The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection is pleading with the media to be professional when reporting Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) issues across the country.
In her remarks at a one day editors’ forum under the UN Women Spotlight Initiative gender reporting project organized by the Female Journalists Association of Liberia (FeJAL) with support from the United Nations, the Government of Liberia and the European Union, the Deputy Minister for Gender, Alice Johnson Howard, said journalists should respect SGBV survivors and suspects which allows for an ethical professionalism when reporting on said issues.
Minister Howard lauded FeJAL for spearheading the initiative of raising the voices of the voiceless thereby giving survivors the leverage to speak out and gain hope for their freedom but stated that SGBV has always been a global issue and that needs to be treated holistically because the protection of survivors’ rights and identities is important.
Providing statistics from the World Bank on SGBV as well as the kinds of violence perpetrated worldwide; murders that occur as a result of intimate partners violence and sexual assault globally, the Deputy Minister of Gender said it is important that journalists look for the news but urged them to always be professional.
While the Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Information, Boakai Fofana, boasted that in this era, the media media do not only boast of pluralism but the level of freedom enjoyed to date and that makes them accountable in reporting independently though it is rather worrisome that people tend to feel normal when women are being abused.
He then patted journalists for changing the narratives by their huge degree of awareness stating, “You all are doing great jobs and the government will assure that the media is empowered through me wish we could do if as a government that is why we are happy that our international partners are intervening because as you all know we are challenged as a government.”
Meanwhile, in her presentation on media role as well as the suspension of FGM for three years, Carolyn Zoduah said journalists are to report SGBV because it borders on issues of governance which makes it political.
She said when a county’s national budget fails to address SGBV, than it is not a priority for that government and journalists being pace scatters of public opinions must report SGBV as general issues and not as a female issue and that means taking the discussion from being private to public.
The News Director of ECOWAS Radio, Raymond Zarbay, who presented on how sources are identified reminded journalists that professional must never be compromised.