In a new book chapter I co-authored, I examine the roles and responsibilities of the media in the portrayal of victims of wartime sexual violence.
The chapter entitled ‘Obligations to Expose and the Responsibility to Protect’ highlights the important role of the media in revealing the crimes. Media reports can help mobilise the population and spark political action.
At the same time, media regularly engage in sensationalist reporting and have repeatedly failed to protect the victims.
We highlight these tensions and argue that better training of individual journalists, stronger media ethics, and a different way of reporting wars is necessary to avoid negative impacts on those who are willing to tell their story.
Co-author of the chapter is trainer and journalist Janet H. Anderson. The book is published by Lexington and available online.
Shame, Gender Violence, and Ethics: Terrors of Injustice. Edited by Lenart Škof and Shé M. Hawke. February 2021. ISBN: 978-1-7936-0467-5