Centre News Hub
Masvingo- Media houses in the country have been urged to increase coverage of Gender Based Violence (GBV) perpetrated on Persons Living with Disabilities (PWDs) following an observation that such cases are not given adequate coverage in the main stream media compared to other cases involving other groups in society.
Speaking during a media engagement awareness meeting with journalists and persons with disabilities in Masvingo recently, held by Deaf Women Included, participants expressed concern over under reporting of GBV cases on PWDs in the media.
Deaf Women Included, Board member, Samantha Sibanda, made a passionate plea on journalists to prioritise the reportage of cases of GBV on PWDs as a strategy to fight GBV and prevent it amongst the vulnerable groups in society.
“We are holding this meeting to engage media practitioners to increase coverage of GBV perpetrated on persons with disabilities since we have realized that the cases are not given adequate space in the mainstream traditional media, the idea is we want to interrogate why and how we can improve this situation and we are urging journalist here to do more and report these cases in their media platforms, “said Sibanda.
Deliberations in the meeting revealed that PWDs bear the brunt of various forms of GBV including, psychological, emotional, sexual and physical assaults among other forms of gender based violence with limited reporting from the media to raise awareness and advocacy on the malpractices.
Persons with disabilities lamented that GBV cases have always been on the rise to them as some are perpetrated on religious and traditional grounds from locals including those who believe in rituals.
“We are in danger from the society because some believe that if they engage in sex with us they can cure some diseases while other believe that if they do that with disabled people like those with albinism they can enhance their businesses hence they end up sexually assaulting PWDs ,” said Purazeni Jakata a local Disability rights defenders.
Sibanda pledged to work with journalists and increase training on disability friendly and appropriate language and changing current terms used in reference to persons with disabilities.
“We will continue to engage the media in our pursuit for an inclusive media coverage that can be accessed by our constituency so that their issues including GBV are mainstreamed in reporting, we are happy that this meeting has also been attended my media personnel with disabilities and this is a plus to us as they will assist us move our agenda forward,” she added.
Media practioners at the meeting hailed Deaf Women Included for the initiative and urged the organization to also involve media gate keepers like editors, line editors and publishers so that they can have an appreciation of the role of media in tackling GBV on PWDs and the general coverage of PWDs issues in the main stream media.
