HYDERABAD : Sensibilities over sensationalism. That is what senior journalists concluded at district level consultation on media protocols for reporting on women and children’s issues on Saturday in Hyderabad. The event organised by Mahita - Plan India, under the aegis of Girls Advocacy Alliance, which works in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to end child marriages and trafficking, was to understand the magnitude of the role that can be played by the media in not just making the general public aware of the issues, but also in reporting the incidences of violence against women and children in a sensitive and ethical manner.
Mahita and Plan India have put together a set of media protocols which has been culled from previous consultations with media personnel. Uma Sudhir, well known journalist and recipient of Chameli Devi Award, who chaired the session recalled several instances in her nearly 30- year print and broadcast journalism where she always faced dilemmas on the reporting field, but sense and sensibility helped her make the right decision. “Sometimes, as journalists, we are happy to have broken a story on a trafficking or highlighting an issue in a children’s home.
But when there is no action taken, we end up sending the children back to where they came from, this time to more exploitation, perhaps.” Journalist Stella Paul who reports on climate change and its impact on women for IPS News and also independently recalled an experience where she had to deliberately hold herself from asking a few controversial questions for the sake of propriety.
“However, treat women and children with respect in real life and when you write about them,” she said. Later Mahitha’s c oordi nator Amo gha Lakshmi distributed a handbook on gender writing for journalism students.