women in Media", Campaign against Sexism in Media and Politics "Respect", NGO "Institute of Mass Information", Center for Human Rights ZMINAa, NGO Detector Media, Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union.

Last year, the anti-award was won by Oleksander Kornienko and David Arahamiya, Odessa mayoral candidate Yevhen Chervonenko, head of the Center for Social Services for Families, Children and Youth in Kryvyi Rih Pavlo Dabizha, ZIK channel, Cherkasy Novyny and Tabloid 18000. , "Gal-info", Irina Vereshchuk. 

The jury of the Anti-Award "This is an Egg" - 2021 included: Andriy Kulikov, Chairman of the Commission on Journalim Ethics; Yelyzaveta Kuzmenko, head of the NGO "Women in the Media"; Victoria Yermolaeva, journalist of the Hromadske Radio; Tamara Martsenyuk, gender expert of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union; Gala Sklyarevska, editor of Detector Media; Olga Betsa, journalist for Detector Media; Yana Mashkova, media analyst at the Institute of Mass Information; Yelyzaveta Sokurenko, journalist of the ZMINA Human Rights Center; Anastasia Bagalika, Gender Coordinator of the Campaign Against Sexism in Media and Politics "Respect"; Victoria Kobylyatska, editor of the sites "Respect" and "Women are 50% of Ukraine's success"; Ana More, author of the video blog #Shoposexism, journalist of "Respect"; Iryna Tyshko,Chairman of the Public Alliance "Politics for Women", and Timur Levchuk, human rights activist, executive director of the NGO "Tochka Opory".