Workshop helps media report gender violence
Journalists from different media organisations in the country have undergone training on how they can cover stories on gender-based violence. The workshop was organised by the Australian Pacific Media Assistance Scheme (PACMAS) in conjunction with FemLink Pacific at the Tanoa Plaza Hotel in Suva.
The aim is to train journalists on how they can cover stories on gender-based violence during the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Campaign. The 16 days gender-based violence will be from November 25 to December 10. This year’s theme is: “From Peace in the Home to Peace in the World: Make Education Safe for All”. Ending Violence Programme specialist Abby Erikson said: “I think the media plays a very important role and really reporting the facts and statistics about issues of violence and portraying accurate portals of the situations about women in Fiji. “One of the most important thing is looking at the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre (FWCC) study which really examines why violence is happening, who is experiencing the violence and what are the reason for these violence.” Ms Erikson said it is very important for the media to create awareness on violence against women. FemLink Pacific programme associate media advocacy Sian Rolls said: “It’s a workshop that’s looking into couple of thing primarily to provide capacity building to members of the media and also our Civil Society partners so that there is mutual understanding that been built through this workshop. During the 16 days campaigns, Protect against Domestic Violence will be celebrated on November 25, Women Human Right Defence on November 29, World AIDS Day on December 1 and World Human Rights Day on December 10.