22 August 2019: The Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL) at Rutgers University has partnered with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Regional Syria Response Hub to host a Forum to address the challenges of reporting on gender-based violence (GBV) in the region. The partnership falls under the CWGL Journalism Initiative on Gender-Based Violence (GBV) launched in January 2018 to strengthen global reporting on GBV through a combination of standard setting tools which include a publication, website and an App. The partnership compliments the work of the UNFPA Syria Hub Regional Media Support programme which has already produced key tools for journalists reporting on GBV in the region. Entitled 'Striking at the roots - addressing the challenges of reporting on gender-based violence (GBV)' - the Forum will be held in Amman, Jordan and will bring together key journalists and editors from media outlets and organizations from Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq along with global GBV experts. The Forum will establish a dialogue among journalists, editors and humanitarians on the primary challenges impacting effective and ethical reporting on GBV and ways to address them through the existing work of CWGL and UNFPA. According to CWGL Executive Director Krishanti Dharmaraj the role of the media is key to shifting the discourse on GBV globally. "Countless participating organizations, institutions and grassroots activists have focused on the structural, legal and attitudinal changes critical to ending GBV around the world. Many have identified the role of the media as being critical to shifting attitudes on violence against women. Similarly, scholars of journalism, researchers and media advocates have increasingly emphasized the importance of language, voice, terminology, semantic choices, and issue-framing in the context of media reporting, government accountability and strategic advocacy around fundamental human rights concerns," she said. This is the second joint activity between CWGL and UNFPA Syria Hub - with the first taking place in September 2018 as part of JiG efforts to consult journalists from all over the world on their perspectives and challenges of reporting on GBV in their countries. Dharmaraj said: "We are encouraged by the work of UNFPA Syria Hub on GBV and specifically on engaging the media as a stakeholder. We are proud to be co-hosting the upcoming Forum with them and applaud the efforts they continue to put into media development on GBV." The Forum outcomes will contribute to issues addressed in CWGL Journalism Initiative on GBV and build on perspectives shared by over 70 journalists from 35 countries who have been consulted as part of the Initiative. [ENDS] For more
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