by Rachel Shisei – EM TV News, Madang
The need for the media in Papua New Guinea to understand and report ‘Gender Based Violence’ (GBV) stories, especially with the rate of incest and rape cases on the rise, is a must so as to bring the perpetrators to justice.
This is from a three-day workshop aimed at equipping Madang’s media personnel to better understand what Gender Based Violence is, and how it is affecting people’s lives, conducted by the Consultative Implementation & Monitoring Council (CIMC), at the Madang Lodge.
“The workshop is an initiative, basically to build the capacity of the media, so that they can be agents of change in their organisations, to effectively come up with the right ways to portray messages, of survivors of Gender Based Violence,” said Isi Uro, the Project and Programs Officer with CIMC.
Uro also stated that with the rate of gender based violence cases, especially with the incest rape cases, the need to get the media to say the right things and be proactive, is a positive way forward for the province, and the country as a whole.
“If you compare statistics from Care International, the gender based violence related deaths of women around the country, both in the urban and rural settings is higher, compared to deaths caused by diseases or illness,” he said.
Media personals in the workshop that ended today, expressed their concerns about the barriers they face, in reporting gender based violence stories.
“A lot of times we rely on information from the police, and from the workshop, we’ve learnt about other avenues to source information from to keep pushing GBV stories to cause change,” said Anissah Isimel, a Senior reporter with Madang’s National Broadcasting Commission.
Sammy Ling of Madang’s locally-owned TV station, Tumbuna TV also mentioned, that the highlight of the workshop for him, was taking into consideration the vital choice of words and who to include in the stories, to get the public’s attention.
The concerns about barriers, raised by the journalists were taken into account by the CIMC representatives, as part of the workshop’s purpose.
The workshop was conducted in partnership with Madang’s Provincial Women’s Council, whose President, Mary Kaman was present since Monday, and the Family and Health International 360.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=_-b5nGATMBQ%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26wmode%3Dopaque%26showinfo%3D0%26showsearch%3D0%26rel%3D0
