A group that rises to cases of sexual and gender based violence in Osun State, Multi Stakeholders Action Committee On GBV Prevention has said media professionals are key to ending the menace of violence against women and girls in the state.
The group, in collaboration the Osun State Ministry of Women Affairs, Children and Social Welfare made this known at a Training on Prevention of Gender Based Violence Against Women and Children in Osun, held in Osogbo on Wednesday.
At the workshop, lawyers from the ministry of Justice in Osun State, journalists, civil society organisations among other relevant stakeholders were present.
Speaking, the chairperson of the National Association of Women Journalists, Osun State chapter, Abisola Ariwodola, urged media practitioners to take issues of gender based violence more seriously.
She said their reportage of SGBV has a way of drawing the attention of relevant stakeholders to the menace with the hope of getting justice for survivors and ending the menace.
Ariwodola noted that the way journalists cast their headlines and portray the victims matter a lot, admonishing participants not to judge survivors.
Other speakers at the training emphasised the need for security agencies to also be sensitised on global best practices as the cases are first reported to them before the media publicise them.
For Mrs Funmilayo Abdullahi, a leader of the Persons With Disabilities in the state, Journalists should ensure they use approximate terms in their reports when identifying PWDs, saying there are some terms that injure the sensibilities of PWDs.
The programme was sponsored by ActionAid, a non-governmental organisation.
