Jordan Times
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Media, NGOs address
awareness of violence against women
By Sheila M. Dabu
AMMAN — Media representatives and NGOs met on
Monday to address the role of the media in raising public awareness of violence
against women.
Human rights activists and journalists gathered at the Kempinski Hotel for the
symposium, which was hosted by the Amman branch of Freedom House (FH). The event
is part of the global campaign “16 Days of Activism Against Family Violence.”
“It's all meant to be a start for discussion between NGOs and journalists to
work together in the future,” said Rana Ishaq, programme officer of Freedom
House.
Rana Husseini, The Jordan Times' award-winning journalist for her investigative
reporting of honour crimes, spoke during the event about a print-media
monitoring project sponsored by FH. The project examines the frequency and
quality of the coverage of women's issues from May to December 2004 in the
Kingdom's five major daily newspapers.
The subject of honour crimes was among the main issues at Monday's event. In
2004, 20 women who allegedly tarnished family honour were murdered by relatives
in the Kingdom. This year, 12 cases have been reported.
According to the UN, there are about 5,000 honour killings in the world yearly.
The findings of the media-monitoring project will be announced once a revision
of newspaper clippings is complete.
As for the results of the symposium, Samar Hajhasan, facilitator of the debate
and FH consultant, told The Jordan Times that a greater understanding now exists
between NGOs and media representatives regarding these sensitive issues. The two
sides also agreed on further cooperation and training.
Afaf Jabiri works for the Karama (Dignity) Project, part of V-Day, an
organisation that supplies training, funding and support to end violence against
women.
With 15 years of activism in the Kingdom, Jabiri said that the main problem
regarding media coverage of violence against women is the lack of a connection
to other issues, like politics or economics.
“There is no analysis,” she said.
Manal Tahtamouni, institute director for family health of the Noor Al Hussein
Foundation, agrees.
“For them, it's an event rather than an issue,” Tahtamouni said.
She told The Jordan Times that there is often a misunderstanding between the
NGOs and the press regarding the role of the media in covering their activities.
The NGO's role is to raise awareness and advocate for women's rights while the
media covers events and works towards more advocacy, according to Tahtamouni.
The media, she explained, is “an important channel to reach the community and
change behaviours.”
Among the participants in Monday's symposium were representatives from the five
major daily newspapers in Jordan, 25 NGOs, the National Centre for Human Rights
and the National Forum for Youth and Culture.