Media Should Change Narrative in Coverage of Firearm Misuse in Violence against Women

(BETAPHOTO/MILAN ILIC)

Far too often, media reports diminished the violence and questioned the victim’s credibility, and therefore such narrative had to change, it was said on May 20 at the UN House in Belgrade at the presentation of the regional analysis titled “Media reporting on firearm misuse in male gender-based violence against women in the Western Balkans.”

The findings of the first analysis of media coverage of the subject were presented by South Eastern and Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SEESAC), while the gathering also provided guidelines for media reporting in such events.  

Plamena Halacheva, the deputy head of the EU Delegation to Serbia, said that this analysis “brings to light two crucial issues - the devastating impact of firearms in gender-based violence, and the role media play in shaping public understanding of it.” Bojana Balon, the head of the SEESAC office, said that “of all women killed in firearms related incidents, the majority, 107, were killed in domestic violence.”

Sanja Pavlovic, a member of the Journalists Against Violence Against Women network, emphasized that over 90 percent of the reports, the media covered individual incidents without placing them in a broader context. She added it was worrying that “blaming the victim instead of the perpetrator appears in one out of every five reports in the region, and one in three articles justifies the violence by citing external factors.”