ISLAMABAD: On the eve of World Human Rights Day, Uks Research Centre is sharing the highlights of the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) 2025 Global Report and the key findings from Pakistan’s National Report. The GMMP 2025 Global Report is being launched today, while the full Pakistan National Report will be shared shortly.
The GMMP takes place once every five years and captures a snapshot of news content from one global monitoring day. This year marks the fourth cycle in which Uks has served as GMMP’s national partner, monitoring and contributing Pakistan’s data to the world’s longest-running study on gender representation in the news.
GMMP 2025 was monitored around the world on 6 May 2025, a day on which Pakistan’s news agenda was dominated by India-Pakistan military tensions. The conflict shaped the media landscape that day and left very limited space for gender-related reporting.
Global highlights
Across 94 countries, progress on gender equality in the news has largely stalled. Women make up 26% of people seen or cited in traditional news, and 29% in digital news. These figures have barely shifted in a decade. The structure of news continues to prioritise male-dominated political and economic coverage, in both traditional and digital media.
Women’s visibility has improved over time in political and economic stories, but remains extremely low in sports (15%). Women continue to be portrayed as victims at twice the rate of men, with 2025 showing a shift toward domestic violence and other crimes as the primary victim categories.
Women remain underrepresented in expert roles, although digital news shows rising numbers of women experts. Stories by women journalists continue to feature more women sources and are more likely to apply a gender lens.
Globally, less than 2% of news stories cover gender-based violence. While GBV stories tend to apply a clearer gender perspective, the volume is too low to influence broader narratives.
The 2025 findings show a media environment where change has slowed significantly, and existing approaches are not delivering meaningful improvements in gender equality.
Indo–Pak conflict’s impact
The overwhelming focus on cross-border shelling, political statements, and military assessments meant that women’s stories almost disappeared from the news cycle. While the conflict skewed 2025’s data, the long-term trend still shows biases that continue to limit women’s visibility and voice in Pakistani media.
