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Concerns about the media coverage of cases of gender-based violence

2024-12-07 20:45:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The Independent Forum of Albanian Women published the monitoring report on the influence of the media in the fight against gender-based violence. As the correspondent of the Voice of America, Pëllumb Sulo, reports, the report raises concerns about the way in which cases of violence against women and children are reported in the media.

The monitoring report on the role and influence of the media in the fight against domestic violence, carried out by the Independent Forum of Albanian Women, has highlighted disturbing data on the way of reporting in the traditional and social media of crimes committed against women and children. .

Journalist Arba Alishani, part of the Independent Forum of Albanian Women, says that the report highlights the importance of how cases of violence are reflected and treated in the media and the impact they have on society and citizens' perception of cases of violence.

"The most important data are actually dramatic and show that a good part of the journalistic reporting that comes from the field, especially from the black chronicle that focuses on gender violence, especially women and crimes against them, turns out to be mostly superficial. There is no analysis, social and economic analysis of where these events take place and, subsequently, there are no awareness messages. On the contrary, it is completely focused on drama, sensation, bombastic headlines and not on the content of the event," she says.

The monitoring of cases of violence reflected in the media extends over a period of three months, from July to October of this year. The report highlights the fact that violence continues to be widespread and often invisible. About 58% of women report that they have experienced violence in their lifetime and that, only in the first six months of this year, 1019 cases of abuse against women and girls were registered.

According to the journalist Alishani, the recent tragic cases with school students proved that the coverage in the media exceeding the code of ethics has brought confusion in the community.

This, according to her, is due to the tendency of some media to be the first to report the news, many times without verifying and analyzing it, the pressure exerted by numerous social media, and the tendency to get as many clicks as possible.

"Sometimes it is the violation of the victim's identity that leads to these events by dealing with details, which are completely irrelevant, secondary, and this only for the sake of clicks. But these are not equivalent to human lives, they are not equivalent to our societies, nor to the future of our children. Recent tragic cases have shown us that we are responsible for the clicks because we are responsible for the lives of these children," she says.

For Freskita Milotin, host of the show "Diagnoze" on one of the Albanian televisions, the transgression of ethics in the way of reporting crimes and cases of violence against women or children is affecting their mental health.

"There are often headlines that affect mental health and not just adults and children. It is very important to say because children have access to all online platforms. They don't watch a lot of TV like us adults, but they are fond of online media. And this has affected them tremendously. With the media, short videos that have a lot of sensitivity, are very subtle and there is no real filter for them."

In increasing the number of people with mental health problems, among others, the cases of aggressively and continuously portraying violence, exceeding ethics, especially in the cases of minors, have an impact.

The report on monitoring the way violence is reflected in the media raises the need to improve the media's approach to cases of violence, especially violence against women and children, as well as the impact they have on society's perception of these cases./ VOA