DAVAO CITY, Philippines (UCAN) -- A television advertisement for whiskey that showed a bikini-clad woman on horseback was cited during an Asian media conference as an example of a human rights violation in media.

Esther Esteban, who teaches psychology at the University of Asia and the Pacific in Pasig City, south of Manila, told conference participants she did not realize what the advertisement was actually about the first time she saw it. "I thought it was advertising swimwear," the German professor said.

In her view, such a portrayal in media contributes to the loss of women's dignity and their right to be respected, because "they are reduced to sexual commodities."

Esteban spoke during the plenary session on the third day of the 2008 International Conference of the Asian Congress for Media and Communication (ACMC), held Aug. 21-23 at Jesuit-run Ateneo de Davao University.

More than 100 mass communication students, media practitioners and educators from the India, Korea, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand attended the conference in Davao City, 965 kilometers southeast of Manila.

ACMC is a Philippine-based professional organization of lecturers, practitioners and students in the field of media, communication and language education around Asia.

Reports on research that centered on the theme Media in Asia: A Tool for Human Rights Education and Monitoring were presented and discussed. These projects looked into women in media, children and media, corruption, governance, ethics, race, ethnicity, poverty and gender sensitivity in reporting.

Smith Boonchutima, public relations and advertising lecturer at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, spoke on Aug. 22 about media representations of Thailand as a "sex-tourist destination." Citing his study titled "The Image and its Resistance to Change: A Case Study of Thailand's Image as Sex Tourist Destination," he criticized British media portrayal of Thailand as "stereotypical and biased." One magazine even described his country as the "best sex destination," he reported.

Alan Davis, director of special projects for the London-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting, gave the keynote address. He warned media practitioners their audience will consider images they present as true.

"People look to media" to find out what is happening in society, the head of the institute's Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project said on Aug. 21. He urged participants to make human rights stories an "integral part" of daily media coverage.

It is not enough to merely get both sides of a story, Davis stressed. "Media should provide an ongoing narrative to find out what is happening in cases of massacres, extrajudicial killings or enforced disappearances to help counter impunity," he said. In his view, "upholding human rights protection" is the "best way to serve society."

The following day, Su-jin Choi, a student at Kyung-Hee University in Seoul, gave a presentation titled Abandoning Media: An Analysis of Media Coverage on Human Rights Issues in Korea.

She found that less than 64 percent of the 475 cases of human rights violations recorded by the Korean National Human Rights Commission in 2006 and 2007 were reported in television and newspapers. Korean media are "giving up" their responsibility to report on human rights issues, the journalism student concluded.

However, participants also cited hopeful developments. Khrysta Rara, an assistant professor at the University of the Philippines in Quezon City, northeast of Manila, told UCA News human rights issues are "getting into the news" even when victims are not from prominent families.

However, Rara, who also works as a women's magazine editor, acknowledged "there is still much we can do to improve human rights reporting."

Her colleague at the state-run university, Sheryl Andes, spoke about the Most Gender Sensitive Film award, given out since 2003 by a Manila film festival to encourage movies on gender equality and women's empowerment.

Father Theodore Fernando, a Jesuit priest and lecturer on mass communication and conflict studies at the Open University of Sri Lanka, also attended the congress. He told UCA News the Church promotes human rights by teaching people to "respect one another regardless of religion."

According to organizers, the congress theme was inspired by the upcoming 60th anniversary of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights this December.

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