A new pact looking to promote a more diverse coverage of sport and gender balance in reporting has been adopted by 14 media, seven sporting federations and four local institutions of the Spanish autonomous region Andalusia.

The initiative of the Andalusian Audiovisual Council (CAA) and Federation of Sporting Journalists (FPDA) comes after a series of reports, which analysed the region's radio and television sporting programmes and newspapers between 2011-2014, revealed that women's sport is marginalised by the media.

The document, signed yesterday (17 December), comprises a seven point plan that aims to broaden the coverage of less established and well known sports and sporting events in the region; eradicate prejudices and discriminatory language from all sporting content produced; increase the coverage of parasport; close the gender gap between male and female journalists and reporters; and increase the air time of women's sports.

All signatories have also agreed to not to use any sexist references and adopt a more inclusive language while reporting and commenting women's sporting events.

The pact, which can still be adopted by other organisations interested, was signed by Andalusian media, including RTVA, RTVE, Cadena Ser, and the Spanish news agencies EFE and Europa Press, as well as the region's Council for Education, Culture and Sport, the Andalusian Institute of Women and Football Federation.

Men's football predominant in sporting media says report
In October, a CAA report on the presence of women in Andalusian TV revealed that in 2013 despite of the achievements of Spanish female athletes in international events, such as the first place at the 2013 Water Polo Women's World Championships, only 2% of all athletes interviewed by the region's public televisions were women.

The report also revealed that men's football occupied 95% of the sporting programmes and sporting news featured in the region's public channels and over 92% of the news stories in the channel La1 of TVE.

'There is a need to promote female role models'
Addressing the audience during the signing of the pact, Emelina Fernández, President of CAA, said: "By not reflecting in a fair way the achievements of Spanish female athletes in sport, at both individual and collective level, we are helping women's sport remain invisible.

"The goal of this agreement is to unite efforts and change the data presented in our report, so that slowly the 95% of air time dedicated to men's football starts to be more diverse. There is a need to give visibility to other sports practiced in Andalusia and promote female role models".

Javier Bermejo, President of the FPDA, said: "If us, journalists, are not aware of the importance and impact of this pact then it will never be possible to integrate these collectives in the society.

"I believe one of our duties as watch dogs and mediators is to tell people about the achievements, efforts, of all athletes".