I am so humbled being part of this training, learning never ends especially in our field as journalists because as the world keeps on changing, different issues need to be reported on differently and in different angles.
I have spent quite sometime in the media and served at different levels, but this training has added a big brick on my understanding of media and how it should be organized to cause a positive impact in society. It should not be business as usual. Run to the scene, interview someone or people and go back to the newsroom and expose.
Tororo district is one of the districts with high incidences of GBV but the media reports about it so plain. Our interviewing skills are so poor to the extent that some of the journalists’ “expose” the victim / survivor. Which further escalates the harm.
I have noted that some would be significant sources even fear to give comments due lack of professionalism on the part of the journalists. But after this training I believe most of us will write better, though I pray for more trainings of this kind to continue, because change is gradual.
A priest once attempted to rape me while I was still young but luckily, I managed to escape and that shows you how Gender based violence exists even in places we least expect it. My parents didn’t believe me when I told them because they think priests are holy people. But from that moment, I began hating priests because I see them as pretenders. So, we need to push the message of fighting gender-based violence to all corners of the world without exempting some people.
I’m grateful that UN Women and UMWA have begun the journey of positively changing the media but I am hopeful that the project targets many more stakeholders like media owners and editors because they are the gate keepers.
It is also important that both the media and other stakeholders are brought under one roof to discuss the problem and together chart a way forward as a team.
We need more trainings to build our capacity in handling different cases of gender-based violence because each case comes along with a different approach. For example, some women in the rural areas are beaten by their husbands and feel happy about it calling it is sign of love, yet they are getting permanent scars on their bodies while others end up losing their lives.
Authored by,
Brenda Namata and Moureen Aguti
