By Kemi Yesufu
National President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Mr. Chris Isiguzo has reiterated the commitment of the media to exposing sexual crimes with the goal of drastically reducing cases of Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) in the country.
Speaking at a meeting organized by Education As a Vaccine Nigeria in conjunction with the NUJ to validate proposed guidelines on reporting Sexual and Gender Based Violence, Isiguzo, said by prioritizing issues that affect Nigerian women, the media was playing it’s role of agenda setting and protecting the rights of a group which represents about fifty percent of the country’s population.
According to him, journalists have recognized the need to better present stories on Gender Based Violence in order to break the culture of silence around acts of violence meted out to women, as well as improve readers understanding of crimes committed against women and girls.
He said: “It is good that we have come together as journalists to look at Gender Based Violence to look at how we can bring the issues around it to the front burner and effectively tackle this. In the Igbo parlance, it is said that the only way to end an itch is to expose it because by exposing the itch, it would be so exposed that it would no longer able to disturb you.
“Indeed, Gender Based Violence is an itch on our national life and it is good that we have deemed it necessary for us to come together to discuss this issue, especially to find our own way of tackling it. We selected reporters based on the relevance of the beats they cover to the subject matter. This is important because journalists who report issues should be well informed because you must be well informed to be in the best position to inform the public”.
Speaking to Frontline News Online on the sidelines of the meeting held in Abuja on Friday, Executive Secretary of Education As a Vaccine Nigeria, Ms. Olabukunola Williams expressed optimism that when adopted the guidelines will help journalists in professionally presenting stories on women who have suffered any form of Gender Based Violence.
“During the meeting, I got feedback that the document we have is really useful, that the guidelines will helpful in reporting Gender Based Violence. So, my hope is that we can finalise the guidelines and those at the workshop others who the document is sent to can apply it when writing stories.
“This document is centered on protecting the survivor and not protecting the perpetuators. We are also situating it around the media contributing to ending Sexual and Gender Based Violence. The media has important role in shifting the narrative and even addressing gender inequality”, she said.
According to the Nigeria National Demographic and Health Survey of 2018, 31 percent of women have ever experienced physical violence since age 15. In the past year (2017), 14 percent
of women have experienced physical violence. By state, women’s experience of physical violence since
age 15 is lowest in Jigawa (4 percent) and highest in Taraba (68 percent). The most common perpetrator of physical violence against ever-married women is a current
husband/partner (58 percent).
Be the first to comment