VAWG in Nigeria: EU-UN Train C’River Journalists on Advocacy, Solution Journalism

The EU-UN Spotlight Initiative has conducted a 4-day intensive training for journalists in Cross River State, south-south Nigeria, with emphasis on need for Nigerian journalists to adopt advocacy and solution journalism in reporting Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG).

Addressing participants, the Spotlight Initiative Communications Coordinator (UNICEF), Khadijah Ibrahim Nuhu, highlighted that more efforts was needed from the media as strategic partner in the fight against Gender Based Violence (GBV), hence the training.

According to her, equipping journalists with the right skills in advocacy and solution journalism would help them disseminate accurate and timely information that can stem the tides of Violence Against Women and Girls in Nigerian communities.

Khadija stressed that the goals of EU-UN Spotlight Initiative cannot be fully attained without continuous and active media engagement, adding that the focus is on prevention, and changing of negative socio-cultural norms that promote violence.

She cautioned against publishing pictures of survivors of gender-based violence and disclosing their identities, adding that “our report should seek to get attention of somebody, government or authorities to act on reports of violence against women and girls and not to worsen survivors’ predicament.”

In a paper entitled “Overview of Violence Against Women and Girls in Nigeria/Cross River State, Policies, Interventions, and Trends” Mr Victor Atuchukwu, Child Protection Specialist, UNICEF, said perpetrators of physical, emotional and sexual violence against girl children are mostly people whom the survivors know.

“Six out of every 10 children experienced some form of violence. One out of two children in Nigeria have experienced physical violence,” he stated.

He therefore called on journalists to be proactive in stemming the high incidences.

A resource person, Mr Iliya Kure, in series of lectures, described advocacy journalism as the use of facts and available evidence to write news reports in favour of actions that would end gender-based violence.

According to Kure, advocacy journalism, apart from supporting a specific cause as that of violence against women and girls, plays significant role in giving voice to the voiceless, and that it also seeks to set agenda for policy makers to take action over societal ills.

Educating participants on the need to embrace solution journalism, another resource person, Mr Joshua Olufemi, said solution journalism is a “rigorous and compelling report about responses to social problems, journalists putting his investigative lens on potential solutions, highlighting responses with evidence-based tract record of success.”

Olufemi said although bad news in contemporary settings sells, solution journalism inspires and gives hope in the midst of uncertainty, adding that solution journalism has to do with indept analysis of responses. He also posited that solution journalism is development driven.

Part of activities for the 4-day dialogue was a field trip to communities, where participants interacted with civil society actors, survivors of gender-based violence, the judiciary, law enforcement agencies, community surveillance team members, and human rights lawyers, among others.